Wait a second, Oakmont has rough? And the rough is thick? Seems that both of those questions are in fact true. One of the main storylines on property this week is how players will navigate the thick rough that surround the fairways and greens.

Both the USGA and PGA of America have built an aspect of their identity on finding golf courses that have thick rough. These organizations believe that thick rough is one of the pillars to test the modern day golfer. You can agree or disagree with that belief, but that is what the professionals are tasked with this week.

While listening to majority of the player press conferences over the last couple of days, players are in agreement that if you don’t hit fairways, it will be almost impossible to get your 2nd shot onto the green. Obviously it depends on the lie you receive in the rough, however, with the rough being 5 inches thick, most likely you are getting a terrible lie.

Over the last 3 years, here are the top 12 players in the field who have gained the most strokes on thick rough golf courses:

Driver-putter may be an over-simplistic summation of Oakmont, but as I mentioned on the pod, it’s the Harvard Business School of Driver Putter. Memorial Park, Vidanta Vallarta, and TPC Craig Ranch are the state schools and community colleges of driver putter, but Oakmont is the most high-class version of this specific combination of required skill-set.

And Bryson DeChambeau is most definitely the best driver/putter combination in the world. His driver is an absolute lethal weapon. I’m not sure how it’s actually legal or why more players aren’t using it, and his skill on the greens is vastly underrated, particularly in terms of distance control. I just think when the rubber meets the road that Bryson’s driver is a greater weapon in golf right now than anything short of Scottie Scheffler’s irons, and this golf course is going to accentuate driving more than iron play. We capitalized on Scheffler at the PGA; now it’s Bryson’s turn.

Full transparency, I was wrong about Jon Rahm at the PGA Championship. I thought he wasn’t sharp enough to contend last month, but he proved me wrong.

Despite blowing up on the last couple holes at the PGA Championship, I thought his T8 finish at Quail Hollow was very impressive.

Rahm’s driving statistics have been trending, as he ranks 4th in carry distance, 15th in distance to the edge of the fairway, and 17th in strokes gained OTT on courses with thick rough. Rahm has one of the best short games on and off the greens in my opinion, which will be put to the test this week.

His approach numbers have been somewhat inconsistent on LIV and in the two major championships this year, but Oakmont isn’t necessarily a second shot golf course. However, Rahm thrives on tough major championship courses as he ranks 5th in strokes gain on difficult scoring conditions.

In our ISN staff OAD league, I am front running and took Bryson DeChambeau at the PGA Championship. Rahm and DeChambeau should be the most popular selections since you can only pick them at the major championships.

As we prepare for the US Open at Oakmont this week, it is hard to ignore the types of golfers that have won this event over the past decade. Bryson, Rahm Clark, DJ, Koepka with Rory seemingly in the top 5 every year. It seems clear that you need elite power OTT to win one of these events and I am not sure that is a good thing.

It truly was not that long ago that in a 5-year stretch, the winners of this event were Lucas Glover, Grame McDowell, Webb Simpson and Justin Rose. These are golfers that are not known for their distance off the tee at all. All of them were able to win their US Open with accurate OTT and elite iron play. 

There seems to be some chatter this week about the fact that this week at Oakmont could be different. People are saying it’s going to be more important to be accurate OTT and I am not sure if that is going to happen. 

I truly feel like most golfers in the field are able to win an Open Championship, there is a lot less distance bias and it’s more about being fully in control of all aspects of your game. I worry that unless you have ball speeds of 180 MPH+, I don’t think you have a chance to win our nation's open. 

I am not sure that this is good for the game of golf and I am hoping a golf ball rollback can help temper these issues and not amplify them.

Every major championship week, my inbox is filled with messages from friends about who to take in their office tiered pool. Instead of answering all of those texts individually, I thought about just giving my favorite plays in each tier in our newsletter:

(for reference, I used the tiers on Easy Office Pool)

Tier 1: Bryson DeChambeau

There’s not much else to say about Bryson that Andy didn’t already highlight above. The argument against Bryson is: can he really go back to back? I believe he’s going to have a darn good shot.

Pivot: Jon Rahm

Tier 2: Corey Conners

Corey Conners is quietly the 13th ranked golfer on DataGolf and 21st in the OWGR. He is one of the most accurate drivers from off-the-tee and one of the best overall iron players in the field.

Conners likes to play on these types of tracks as he ranks 7th in the field in strokes gained on thick rough golf courses. His major championship resume is quite impressive over the last two years. This season, he finished T8 at the Masters and T19 at the PGA Championship. He is showing no signs of slowing down.

Pivot: Patrick Cantlay

Tier 3: Keegan Bradley

I wrote in this newsletter a couple weeks ago why Keegan should pick himself on his Ryder Cup team. His current form is hard to ignore to not play him in this tier. The last time Keegan lost strokes from tee-to-green was at Pebble Beach back in February.

With much of the talk this week being what the winning score will be, Keegan ranks 13th in strokes gained on difficult scoring golf courses. The way he hits his driver long and straight is the perfect recipe to try and conquer Oakmont.

Pivot: Tony Finau

Tier 4: Akshay Bhatia

After missing the cut at the PGA Championship, I believe this is a great buy back spot for the fan favorite. He played great at the Memorial a couple weeks ago, averaging 1.75 strokes per round from tee-to-green. Over the last couple of months, he’s been showing confidence with the flatstick statistically. I am a buyer of his talent.

Pivot: Maverick McNealy

Tier 5: Taylor Pendrith

Taylor Pendrith is the ultimate ISN play this week. Many of our subscribers have been holding a 270/1 ticket on Pendy to win the U.S. Open since our very own Kyle Hewett touted him back in December.

The Canadian one of the best ball strikers in the world right now. He is plenty long and straight off-the-tee like Keegan Bradley. He had his best major finish of his career at this years PGA Championship finishing T5. Hop aboard the Pendy train with us!

Pivot: Aaron Rai

Tier 6: Max Greyserman

Many are handicapping this U.S. Open to be who will have the best driver and make the most putts this week. If that is the case, Greyserman fits the build the best, comparative to all other the guys in this tier. Greyserman is one of the best putters on fast greens and bent/poa surfaces. He comes into the week coming off a T25 at the Memorial and T33 at the PGA Championship.

Pivot: Bud Cauley

The US Open brings about a special bonding for many fathers and their children. For me, that wasn’t always the case.

I didn’t know my dad until I was 10 years old. He showed up on our front porch one day on a chilly Vermont night – I remember it was unseasonably cold, just enough for me to be dissuaded by the intrigue of my paternal figure in favor of the warmth of the fireplace inside. But still, I had to know. He came bearing a gift – a Beck CD. Turns out he had been at the music shop and meant to buy a Jeff Beck album, he bought Beck instead, and he wasn’t impressed. I’ll never forget that story.

I remember being a little disappointed. Here’s this middle-aged, frumpy old guy with thinning hair and the ugliest glasses you’ve ever seen, and I wondered if that’s what I was going to look like when I got older. Sometimes I’ll catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror now, in my glasses and my hair askew, and I’ll see him and be transported back to that moment. (I always fix my hair afterward.) He and my mother had met more than a decade prior – she had a rebellious streak that came from a wisp of childhood trauma – and she hadn’t quite learned how to rein it in. Fortunately, I helped with that when I came along. They never married; he freaked out and bailed when he found out she was pregnant, but curiosity got the best of him sometime around the second verse to “Devil’s Haircut” and realizing this was not anyone who had ever played for the Yardbirds.

We never really bonded, but I do remember playing golf with him once, at a sad 9-hole links-style course along the shores of Lake Champlain. His bravado was better than his short game – or his long game – but I remembered appreciating the moment, like this was what sons were supposed to do with their fathers. It didn’t last; sadly, I haven’t heard from him in years. He was bi-polar, had a hard time keeping a job, and had his share of trouble with the law. I’ve tried to find him, but with him having quite literally the most common name you could imagine, it hasn’t been an easy feat.

I am lucky, though. I have new reasons to look forward to Father’s Day now. I took my youngest daughter to the driving range for the first time last week, and the joy on her face when she striped her first ball down the fairway – that shot that hits the face clean and bounds further down the range than you thought possible, the shot that hooks you to the game forever – that’s what I’ll remember now. I have my own traditions, playing an annual Father’s Day tournament with my father in law and his sons, all wearing the same absurd William Murray shirts, then joining them for a cookout and crowding around the TV to catch the back 9 of the US Open. It’s a holiday that had absolutely no meaning to me. And now, it means everything.