Is the Oakmont ethos a dangerous thing?

[Phil Benedict]

Here's a good quote from Alan Shipnuck on Golf.com:

"Jeez, how many fawning profiles do I have to read about this testosterone-fueled club and its ultra-macho course? Why don't these guys just drop their Dockers and whip it out, sparing us any more of these obnoxious articles."

[Tommy Williamsen]

Oakmont's ethos is not unque.  Others have similar claims to be difficulty. Pine Valley and Winged Foot are good examples.  Musgrove Mill in South Carolina loves it that it is very difficult.

Will it catch on?  I doubt it.  Most golfers think that any course is difficult.

[Kalen Braley]

I'm not seeing this as dangerous either.

Its a private club, stocked with either masochists or sadists depending on how you look at it.  There is no arm twisting to join the club, at least that I'm aware of.  And if you're a fan of brutally tough penal golf courses, then you're in heaven.

[Dan Kelly]

Ryan Potts,

I've never heard an Oakmont member or a member of the Professional staff refer to the playing experience at Oakmont as one that inflicted pain and enduring suffering.

Perhaps the media likes to create sensationalism through exageration.

Or, sometimes, perhaps not.

Watching the Golf Channel just now, I heard -- with my still-serviceable ears -- Bob Ford (Oakmont's head professional, isn't he?) say that Oakmont members "like to be punished, and they like their guests to be tortured."

Or maybe he said they like to be tortured, and they like their guests to be punished.

But he said it, one way or the other. It was no journalistic contrivance.

[John Kavanaugh]

After playing a very penal course for the last five years I have learned to enjoy every swing as opposed to every round.  Back when I was a scratch golfer at a wide open 6200 yd course my entire focus was on what I shot...Now that I am sniffing double digits at a monster I focus on each swing.  I rarely know what I have shot at any given time during the day on any course.  Some of you may have noticed that most of the time I don't even know what hole we are on.  It changes you, no question about it.