On Golf | Logo aside, Oakmont getting rave reviews

OAKMONT, Pa. - After days of listening to everyone from Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson to Sean O'Hair and Johnny Miller rave about Oakmont, I figured enough with the love fest.

So I set out on a long walk around the golf course yesterday to find something lousy, something to hate, which I did.

Let me just say this: For such a classy country club, and an eight-time U.S. Open venue, Oakmont has the single goofiest-looking logo I have ever seen: a fat little squirrel clutching a golf ball.

I'm sorry, but by comparison, the logo for Stonewall in Chester County (a cow with a golf club in her mouth) looks as if it were designed by a Madison Avenue advertising firm.

On top of that, after they cut down 5,000 to 8,000 trees since the last Open here in 1994, you couldn't find a squirrel at Oakmont if you had to.

But I quibble. If you believe the talk, the one surefire star this week in the 107th Open won't necessarily be the winner, it will be the golf course.

As I said, Woods, Mickelson, O'Hair, and even the famously critical Miller on NBC are over the top for the place - especially Miller.

"This is the finest golf course in the world," Miller, who won the Open here in 1973, declared this week.

"Better than Pine Valley ever thought of being, better than Cypress [Point] ever thought of being," Miller went on. "The way the bunkers are sculpted, the church pews, the greens, the shot values, the trees taken out. You combine it all, this is the greatest course in the world."

I'm guessing that the folks at Pine Valley might take exception, albeit never publicly. Ditto for members of Cypress Point in California, and editors at Golf Digest, which ranks Oakmont fifth among America's 100 greatest courses, after Pine Valley, Shinnecock Hills, Augusta National and Cypress Point.

But for this week, forget formal rankings. Oakmont can do no wrong.

Woods called Oakmont's greens, which will be rolling at a super-fast 131/2 to 141/2 on the Stimpmeter, the toughest he has ever seen.

"I thought Winged Foot's were pretty tough, Augusta's were pretty tough," Woods said. "But both golf courses have flat spots. Here, I'm trying to figure out where a flat shelf is."

Fun holes? "The 19th is great," he said with a laugh.

O'Hair, from West Chester, said Oakmont is the toughest course he has played, and Sergio Garcia called it "not too bad for a par 78."

By comparison, said Padraig Harrington, last year's venue, Winged Foot, was "very pleasant," adding, "and you know 5 over won at Winged Foot."

Mickelson gushed like a spigot. "I think seven, eight, nine, 10 is the toughest stretch in all of golf," said Mickelson, offering no small compliment. He and everybody else agree that No. 1 might be the toughest opening hole in golf.

Other than the much-heralded tree project, which restored the course to its original 1903 wide-open links feel, talk has focused on the 667-yard 12th (the longest hole in Open history); the unique and demonic "church pew" bunkers separating the third and fourth fairways (fuhgettaboutit); and the 288-yard eighth, the longest par 3 in Open history.

Long as it is, from behind the tee yesterday, the eighth didn't look as imposing as I thought it might - especially not for these guys.

Sure, it's got a bunker that wraps around the left side of the green, but the eighth also has a fairly big green and a generous landing area just short. Hit a 3-wood or hybrid to the green or just short, chip up, drop the putt. Easy par.

"Great hole," Mickelson said. "It's probably a 31/2 par. Just because we don't know what to say par-wise doesn't mean we shouldn't have to play holes like that."

I think we're all down with that.

Blogging from Oakmont at http://golfinq.blogspot.com.EndText