Good Good took ten of YouTube’s best amateur golfers to Oakmont and got buried. The mower, not the Church Pews, explains why.
A month before the 2025 U.S. Open, Good Good played Oakmont from nearly 8,000 yards. The famous bunkers and brutal length made the spectacle, but the course’s real defense was built before the first tee shot. Oakmont’s crew cut its Poa annua greens to 0.084 inch, held the rough at five inches and gave players only about 28 yards of fairway. Then the surfaces were dried and rolled until even elite ball-strikers could not make good shots stop.
This video breaks down the maintenance system behind Oakmont’s punishment: green speed that erases putting control, firmness that rejects approaches and upright rough that removes every safe miss. Grounds superintendent Mike McCormick calls the greens Oakmont’s number one defense. The scoreboard supports him. J.J. Spaun was the only player under par at the 2025 U.S. Open, and even five over was enough to win here in 2007.