The 2025 U.S. Open at iconic but treacherous Oakmont is almost here. Defending U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau made a trip to the club over the weekend to get in some early practice. And the conditions of the thick, long rough at Oakmont shocked the two-time winner.
We know this thanks to DeChambeau’s latest YouTube video, in which he played all 18 holes at Oakmont to prep for his title defense.
In the opening moments of the new video, DeChambeau says “this is the hardest this golf course could ever play right now.” That’s saying something for a course that is notorious for being one of the toughest tests in golf.
Oakmont’s lightning-fast greens (which they allegedly slow down for the U.S. Open) and plethora of bunkers have given pros fits in the nine previous U.S. Opens played there.
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But perhaps no course feature strikes more fear in players’ hearts than Oakmont’s rough.
The rough DeChambeau found over the weekend, which was five inches long at the time, was no joke. When Bryson was faced with a particularly tough lie in the rough early in his round he said it was “complete guesswork out of there.”
But the most memorable moment from the video involving the long grass occurred at the par-3 6th hole. Having started on the back nine, DeChambeau was nearly done with his round when he reached the 6th.
Before hitting his tee shot on the hole, which was playing 217 yards — “They put another tee box back here didn’t they?” he quipped — DeChambeau provided some U.S. Open strategic wisdom.
“The key in U.S. Opens though: you gotta hit that green,” Bryson said.
Unfortunately, he proceeded to fly his tee shot over the green.
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“You’re kidding?” Bryson said after watching his shot disappear into the rough. Then he raised his hands to the skies and yelled, “Where’d the wind go!”
But fortunately for us, it presented another opportunity for Bryson to tussle with Oakmont’s treacherous rough.
After walking up to the green, Bryson found his ball, but you wouldn’t know it from his cameraman’s view from above. The rough was so thick, none of the ball was visible.
“That is cooked beyond belief,” DeChambeau said of his lie. “That’s more than half-baked there. That’s burnt to a crisp.
“I actually like this shot for you,” his caddie Greg Bodine joked.
“I’ve got nothing!” Bryson responded.
After taking a mighty thwack with his wedge, DeChambeau proved Bodine right, safely landing on the green and setting up a par putt.
Check out a clip of the moment below.
