The US Open Will Be Like a Rocky Movie

I am sure the first question that comes into everyone’s mind is what in world does the US Open have to do with a Rocky movie?  It turns that they have quite a bit in common.

Rocky Balboa

Rocky didn’t win fights because he had more talent and speed than Apollo Creed.  He won fights because of his ability to take a punch and keep getting back up until the fight was over.

Oakmont

A photo posted by Aron Price (@a.ron.price) on Jun 13, 2016 at 6:20pm PDT

Oakmont opened 113 years ago in 1903 and despite it’s age it is more than enough to challenge the best players in the world and, to me, the real beauty of it is that they have never had to try and “Tiger Proof” it like Augusta National and so many others have tried to do by adding shear length and penalizing the players that don’t fall into bomb and gouge category.

A good example of this is that when Ben Hogan won in 1953 his winning score was 283; when Angel Cabrera won the last one in 2007 some 5,000 trees that had been added earlier were removed and he still needed 285 strokes.  So much for all the advances in equipment technology.

I know that Rocky was from Philadelphia, but there seems to be some similarities with the people from across the state in Pittsburgh.

“We are the most sadistic folks you’ll ever find; we’re gluttons for punishment; we like hard, difficult stuff in Pittsburgh,” said Chick Wagner, a three-time club champion.  “We’re not a steel town anymore, but we still have that steeler mentality.”

According to Bob Friend, a former PGA Tour player that grew up playing Oakmont and is still a member; “There’s a lot of really tough people in this town.  This was a big blue-collar town, a rough-and-tumble place.  We play football and we wrestle, sports where you get arms broken and teeth punched out.  That’s just like Oakmont.”

They like to offer first time guest a wager.  They will take your handicap and double it and bet you can’t play to it. They never lose.

You can count on Oakmont knocking people down.  The key will be who is going to get up the most often and keep coming back to win.

The one factor that could change everything is Mother Nature.  If it rains then we can have a situation like we had in 1973 when the rain softened the course up to the point that Johnny Miller could shoot a 63 on the final round and win.

[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbVqciFRioA&end=80&width=742&height=419[/embedyt]

Cover Image via YouTube