Beautiful BEAST: Playing the World’s Toughest Golf Course | DRIVE Oakmont

Beautiful BEAST: Playing the World’s Toughest Golf Course | DRIVE Oakmont

seventime major champion Jean Sarin once said “Okay you’re out of the ditch.” Oh god really and surprisingly the place has been called worse welcome to Oakmont they’re going the other way now but of all its challenges Oakmont’s notorious greens may be the toughest of them all oh they’re giving out body bags at the clubhouse yeah anyway we’re Frank and Mike and we’ve spent nearly a decade exploring some of the world’s best most unique and wildest golf destinations while trying to uncover some of the game’s most incredible experiences this week’s adventure takes us to Pittsburgh the steel city to experience America’s toughest golf course this is Drive Oakmont Country Club all right early one today first we’re headed from New York to New Jersey to pick up Mike and Zach good day Frank good day Mike how we doing today we got a nice arrival time 10:33 Great so we’re doing good we’re cooking we’re cooking already let’s do this and then from there it is straight on to Pittsburgh about 5 1/2 hour drive in ideal world we get there a little before 11 so that we can hopefully get a bit of a warm up in before we head out there and play uh the big boy Oak Mountain we think we got a fast one or a slow one slow looks like she’s got some good fluff does she let’s see some wind sprint z down to the yellow pipe huh going to tie you let’s see a wind sprint well who’s going i want to see a foot race with you and Zach right here no I’ll blow a hammy on come on this is top decision oh yeah turn what this just scrams major championship venue oh we can win we can win Alexis today oh nice you got a hole in one in you or what i do i do i feel it today perfect perfect spot to do it love that hey don’t take your shoes out yet why what do you got i got a little surprise can’t play a course like this without something special i spoke to the guys at uh over at Fjoy hooked us up you ready want me to wear pink today but not for what reason let’s see listen oh a little dude no you can’t play Oakmont without a little drip these are These are nice these are nice let’s go all right put your sleds on let’s go let’s go first of all how about that old school locker room oh man that’s cool i love the old school the smell i want I want to bottle that smell like put it in a can like Oakmont Oakmont locker room yes normally that would not sound like a great thing but like golfers will get it yeah golfers will get that walking through Oakmont’s locker room really is a surreal experience the benches are still covered in the spike marks left behind by golf’s greatest legends like Jack Nicholas and Ben Hogan it’s where Cabrera was sitting when when he opened waiting for the people to finish i had TV up here he was there smoking we had AC blowing in here too and you can see the bathroom in the background but that’s where all the players scored all the scoring took place oh cool but this year it’s going to be in the first show got it but last I was in there was in there now yeah 2007 and 16 this is my bar here oh wow is that that you guys have your own beer here yeah that 1903 it can be pretty easy to drop about a month’s salary in the Oakmont Pro Shop if you’re not careful so grab a couple of the essentials to remember the day by and get out of there as quick as you can here’s the best thing here’s we as we’re going to tell you guys mark things up when we hit Y if it goes in the rough mark it with like the tent a tree and and follow it because it’s like walking in it’s like playing golf in snow right now really very first hole we played Caddy immediately told me something that stuck with me the rest of the round cuz you know you think about playing out of the rough how difficult it was yep but just walking through this rush yes he said specifically he said “Guys be prepared it’s like walking through 6 in of snow.” Oh yeah everywhere you go mhm so keep the ball in the fairway is the theme oh yeah and then that’s just first part of the battle it’s You haven’t even talked about the greens yet no it’s it’s so greens the greens are probably running at about 12 and a half and they normally run 14 15 for the members every day 14 15 daily yeah for the members they slow them down for the open jeez because they wouldn’t be able to finish if they played out of the rough at 7 in high coming back nicely over the first okay all right moving we are off i thought it was pretty cool getting out there with Patrick and Kaylin patrick’s you know he’s world class golf photographer nice look at that team effort sinks the putt gets the shot that’s a team effort right there i like that guinness Booker World Records most golf courses in a year over 500 insane nuts so getting to play with him he’s a great golfer too and Kaylin great golfer incredible golfer so some shots that she play and then my was jealous my favorite they had a little side thing going yes where every birdie the other one had to do 10 push-ups and it was cumulative yep and uh she had Patrick you know by by the end he was pretty gassed i’ve seen at least 20 push-ups right now accountability we got that wow okay you got to really sell it for this it’s the highlight reel oh you sold that one i think towards the end they switched the rules to pars cuz it’s starting to get really difficult out there yeah you put par you know birdies are too infrequent for their little challenge we’re going off as a shotgun so we are jumping off what is this 15th hole and then we’re going to loop around so the church pews will be coming up in a few holes that’s the famous landmark the famous bunkers that you see here at Oakmont so we’ll see those in a minute but we got a close course rank here at Oakmont on a USGA preview day so we’re going to milk every second of it you’re out of the ditch oh my god really yeah these things are brutal welcome to Oakmont welcome to Oakmont yeah all right one thing that was cool was getting to try all those historic shots usga they brought out all that like the old equipment everything i mean you realize this there’s more history here than most anywhere you’ve got more US Opens played here at Oakmont than anywhere else so they they’ve got a a vault a treasure trove of history so we got to try some putts yep with like those putters i couldn’t believe how much loft was on those putters it was wild i mean that feels like a a two iron now and then getting to hit that that little wood you know there was no sweet spot it was so small on that par three yep so we So we have some woods here from the ‘ 60s through the 80s so if you want to try to recreate the shot uh that’s what we’re here for these are from the interactive collection for the USGA Golf Museum oh I did what I do in real life give him a bang that’s going to work all right hit the hill bounce right it’ll be way over there’s nowhere to miss on this club there’s no miss look at that thing Tommy good play one thing I didn’t expect to do was leave so many putts short oh that was it that was it and I think it was just in my mind about how lightning quick we’ve always heard that the Oakmont Greens are but like I said we did get a lot of rain i mean a 12 is still fast i think in my mind I was playing them like they were 14 i know me too and left a lot short and I think if I could have something back it would have been to be a little more gutsy on my first putts even if I had to roll them a little bit past the hole totally i mean other days may be totally different right it may be lightning quick but today it just like just got to give it a little more oomph three putt bogey here I am thinking I might taste the birdie here these these greens are tough the bunker the face of the the long bunker is 280 okay 220 yeah 250 240 perfect i’ll leave a little flip wedge yet all right man couple holes in how you feeling and we’re like six holes in thoughts that’s what I didn’t I didn’t think I’d lose a ball right because I thought how do you lose a ball there’s like almost no trees right if you don’t step out in the rough it’s gone it’s gone no question so you better you you if you hit it in the rough all I’m going to say is you better be looking at a spot and just walk right there otherwise you never find your ball again i got to go do that right now it’s crazy it’s crazy i found it wild how much extra time is spent just looking for balls and I’m not talking about like balls that are way off track you miss the fairway by you know five six right i mean some par threes were missing the green just by a couple of paces and you have the the whole group trying to find it because you have to be on top of it you know you’re talking about a ball this big and in and rough that’s 5 6 in dense yeah exactly and the caddy did say that it’s going to be probably two more inches longer for the US Open so I can’t imagine this thing any longer than it is now but uh that’s what makes watching the US Open so fun so I cannot wait to glue myself to the TV after that’s what I love about playing the course before they play it of course cuz I want to see how they do it so many of them have proposed their lives on on the I got gauged and you know that’s the big proposal spot and like we have weddings here they’ll bring them out on 6 they’ll get pictures on the fuse they sit on the pews so you can’t go on the pews you can go go in the trap you can go in the trap and hang out and take pictures and do stuff but you can’t you’re not allowed to walk on that’s wild can’t go in on the views with that new AI stuff you can probably make it happen yeah that’s awesome like walking on water over there going for it get in get it done yeah the church views huh so like they had them all roped off in the in the inbetweens because they’re they’re prepping you get it they’re prepping they got the US Open here in like 2 weeks i totally get it but uh yeah you don’t want to be in there uh you know you go in there you say your prayers you know like you’re in church definitely got a genulect in there and then just hope for the best yeah cuz what you don’t see you see the beautiful aesthetics of the church pews whether it’s by drone or by photos but if you’re in them what you don’t know unless you’re in them is that you have about 240 left up a hill to a green surrounded by bunkers on the right it just gets harder and harder and then of course when you flip to play the next hole those church pews are right there they’re right there again ooh borderline all right right i got an oo and a borderline somewhere to do the difference what the difference it was right on the line to start killing i thought it looked beautiful of course it’s a enjoyable punch to the face it’s an enjoyable punch to the face it’s like someone you love punching punching you in the face real good real good and you can’t be angry at them cuz you love them right but it hurts welcome to Oakmont you’re going the other way now that’s Oakmont par three looks like Oakmont has the longest par three in US Open history at 301 back in 2016 they played it right here 300 ydoo so if we are going to play that pin here from the 300 yard marker today 296 so it’s a smooth driver i didn’t drive her to that pin right there no to that pin sunday pin covered by bunkers i don’t know what I do i lay up in lay yeah seriously one thing that did not disappoint the Oakmont slushy oh yeah they got they got the transfusion or the bourbon lemonade those are the two choices we both went transfusion and what the caddy was telling me first of all that thing was one is plenty one is strong alcohol level plenty but the caddy he was telling me is he said a lot of the members here they do what’s either called an anchor or a floater or some guys do both the anchor is an extra shot of Titos on the bottom floater extra shot of Titos on top or if you’re really bald it’s bald yes i mean you don’t need that around here but I’ll tell you out here walking warm but it was a cool slushy trans slushy that’s that’s hard something I never seen that’s cool here it comes couple of rain and lightning delays out there yep today expected we knew it was coming we One thing we lucked out where we were on the course two or three times it happened we were like right by the clubhouse or a shelter i feel bad for everybody else who was way out there and cuz the propertyy’s big it’s huge it’s massive but uh I’m just glad like you know we were able to keep getting back out there and play cuz I sometimes you get those hours and hours of brain delay but we were good it was just quick in and out i think us getting the transfusion slushies right before that happened was was key that was clutch that was clutch good shot good shot thank you there we go nice butt push-ups push-ups drop and give us 10 good form right now accountability we got that wow okay you got to really sell it for this it’s the highlight reel oh you sold that one nice out thank you oh you you never said rolling pots now another 18 all right let’s go back out let’s go i got warmed up let’s go great double great double hey don’t sell me short that’s a bogey right bogey i’m sorry bogey bogey bogey in the end Oakmont didn’t just live up to the legend it challenged us in every possible way we missed our fair share of putts made more bogeies than we’d like to admit but none of that really matters because at the end of the day it’s the experience we’ll remember all right how about that far you right and ultimately it’s only the scorecard that we’d like to forget that was an adventure good day

Oakmont Country Club is widely considered to be the world’s toughest golf course and in this very first episode of DRIVE we’re headed to Pittsburgh to find out why.

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Special Thanks To:
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The USGA ➡︎ https://www.usga.org/
Oakmont CC ➡︎ https://www.oakmontcc.org/
Lexus USA ➡︎ https://www.lexus.com/
FootJoy ➡︎ https://www.footjoy.com/
Titleist ➡︎ https://www.titleist.com/
Club Glove ➡︎ https://www.clubglove.com/
REVO Sunglasses ➡︎ https://revo.com/collections/golficity
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This very first episode of DRIVE takes us to the historic Oakmont Country Club ahead of the 2025 US Open. Many have called Oakmont the “World’s Hardest Golf Course” and its easy to see why. With challenging hole layouts, punishingly deep rough, and lightning fast greens, Oakmont is truly the toughest test of golf we’ve ever experience. But as difficult as the course is, there’s also a lot to love about the incredible history at Oakmont. So in this episode we take you inside of Oakmont’s clubhouse and locker room to witness first-hand some of the great history at this historic landmark for the game of golf.

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