the front right of the green, you can putt over that ridge, and it will take the slot and just feed the ball into the back-left pin. That green is very different from what it was, and it’s exciting because of the possibilities with the recaptured hole locations.” The 17th, an uphill par 4 that’s reach- able from the tee, is always determina- tive in tournaments at Oakmont, often because players try to drive the green and fail. The primary task here was to reduce the variables of the tee shot. Six bunkers left of the fairway have been combined into one large and one small bunker that are shifted closer to the green, and players who want to play conservatively for position will have slightly more fairway available. The five bunkers that circle the small, perched putting surface leave terrifying recover- ies, particularly the Big Mouth bunker short right, so players would avoid them by driving up to the left of the green for a clear chip from the rough. That area is now planted with long fescue. If they try that play now, Hanse says, “they’re probably going to get something they don’t want.” HOLE 17, PAR 4, 312 YARDS “Five bunkers made into one”
the landing zone from the left and an alter- nate fairway offset to the right. With this arrangement repro- duced, players must either carry their
Wagner installed an additional pew in the bunker, bringing the total number of the grass berms to 13 and increasing its length
POLISHED GREEN Players will see new hole locations at the par-3 13th.
DECISION TIME There’s less margin for error when players try to drive the 17th green.
to 108 yards front to back. The five deep bunkers on the right were also rear- ranged in a crescent, the first and fifth of which now pinch the fairway to just 25 yards across. The shaved chipping area that fell away behind the green has been converted to rough, and the pot bunker short left is bigger and more dangerous, protecting forward hole locations in tandem with a monstrous false front. “It is very intimidating looking up and just seeing the skyline of green,” says Hanse. “If you come up short, you’re rolling all the way back down, and if they use the front-left hole position, that’s going to be really interesting.” The seventh hole underwent the most fundamental change to any hole at Oak- mont. Previously the drive played to the crest of a hill and needed to be placed between flanking sets of bunkers. The architects found an early photo that depicted a cross-bunker cutting across HOLE 7, PAR 4, 485 YARDS “A new carry at 290 yards”
drives 290 yards over the new bunker to the slender crest of the fairway for a clear look at the green surrounded by four bunkers, or hit a cautious drive to the larger right fairway but face a lon- ger, blind approach over the ridgeline. This type of dynamic is rare at Oakmont but shows that at points in its past the design did present strategic options. HOLE 13, PAR 3, 182 YARDS “Reviving lost putting contours” The slightly uphill par-3 13th, set against a hillside, is often overlooked considering its placement following the extraordinary par-5 12th and the five round-defining holes that follow it. It’s difficult to look past it now after the expansion and sharpening of the green edges. “It’s an amazing hole,” Hanse says. “There was this little up and over slot in the middle of the green that was kind of muted in the way it played be- cause the back-left hole location was too steep to use. But now if you’re on
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 57
JUNE 2025
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