Mark Fine:
I think Mike Davis certainly has gotten into some set-up practices that are much more "par skewing" than has been done before in US Opens, but with actual "par" on a hole or a whole course, the type of players at that level sure don't look at "par" the way most of the rest of us do. In other words, those guys are a ton more intuitive about risk/reward factors and what they and their fellow competitors can and can't do on any hole regardless of its actual par.
In my opinion, the best "par skewing" by Davis at Oakmont wasn't the 8th hole at 288, it was when he put the tees up on #2. Actually, I think he was quite surprised when he put the tees up on #14 that it didn't tempt more players into going for that green off the tee.
I guess he found out with that one just how intuitive those guys can be!
PS:
Oakmont has now taken on the reputation of a long and difficult brute which makes it pretty ironic just how adaptable their three "short" par 4s can be (potentially driveable).
PPS:
I was standing at the tee of #8 at the 2007 Open when Bubba Watson laced a draw 6 iron from 255 right over the bunker to a back left pin to about ten feet leaving his fellow competitors just shaking their heads!