I put on a sweater but left the jacket in the locker, as it looked to be warming up enough to finally hit the driving range. It was here we finally ran into Harry (left) and Preston (right), who are shown in the photo below. I hit about twenty or thirty shots and felt pretty good before starting the meat of my practice session on the chipping and putting greens. They had a nice little short game area just at the front of the range and I marvelled at how deep the rough was around that green. Thankfully, it didn't look that intimidating around the 18th green, at least from first site. I spent the bulk of my practice time on the putting green, which essentially is an extension of the humongous 9th green. I can only refer to Marino Parascenzo's comments at the beginning of this writeup to properly explain just how fast the greens at Oakmont are. Everyone had HUGE grins on their faces as they attempted to hit downhill putts toward the hole, only to see them scoot 15 to 20 feet past.
The greens were only double cut and NOT rolled on this day - some days they TRIPLE CUT AND ROLL these suckers as they approach 15 on the stimpmeter at times. On this day, they were 'only' an 11 or 12. Haha! The practice green is just a gorgeous site, with the clubhouse in the background. Interestingly enough, before the advent of automobiles, this used to be the FRONT of the clubhouse back in the early days. I had been putting poorly in the rounds preceding the day at Oakmont so I was determined to work out my kinks before hitting the course. Let's just put it this way - you DON'T go to Oakmont and suddenly find your stroke and I found that out the hardway. I completely missed lunch in the clubhouse as I continued to hit putt after putt, hoping to find a solution to my wayward stroke. We were heading out to the course!
It was a shotgun start and our starting hole was the famous par four third - home of the church pews! Harry and Preston had to share a caddy while Jon and I were lucky enough to have a caddy to ourself. I had Jason, a six-year veteran at Oakmont on my bag. The famous Church Pews bunker on the left and severe fairway bunkers on the right make for a difficult driving hole. A good drive sets up a short iron to an elevated but fairly flat green (by Oakmont standards) that slopes slightly away from you. I don't think you can possibly understand just how undulating the property out here is unless you've played the course. The third hole is about as far away from the clubhouse as you can get yet you can see quite clearly all the way back, as shown in the picture below. Harris was the first to tee up and some nerves must have been in effect, as he completely cold topped his drive into the left fescue just off the tee. The ball just DOVE into the grass!
