It's interesting to see how different players may make entirely different equipment choices from the same distance, on the same hole. Nowhere at Oakmont was that more apparent than the 17th hole.
The short par-4 ended up being the pivotal hole for the championship - give Jim Furyk or Tiger Woods a birdie there, and we'd have been watching a playoff Monday.
"I had to hit 3-wood," Woods said after finishing Sunday. Tiger's 3-wood is a Nike Sasquatch 2.
"I was trying to put the ball at the flag or to the right. They haven't watered that green at all and it's all baked out; it's the hardest hole on the golf course."
Furyk, on the other hand, hit his new TaylorMade SuperQuad driver. Despite going into the rough on the left side of the green, the World No. 3 defended his choice.
"The play I made was the play. Now if I went back, I wouldn't hit left of the green for damn sure. But, no, it was the play," Furyk said. "I would stick by that play through and through with the way the wind conditions were and the pin position was. In my mind, I made the right decision. I shouldn't have hit the ball so far left, but I'm surprised it went as far as it did."
Before the tournament began, players had various theories about how to play the hole.
"I hit a 2-iron," explained Masters champion Zach Johnson after playing a practice round. "2-iron was perfect... and I had about 90 yards. I heard that guys were hitting 3- and 4-irons getting it up on top. It's going to be anything from a 4-iron to a 2-iron, just try and position yourself with a wedge."
Other players with more muscle recommended driver on the hole, albeit with some strategy.
"You try to drive the green but you're not really trying to drive it," said the PGA Tour's longest driver, Bubba Watson. "You're trying to hit just to the front left. You're trying to hit to the front left so you can just get in that rough and you can hit the shot out of the rough up the green. You're trying to keep it just short of the green, but as close as you can because those bunkers, you're just playing for par once you get in those bunkers."
Watson's words proved to be true. Look again at how the runners-up finished - Furyk hit to the left and blamed his chip out of the rough rather than his placement off the tee. And Woods went into the bunker, and did indeed end up playing for par.
CHANGES OVER 13 YEARS: Ernie Els noted that the USGA's changes to the course really did serve to return Oakmont to the same challenge it was when he won in 1994. Then, for example, some pros were still using persimmon woods.
"With the length they have put into the course, with new technology, you know, we are going to basically play the same shots from the tees and same irons into the greens," Els said.
"So I think that they have done a hell of a job, a very good job putting the length in where they need it. They didn't lengthen every hole."
BRAND HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WEEK: Titleist was the golf ball of choice at the U.S. Open with 107 (69 percent) players relying upon the Pro V1 or Pro V1x, more than six times the nearest competitor with 16. ... Fujikura was the No. 1 driver shaft brand at the 2007 U.S. Open Championship. ... True Temper Sports notes this was the third U.S. Open win in the past four years with Rifle branded shafts. ... Adams Golf led the hybrid category on the Nationwide Tour last week having 73 of its hybrids played by the pros at the Showdown at Somerby.
