Ernie On Oakmont's Rough: "I don't know what kind of chemicals they put in that grass, but it's growing."
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Ernie Els, 1994 U.S. Open Champion at Oakmont, on what's changed in 22 years:
It's crazy. I don't know how many of you guys were here in '94. Oh, there you go. A couple. But it's amazing how we played the game in those days and how we play today with the golf ball, and a lot of us were still using wooden drivers back in '94 and so forth. And it's amazing how the golf course has also changed. You could definitely move the ball out of the rough on to a lot of these greens. Nowadays, you can't really do that.
I don't know what kind of chemicals they put in that grass, but it's growing. So that changed a lot. It's been how many? 22 years since '94. Obviously, a lot of tournaments have passed. I think I played in my second U.S. Open then, and I think I'm playing my 24th. It's been quite a journey, to say the least. It's all good.
I would say they've really upped the ante the last five to ten years with the rough. Whatever they call it, the graduation of the rough, whatever, it's just thick, and it's a lot more dense than it was back in the day. We could move the ball around. It was almost more fun to play that way because you could advance the ball, you could get the ball to run towards the green. You're not always going to hit the perfect shot, but you had a chance of actually hitting a shot.
Now it's at least a half a shot penalty. You try to get a wedge out to where you can play your next shot from. That's just the way it is. They've really got the premium on accuracy and ball striking. It is what it is. I'm just saying, back in the day, it was a little different. We could maneuver the ball out of the rough.
That's interesting given the desire of the USGA to encourage recovery play, and may be why there was a 1/4 inch rough height lowering Tuesday.
Prior to the tournament, the USGA's Jeff Hall described to the Tribune's Jeff Paulk the playability factor they hoped for with the rough.
“The whole idea is if you have 10 golf balls in the rough, we'll like to see six or seven be able to play to the green,” Hall said. “Maybe three or four you have to chop it out. But the 5-inch rough will be just the opposite.
“Where we think the benefit of that is at Oakmont, when firm and greens are bold, we want that players can chase a 6- or 7-iron onto the green and let the architecture take the ball where it's going to go as opposed to hitting a sand wedge out then wedging it onto the green. We don't want to lose some of the excitement. It's about the characteristics of the ground, which are used masterfully with the design."
Based on Els' comments on the stuff we've seen players post, I'm not sure the recoverability factor is there off the tee or around the greens with this look:
