Praying for a miracle at tricky Oakmont

ALL the talk for much of the next five days will surround Church Pews, 288-yard par threes, lightning fast greens, ridiculous rough — in other words, more of the same, where US Open courses are concerned.

Well, obviously, not quite. It’s only when another big tournament goes to Oakmont, the country club on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the venue for this year’s championship starting on Thursday, that golfers make their acquaintance with the Church Pew bunkers, a series of quaintly-shaped sand traps some 100 yards long and 30 yards wide all lined with 12 inches of four-feet high turf that divide the third and fourth fairways. You go in there, and it’s time to start praying.

And then there’s the 8th, the “short” hole that will play to 288 yards on two of the four days and from a “mere” 230 on the other two. Some elite members of the field suspect they may have to lay up on a couple of days — world No 3 Jim Furyk averages 273 yards with the driver and it’s another 29 to the back of the green!