With the US Open set to get underway at Oakmont we’re all eagerly anticipating some chaos as the best players in the world battle one of the world’s toughest courses.
Plenty has been made of how tough Oakmont is set to be. Thick rough, rapid greens, and unpredictable weather are set to make this US Open as tough as they come.
However, Oakmont is not the same course it once was and after a renovation involving the removal of more than 10,000 trees, the course has a different feel and look.
Still, while those changes have been made, not everyone is a big fan. And after Scottie Scheffler admitted previously that he wasn’t a fan of the trees being taken away, Collin Morikawa has now had his say.
Collin Morikawa agrees with Scottie Scheffler about Oakmont
Golf courses in the modern day are often being redesigned and there’s a whole other debate around if that is for the betterment of the game.
With Oakmont undergoing such a change, it’s almost like a brand new course compared to the last time it hosted a US Open.
However, according to Collin Morikawa, those changes are not exactly ideal and he’s agreed with Scheffler’s interpretation of the changes.
“I like trees. I think it creates a penalty that you don’t actually have to add anything. It lines tee shots a lot better for me, I think, when there are trees. But that’s also part of…a lot of blind tee shots make it harder out here this week,” Morikawa admitted.
“But I think trees just make the course, I think personally, look nicer, more aesthetically pleasing. Trees are great. They’re great for the world. They honestly are. Look, I don’t know if the trees were really along the fairways or they were really far out. But that’s where a lot of this long rough, it’s not just the thick rough a foot away from the fairway. It’s like you’ve got fescue, you’ve got little hazards you have to worry about. Thankfully those are red. If those weren’t hazards, we’d be in for a long, long week.”
Collin Morikawa admits he’s used Bryson DeChambeau to help scout out Oakmont
As we all know, one man looking to make waves at Oakmont is Bryson DeChambeau. The current US Open holder has been spending plenty of time at the venue, filming content for his YouTube channel before even playing an official practice round.
However, that content production appears to have helped Morikawa, who admitted he’d looked at the footage to get a better idea of the course.
“I did watch a little bit of Bryson’s video. I want to say there was another video on Twitter that had like a flyover that I watched,” Morikawa admitted.
But it’s so hard, like I watch it and then I try and almost forget about it because it’s nice to have a good sense of what it’s like, but then when you actually step foot on 1 or you step foot on 17 and 18, your head and how I process a golf course completely changes because maybe it looked like this on a TV, but then you step there and you’re like, oh, it’s how I would shape this hole, how I would play this hole is completely different.
“It’s trying to get familiar but not too familiar because, look, I show up yesterday, I’ve got a game plan, I’ve seen all 18. I feel like this course, it’s weird, it’s memorable. Even though every hole is very straight, it’s very memorable in my head already to where I can go through the holes and say this is what I’m going to do, which is great.”
With just hours to go until tee off, it’s going to be intriguing to see just how Morikawa, Scheffler and DeChambeau handle proceedings.
Whether or not the new layout and this bit of research helps, remains to be seen.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
