If frustration had a home address this week, it’d be Oakmont! Players are clearly frustrated with the brutal, rough, and lightning-fast greens, and now even fans are starting to complain. It’s turning into one big mess, and no one’s pretending otherwise.
“That is cooked beyond belief… That’s burnt to a crisp,” said Bryson DeChambeau, the defending champion, while he visited the course days before the tournament. He was hitting his shot into the rough on the par-3 6th hole and lost sight of the ball. He even described the 11th hole as a disaster. Even during the official practice round, he was no less frustrated. According to reporter Pete Pappas, he was seen snapping at volunteers and complaining about the slow pace of play, even asking someone on the 4th hole to “call the USGA and have someone out here telling us when it’s okay to go.” And DeChambeau is not alone here.
Ben Griffin chimed in, too, saying, “You’re gonna have to hit fairways this week.” And he’s not kidding. At Oakmont, the fairways are barely 18 yards wide in some spots, and even the slightest miss can land you deep in that nasty rough. Swedish golfer Ludvig Aberg adds it up by saying Oakmont is “one of the hardest places in the world” and that it’s nearly impossible to prepare for. Did the USGA just sit with popcorn and watch the show?
U.S. Open officials brought in a large group of 20 to 30 lawnmowers. Their job wasn’t to completely cut down the rough but to tidy it up carefully, trim it down to about 4¾ inches, and to make the ball sink into the roots instead of resting on top, where it’s easier to hit. But “They’re not working. They’re not cutting sh!t.” That’s what Phil Mickelson had to say about this cover-up by the USGA. And as if all this mess wasn’t enough, the frustration got to the fans as well, present at the course.
It was absolute chaos on Day 1 of the U.S. Open. The only way into the course is through a single bridge, and it was packed. Fans were stuck shoulder-to-shoulder with barely any room to move. Not a single spot on that bridge was empty. The glimpse of it was shared by an X account, Nagels Bagels with the very fitting words, “There’s gotta be a better way.”
There’s gotta be a better way @USGA pic.twitter.com/VeQFgepBAo
— Nagels Bagels (@nagelbagels) June 12, 2025
And this is just the first day. If it’s already this bad, what’s the weekend going to look like? Fans are more than agitated.
Fans Share Their Frustrations
One fan commented, “Beware of the bridge. Got stuck in a massive, bottlenecked crowd today, didn’t feel safe at all.” The crowd was so bad it was almost a stampede. According to fans, it took them 30–40 minutes to cross the bridge.
Another fan commented, “It’s awful. No reason for the other to be closed. Bad call by them.” There are three bridges in play during the U.S. Open—two internal footbridges—and for some reason, the USGA closed one of them, causing this mess. “The current fan experience at Oakmont is horrible,” commented the same fan.
And some threw concerns like, “Going to be a lot of Pittsburgh sunburn tonight.” Even with caps and sunglasses, many fans couldn’t avoid sunburn due to the long wait in direct sunlight.
Not only do players think the build of Oakmont is terrible, but fans do too. “Course design is terrible.” Oakmont was designed in 1903 by Henry Fownes. He aimed to create the toughest golf course in America. He wanted every shot to demand precision and believed that poor shots should be harshly punished. Well played by the designer—a century later, and the trauma lives on.
Forget the leaderboard, at this point, the real winner might just be anyone who escapes Oakmont with their sanity.
The post ‘Didn’t Feel Safe’: U.S. Open Embroiled in Controversy as Worrying Details from Oakmont Come to Light appeared first on EssentiallySports.