PGA Championship: After Two Rounds, Oakland Hills Is The Big Winner

The PGA of America must have been getting tired of hearing about how the PGA Championship is typically the easiest major of the year. 

If you had been hibernating for the past three months, woke up and turned on the television, you would immediately think you woke up in June and were watching the US Open.  Oakland Hills is playing that difficult this week.

Playing 7,300 yards with rock hard greens, rough that could be mistaken for cabbage and fairways just wide enough to drive small SUV through, Oakland Hills is indeed the ‘Monster’ that Ben Hogan famously described back in 1951. 

The majors are meant to be difficult; they are meant to be the four toughest tests of golf each year.

But, is Oakland Hills playing too hard? 

Most of the pros would answer that question with a resounding ‘Yes’ but they are also the ones who have the difficult task of taming this beast of a course; putting themselves in situations that could provide for embarrassing moments on national television.

I mean, it is not often you see Phil Mickelson nearly miss a short chip shot, Daniel Chopra have to hit a ball with one hand while facing his back towards the green or muscle-bound Camilo Vegas barely able to get his ball out of the fairway rough. 

In picture perfect conditions Oakland Hills is an extreme test of golf.

Oakland Hills in strong winds with greens that are rock hard, is a borderline impossible test of golf.

The reason why only 7 out of the best 155 players on the planet were to break par in round two was mainly due to large undulated greens that were rock hard.

Oakland Hills brutally tests players with four par-4s that play nearly 500 yards and two par-3s which play close to 250 yards. 

That means there are six holes where players are forced to hit 4,5 or 6-irons into greens that would have a hard time containing sky-high pitching wedges.

That scenario combined with long, thick rough provides for an immensely difficult situation.

On many occasions on Friday we watched perfectly stuck 5 and 6-irons land in the middle of the green only to roll quickly off the back of the green and get swallowed up by the dense rough. 

To make things even more difficult, golf balls were assisted in rolling off the green by undulations surrounding most greens that forced the ball to roll off into the rough.

Now, a player that has hit a perfect drive and a perfectly struck long iron should be rewarded with at least a par, not a chest-pumping par which requires them to get up and down from rough that could be mistaken for a neglected, very overgrown lawn.

Now, I am all for a difficult test of golf in the majors; we are able to see these guys tear apart courses week after week, the majors should provide for a more difficult test.  But, I am also in favor of a fair course; one that provides a player who is in a rhythm and striking the ball well the opportunity to move up the leaderboard. 

Augusta went through a massive undertaking to make and already difficult course into a mind-boggling difficult course.

If the selection and layout of US Open courses keeps going in the same direction, players will soon be playing on 8,000 yard courses with rough up to their knees.

Remember back in 1986 when a red hot Jack Nicklaus was able to shoot a 30 on the back-nine at August and make his way to the top of the leaderboard?

Was that exciting?

Was that great entertainment?

Did that course reward Nicklaus for his lights-out play?

The answer is yes to all of the above, but with the painful after thought that we will probably never see anything like that again.

The courses now selected for the majors do not realistically allow a player to make a dramatic late-Sunday afternoon run. 

If someone were to move up the leaderboard this Sunday at Oakland Hills it will be through making pars while the rest of the leaderboard melts down.

Is that exciting golf?

Does that allow a player to take destiny into his own hands by playing exceptional golf and stringing together a streak of birdies?

Not in my opinion.

There is a fine line between a course being very difficult and being unfair.

A fair course badly punishes a player for hitting a bad shot but still allows a player to be rewarded for hitting a great shot.

Oakland Hills on Friday ruthless punished bad shots and still, in many cases, punished great shots. 

A fair course is a course that is considered very difficult but still hangs those potential birdie and eagle holes out there like an owner holding a fresh steak just beyond his dogs reach, but, if the dog leaps, he can still grab the steak.

If the greens at Oakland Hills soften up, it could make for an interesting weekend.

If, on the other hand, the greens continue to dry out we will see a weekend filled with players struggling whether they are hitting the ball well or not.