Oakmont Country Club is known to provide some of the most ridiculous shots and mind-blowing course features in all of golf.
Its 175 sand bunkers, long rough and extremely fast greens make Oakmont the perfect venue for what’s billed as golf’s toughest test: the U.S. Open.
Players were on the grounds Tuesday putting the final touches on their preparation for the 125th playing of America’s national championship, which begins Thursday, and one player deployed quite the strategy for hitting the green on the par-4 1st hole.
In a video posted to social media by Andy Johnson with The Fried Egg on Tuesday afternoon, PGA Tour pro Zac Blair is shown using his putter to send his ball down the fairway from 122 yards away on No. 1 — which played as the most difficult hole at Oakmont during the 2016 U.S. Open.
He crushes the putt and it races toward the hole, up the slope in front of the green and comes to rest what appears to be about 20 feet from the flagstick. Pretty nice shot.
It’s a testament to just how fast not only the greens are, but the fairways, too. A slightly errant tee shot will be shown little forgiveness by the golf course this week. In short, landing in the fairway off the tee never guarantees a second shot from the fairway.
Normally, Blair’s hilarious technique would be chalked up as simply a fun shot to try during a practice round, but who knows? Maybe there’s a player in the field of 156 who will be betrayed by his irons and will turn to his putter as a way to hit greens.
If there was one place where few would question such a unique approach, it’s Oakmont.
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