OAKMONT, Pa. — Maybe no one would complain about the eighth hole at Oakmont Country Club if the term “par” had never been created in championship golf.
And yet there it sits in the middle of this tough course, the longest par 3 in major championship history, 289 yards on the scorecard and certain to top 300 yards in actual distance for one round, just as it did during the 2007 U.S. Open. Oakmont will host the U.S. Open for a record-extending 10th time starting Thursday.
“I couldn’t tell you a par 3 over 250 yards that’s good, architecturally,” said two-time PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas, who took a scouting trip to Oakmont two weeks ago.
“That’s not my favorite hole in the world,” he added. “I think you could do some other things with that. But everyone’s going to have to play the same hole and going to have to execute the same shots, and I would love four 3s on it right now if I could take it.”
Jack Nicklaus, who won the first of his record 18 professional majors at Oakmont in the 1962 U.S. Open, was asked what he thought about the par-3 eighth.
“I haven’t played it since they lengthened it to be a short par 5,” Nicklaus said with a smile.
Viktor Hovland spoke for the majority when he said the best par 3s in golf are shorter than 200 yards, but the topic on this day was 300 yards — more or less, depending on how the United States Golf Association sets it up each round. Hovland was not a fan.
“As soon as you start to take head covers off on par 3s, I just think it gets a little silly,” the Norwegian player said.
This is nothing new in major championship golf.
The PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, last month featured the 252-yard sixth hole that required a fairway metal for some. The toughest par 3 at the Masters is Augusta National’s 240-yard fourth hole. And last summer at Royal Troon in the wind and rain, top-ranked Scottie Scheffler hit his best 3-wood of the year into the par-3 17th during the third round of the British Open.
There’s no doubting Oakmont’s No. 8 is a tough hole. A bunker named “Sahara” juts out some 80 yards before the green. That’s easy enough to carry, and then the ball runs onto a putting surface that is not as contoured as the others at Oakmont.
It’s just long. And the numbers indicate it is hard. It ranked No. 8 in difficulty at the 2016 U.S. Open — Oakmont’s ninth edition — with 36% of the field hitting the green in regulation. Go back to 2007, and it ranked No. 4 in difficulty, with 33% of the field finding the green.
“The psychology of par is amazing, which goes to the point of long par 3s,” said 48-year-old Australian player Geoff Ogilvy, who won the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, New York, and is now highly regarded in golf course design.
“If it’s a par 5 and you’re coming in with a fairway metal, you’re thinking there’s a chance you can make 3,” he said. “But if it’s a par 3, you hope you don’t make 4 or 5. And you’ve got it off a tee! … No one likes to get a wood out on a par 3. There’s a bit of ego involved. But sometimes you have to.”
Ogilvy presented one other observation about the par-3 eighth at Oakmont that at least should give critics pause.
“Eight at Oakmont almost is the easiest of the four par 3s, even though it’s so long,” he said. “It has a wide fairway and probably is the only flat green on the course, so you can run it up. I think it’s too much at 300 yards. But like at 250, it’s a really good hole.”
John Bodenhamer, the USGA officer in charge of setting up the course, has said the tee and the pin will be adjusted enough to make it play 301 yards for one round — not 300, but 301.
That’s part of the fun the USGA likes to have, but not always. The distance for the par-3 11th at Los Angeles Country Club was 299 yards in the 2023 U.S. Open (there is a 40-foot drop in elevation), and the seventh hole on that course also measured one yard short of a perfect game in bowling. Both of those were in the second round.
Phil Mickelson was fuming over the 274-yard third hole at Merion Golf Club near Philadelphia in the final round of the 2013 U.S. Open. He made a double bogey and was overheard telling an official: “That’s terrible — 274, we can’t even reach it.”
As for Oakmont, it’s worth noting when Johnny Miller had his historic 63 in the final round to win the 1973 U.S. Open, his only bogey came at the par-3 eighth.
Given the modern game, maybe the value of a super long par 3 is for players to show they can hit a long iron or fairway metal. Ludvig Aberg was asked how often he hits a 3-iron.
“I don’t carry one,” the big-hitting Swede said.
He has a 4-iron and then swaps out the 3-iron with a 7-wood, but he brings his 3-iron with him in case it makes sense.
“You don’t get a lot of long irons into par 4s,” Aberg said. “It would be a second shot into a par 5. I’ve never had anything against a long par 3. I guess I’m different.”
Harris English played Oakmont in the 2016 U.S. Open and had no beef with No. 8 because “it gives you room to play.” When asked for some of the other long par 3s he likes, the Baylor School graduate struggled to come up with even a short list.
Said English: “The long ones aren’t as memorable.”