Question of the week [June 16-22]: What are your thoughts on the 2025 U.S. Open?
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POLL: Was Oakmont Country Club a fair U.S. Open test? | Vote
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I’ve heard more than a few fans’ complaints about this year’s playing conditions. They are not wrong, I just disagree.
The U.S. Open is always about the course and it’s not uncommon to be won by one-hit wonders as luck sometimes is as important as skill. For certain, it will challenge those who are not in control of themselves or their demons.
I do believe this year’s weather brought out more critics than usual as it exposed a few odds favored players to conditions that finally stunned them. Many fans lost betting pools and they simply don't like that.
But harsh course conditions are also what we typically see at the British Open yet that seems perfectly acceptable and even desirable as thousands of Americans pay through the nose every year to endure conditions for one week that they wont tolerate for one day on their local course back home. Can’t we enjoy watching the best of the best hacking away and using language like us every now and then?
So enough of the whining and let’s respect and admire regular guy J.J. Spaun’s win after spending a Father’s Day morning at CVS (hoping he wins another major), and the incredible ground crew who like the PGA staff was able to produce an event in spite of this year’s disruptively wet weather patterns.
What’s left now is how the USGA or Oakmont will respond to Wyndham Clark doing a “Joe Walsh” on the very same iconic, historic lockers what were frequently featured on NBC until he lit into them Friday afternoon. A very bad look indeed, especially after dangerously slinging his driver at The PGA. Now THATS worth complaining about.
Steve Moore
Birmingham, Alabama
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I got a little devious enjoyment out of watching the pros suffer like we duffers do every week. The course was the same for all players and it required a full range of talent, not just busting the ball 350 yards down the fairway. Accuracy was at a premium and it seemed that was causing a lot of players to miss fairways.
Bob Norris
Cincinnati, Ohio
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As expected, Oakmont was a brute of a golf course. Poor weather hampered the event. While I love a stern test for the best players in the world, Oakmont provides a next level of difficulty.
I know Oakmont is a super difficult golf course, thus I am fine with USGA carnage once a year as a novelty. Oakmont is arguably the toughest championship test in golf alongside Carnoustie in Scotland.
Does hard equate with great? I am not so sure. Coming into this week we all knew the difficulty of the golf course would be the primary focus as opposed to a great strategic layout. Yes, Oakmont was the story, but was it the star?
Reid Farrill
Toronto, Ontario
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Unbelievable meltdown of Sam Burns after he got a ruling he didn't like. That ruling was correct, although players often argue the point — is there any temporary accumulation of water visible to the eyes in either the stance or the area of intended swing, either before or after he takes his stance? Nope, not in this case.
Burns pitty-patted his feet splashing up water, but you don't make the determination while feet are moving. Once still, can you see the temporary water? No, mainly because the fairway was sloped and the water channeled right on through, never puddling at his feet. Had he played safely on the green, he would probably be on The Tonight Show. He needs [sports psychologist Dr.] Bob Rotella's number.
That said, J.J. Spaun totally earned the title with his incredible back nine charge, reminiscent of Arnold Palmer, right there in the King's stompin' grounds. Spaun's drive on 17 might have been the best shot of the week, not because he almost aced a par-4, but because of what it meant — putting one hand on the trophy. A hole later, he gave us a video for the ages. Having pulled his iron to the green at 18 and facing a roller-coaster putt [of about 60 feet], it seemed like he might have to make a 6-footer for par to keep the lead. Instead, he moved Payne Stewart off the pedestal of "greatest putt on the last hole" and thrilled a weary gallery that slopped around following the action in an all-day affair.
Finally, a shout out to Mike Whan, the USGA leader who totally gets it. Love that guy, recognizing the superintendent, the caddie and the fans. Total class. And how about offering ticket refunds on Saturday to fans who chose to stay home and not slop in the mud outside the ropes? The image of the USGA continues to evolve.
David Norman
Manakin-Sabot, Virginia
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I think removing the trees at Oakmont was a mistake. The club wanted to return the course to its original family Fownes design but the Fownes links design was flawed. Oakmont was cut of a farm field. It’s a boring paddock that is dissected by a highway. There is nothing about the site that can be called links — it is almost 300 miles to the ocean.
The Fownes dedication and inventiveness has produced an enduring course, but adding trees cured the site of its flaw. Faking a links-designed course in an open farm field nowhere near the sea was likely an attempt to copy Scottish designed courses. But newsflash, western Pennsylvania is a mountainy area with tree forests in its native condition.
Also, the rough around the green is overdone. A shot’s success is determined by a bounce or the difference of a foot. And you can chop out of one side of a green with nowhere to go but high rough on the other side. Is that skill, if the golfer has no safe path?
They love the phrase "we’re not trying to punish the best golfers, but identify them." But while Spaun was deserving, actually Oakmont and the USGA are identifying the luckiest golfer who avoids double and triple bogeys.
That’s not identifying skill necessarily.
Hard courses and long rough are a good goal, but only if strategically placed with thought and not set up in some trickster fashion like a moving windmill at a miniature golf course.
Robert Lembo
Huntington Beach, California
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Everything was fine until the last rain delay, They should have waited longer or resumed play on Monday. Many players were hurt by unplayable conditions, the worst of which was Sam Burns, who was forced to play out of a puddle resulting in a double bogey, and had to press the rest of the way in to try to make up strokes. The course was hard enough without making them play in such wet conditions.
William Favro
Sunset Beach, North Carolina
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I found this tournament to be unfair and boring to watch. Truthfully, though, while the TV was on, we actually watched very little of it. Especially on Sunday after the rain delay. I’m not sure what the powers that be consider "standing water." I personally believe those powers were solely responsible for Sam Burns losing his first major.
These professionals train and practice their entire career to hit certain shots on certain places of the club face. When they perform those shots and still get penalized by an unfair slope on the green or rough that is entirely too high — especially when it’s wet — then it becomes extremely frustrating for them and those of us who are rooting for them to be rewarded for doing the right thing.
Trust me, I would have broken more than a tee marker. If this is what the USGA thinks the public wants to watch, then it is sorely mistaken. And cutesy little colored lines on the screen that show where the ball is going does not make up for the carnage we watched last weekend. Especially when said line never shows where the ball is really going.
Congrats to J.J. Spaun for hanging in there and finishing well. I wonder, though. In his quiet moments, when he is all alone — does he feel like he really won his first major? Or did he just not lose it?
Sheri Molyneaux
Salem, Oregon
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I think this should be the standard type of track for the U.S. Open. It didn’t take anyone on television to describe what was happening at Oakmont. This is what most of us real golfers want to see. You didn’t have to watch too much coverage on Saturday and Sunday to see who was interested in being there and who definitely wanted to go home.
I loved it. Would love to see more than once every few years.
Everett Harbeson
Augusta, Georgia
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I thought it was a great U.S. Open. Terrific course and unapologetically difficult. Oakmont is the best of the courses used for the U.S. Open.
Rick Wright
McAllen, Texas
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This was a vintage U.S. Open. Although it was harmed some by wet weather, this was a “par is good” test with an incredible pedigree.
Tony Austin
Orlando, Florida
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Congratulations to J.J. Spaun for surviving this extreme challenge and answering any questions he had about his ability to keep it together on the big stage.
It is curious that many of the biggest names could not keep it in play. Average fairway width was reported to be 25-28 yards. Narrower in landing zones? But many missed fairways by a wide margin. Rough and heather extremely penal. Certainly a formidable challenge. Fair? It was if you drove it like J.J. Spaun or putted like Sam Burns until the last few holes. It was, after all, the US Open at Oakmont Country Club.
Jim Branchick
Lyon Township, Michigan
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I enjoyed watching the U.S. Open and seeing the guys have all facets of their game challenged. I do think that the playing conditions over the last couple of hours of play [on Sunday] were borderline. Knowing that weather was coming, I think they should’ve moved up the tee times and gone off the front and back nines. Yes, that means they aren’t playing the same course and conditions, but they never are and they sure weren’t that day. The last half of the field played in reasonable conditions. I do think a gradual rough cut is the way to go. Missing the fairway by a couple yards shouldn’t be the same as missing it by 10 or more yards. Love having the U.S. Open being the sternest test of the year.
Wayne Smith
Georgetown, Texas
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No golf course in the world would deliberately let the rough grow out to 5 inches. Therefore, the U.S. Open was, as classically is the case, "tricked up" by the USGA. Oakmont is tough enough without the USGA's assistance.
John Chapman
Melbourne, Florida
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Part of the attraction of watching the talent on the PGA Tour is seeing the skill and imagination the pros use for what we would all call "a recovery shot." Unfortunately, for the viewers and participants of this U.S. Open at Oakmont, there was no such thing due to the setup of the rough. Seeing time and again the players simply try to hack the ball out of the 5-inch rough virtually eliminated any intrigue of the next shot if they were anywhere just off the fairway or fringe of the green. In a word, boring.
Ron Ariana
Oak Brook, Illinois
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Threesomes playing rounds taking five and one-half hours? Oakmont members and announcers reveling in the ridiculous speed of the greens?
Two bad examples for U.S. golf. Mr. Stimpson was strongly against ramping up green speeds to such levels. Oakmont’s usage will only further exacerbate that activity, which already plagues too many courses.
Steve Rosenbaum Sr.
Oak Lawn, Illinois
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The U.S. Open is generally accepted as the most arduous, last-man-standing battle in golf and this year exemplifies that perspective. Throw in a bit of controversy for good measure and the only guy under par got the trophy. The USGA’s goal of identifying the best player was achieved. Case closed.
Pete Croppo
Bayfield, Ontario
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Front: J.J. Spaun holds the champions trophy evening arrives at Oakmont Country Club on Sunday, June 16.
Photo: Stefano Di Maria | Golffile