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cary lichtenstein

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:Oakmont's New Bunkers
« Reply #25 on: September 26, 2005, 03:22:27 AM »
Tom:

I'd rather play Lakota Canyon than Oakmont anyday. Oakmont is too difficult for me. I can play, but the skill level required to play + enjoy myself at Oakmont I just do not have.

If I had to play Oakmont everyday, I probably would wind up quitting the game. I do not possess the strength to get the ball out of the rough, nor the pinpoint accuracy to hit the drive on the correct side of the fairway so that it comes to rest on Oakmont's fairways.

For a U S Open, it is a wonderful site to test the best golfers in the world and will make for an exciting tournament, no doubt.

I am sure Oakmont would appear on my top 10 list of ultimate tests of golf along with Muirfield, Carnoustie, TPC Sawgrass, Shinnecock and other difficult coourses.

I was delighted to be able to play Oakmont, my wife by the way loved the course, so what do I know, and I am certain that I will enjoy the 2007 US Open much more knowing what the pro's have in store for them ;D
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Live Jupiter, Fl, was  4 handicap, played top 100 US, top 75 World. Great memories, no longer play, 4 back surgeries. I don't miss a lot of things about golf, life is simpler with out it. I miss my 60 degree wedge shots, don't miss nasty weather, icing, back spasms. Last course I played was Augusta

TEPaul

Re:Oakmont's New Bunkers
« Reply #26 on: September 26, 2005, 03:30:51 AM »
cary:

If how you play a course and how much you enjoy yourself on a course due to how you play it is your sole criteria in how you rate architecture and how you form your list of your top ten courses then I can understand why you said Oakmont would not be in your top 10. ;)

As a members course Oakmont has somehow, and years ago, managed to condition its membership to love it based on the degree it seems to torture them.

If strictly your round and how you score and thusly the enjoyment of that is your sole criteria for your top 10 may I suggest you play and rank perhaps the world's greatest hidden gem----Fernandina Beach Municipal G.C. I think you'll find fine equilibrium down there---you should be able to advance your bunker shots all the way to the greens and it's pretty danged flat thoughout!  ;)
« Last Edit: September 26, 2005, 03:33:59 AM by TEPaul »
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cary lichtenstein

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:Oakmont's New Bunkers
« Reply #27 on: September 26, 2005, 04:05:45 AM »
Now now...don't take what I said to the extreme...Oakmont is extreme in difficulty, there are only a handful of courses in that class.



« Last Edit: October 23, 2005, 04:21:36 PM by cary lichtenstein »
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Live Jupiter, Fl, was  4 handicap, played top 100 US, top 75 World. Great memories, no longer play, 4 back surgeries. I don't miss a lot of things about golf, life is simpler with out it. I miss my 60 degree wedge shots, don't miss nasty weather, icing, back spasms. Last course I played was Augusta

T_MacWood

Re:Oakmont's New Bunkers
« Reply #28 on: September 26, 2005, 06:50:11 AM »
Cary
Could you please post your wife's top twenty?
« Last Edit: September 26, 2005, 06:50:32 AM by Tom MacWood »
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George Pazin

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:Oakmont's New Bunkers
« Reply #29 on: September 26, 2005, 10:07:30 AM »
That's more like my wife's dream top twenty. :)

As for playing Oakmont on a regular basis, one of the other posters on this board made a similar comment after playing Oakmont for the first time - it was too hard for him to want to be a member. However, after having a few more cracks at it, he has changed his opinion.
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Big drivers and hot balls are the product of golf course design that rewards the hit one far then hit one high strategy.  Shinny showed everyone how to take care of this whole technology dilemma. - Pat Brockwell, 6/24/04

JohnV

Re:Oakmont's New Bunkers
« Reply #30 on: September 26, 2005, 10:23:34 AM »
Quote from: George Pazin on September 26, 2005, 10:07:30 AM
That's more like my wife's dream top twenty. :)

As for playing Oakmont on a regular basis, one of the other posters on this board made a similar comment after playing Oakmont for the first time - it was too hard for him to want to be a member. However, after having a few more cracks at it, he has changed his opinion.

And I reserve the right to change my opinion again after Friday. ;)

I enjoy having fun when I play golf and sometimes if it is too hard it isn't fun.  But the more I've played and seen Oakmont, the more I'm convinced it is fun as well as hard.  Oakmont challanges you on every shot, but you can play it without losing a ball (assuming you have a decent caddie.)  

Some other courses where you can lose a golf ball on every shot are not fun, just hard.  A friend of mine who is a 12 handicap lost three golf balls on three consecutive tee shots a few days ago at a course.  That is not fun.  You don't want to sit around reloading all day and if a course is very difficult and penalizes you in that manner, I don't consider it great.

If you can find it and hit it, but be suitably punished for the mistake it is great.  Oakmont is that kind of course as Cary's description of his round implies.  He (and I) might not be good enough to shoot a great score there, but we can still play it and give it a great effort without feeling like we just reloading until we get it right.
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JohnV

Re:Oakmont's New Bunkers
« Reply #31 on: September 30, 2005, 07:23:29 PM »
I did play Oakmont today. I was able to avoid all the fairway bunkers except one on #17 about 70 yards from the green from where I was able to get my ball on the green.  The course is more amazing and fun to me everytime I play it.

The bunkers are deep, dark place you don't want to be, but then so a lot of the ones around links courses in Scotland.  In some regards they remind me of the bunkers at Bandon Dunes such as the ones that cross the 8th and 10 fairways or in the middle of #9.  They are to be avoided.  As those who have played with me will tell you, I'm not the straightest driver in the world, but I hit 8 of 14 fairways and rolled out of 3 others because of the slopes in them.

The greens were running very quick today although they can get quicker and they ate me up.  Tee to green, the course was a test of how well you can hit the ball and the greens are the strongest test of how well you can putt that I've ever seen.  I've seen steeper greens, but never any that have the steepness and the interesting twists and turns that Oakmont's have.

The course is still the strongest test of the complete game that I've seen.  Any time someone lets me play it I'll be there with my 7 handicap and even though it will embarass me at times as it did today on the greens, I'll enjoy it.
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Sean_A

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:Oakmont's New Bunkers
« Reply #32 on: October 02, 2005, 06:12:20 AM »
Cary

If it is any consolation, I am not overly fond of truly difficult championship courses either.  To be blunt, I am not good enough to take advantage of what is on offer.  Having said that, there are only a handful I would put in that class.  Sounds like Oakmont is in that class!  Never the less, it would be grand to give it a go.  

Are you on some sort of grand tour or something?  You continue to post from far flung places most can only dream of.  

Ciao

Sean
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New plays planned for 2024: Nothing

cary lichtenstein

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:Oakmont's New Bunkers
« Reply #33 on: October 02, 2005, 07:51:47 PM »
Sean:

My "far flung tour" ended today. I arrive back home (homeless actually), after 4.5 months. It was a great summer and I am putting my clubs away until Saturday to recharge my depleted batteries ;D

I learned so much this summer...I hope to post some of my observations later on.



Cary
« Last Edit: October 02, 2005, 07:53:21 PM by cary lichtenstein »
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Live Jupiter, Fl, was  4 handicap, played top 100 US, top 75 World. Great memories, no longer play, 4 back surgeries. I don't miss a lot of things about golf, life is simpler with out it. I miss my 60 degree wedge shots, don't miss nasty weather, icing, back spasms. Last course I played was Augusta
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