Mark:
I don't think the idea (of Fownes/Loeffler) at Oakmont was ever to have the ball end up on any particular side of those fairways for strategic reasons. It doesn't take an architectural genius to tell one would be in ideal strategic position if he placed his golf ball right in the middle of any of those Oakmont fairways no matter how wide or narrow they were.
The course has always been remarkably "center directed" that way and the strategy of the course is and always has been pretty much just how much "in-line distance" any player wants to try for or has the guts to try for.
That's why Cabrera is really fascinating me---eg the guy is super-long anyway and he's hitting his driver a lot for a player of that length. What he did on #9 (his 18th hole) last night is very representative of that. He played that hole super-aggressive and in the process he took a lot of hopefuls out of the tournament with a sand wedge approach and a kick-in birdie putt.
To me that's pretty noteworthy. If he continues that aggressive tee strategy through the weekend and gets away with it he will be a most interesting and most deserving US Open champion. It will mean he went through a tough crucible test of his game, particularly his tee shot game and his game was found to be hugely deserving of a major championship.
He's got a long way to go, however.
On the other hand, it's pretty unusual to clearly see when a tour pro of the quality of those Open competitors makes a truly bad swing. Some of the swings Woods made yesterday with his driver were shockingly bad, out of plane and out of balance.
But as usual, despite that, he's still hanging around.