{"id":435323,"date":"2025-06-18T02:31:29","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T02:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=435323"},"modified":"2025-06-18T02:31:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T02:31:29","slug":"oakmont-was-the-real-star-says-rick-shiels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/oakmont-was-the-real-star-says-rick-shiels\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakmont Was The Real Star Says Rick Shiels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Much to the relief of all the players involved, the US Open at Oakmont has wrapped up with some property damage.\u00a0 Through all the anger and tears, a winner has been declared in JJ Spaun<\/a>.\u00a0 With all the trouble the Oakmont has caused the players, they can finally put it behind them until the next time an event is hosted there.\u00a0 However, there are grumblings that the major felt strange, and it is argued that the real main character was the infamous course itself and not the players on the field.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rick Shiels Comments On Oakmont<\/span><\/h2>\n

Golf commentator Rick Shiels watched the major unfold, and on his podcast, The Rick Shiels Golf Show, he said it felt \u201cvery weird.\u201d<\/a> \u00a0 He commented on how many things were going on and that it felt like the course was the real star.\u00a0 With the focus on the course itself, he felt like the US Open was ruined for him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know when there is a football match and you think you just want this to be a really good football match and you don\u2019t want the referee to be the main character and mess this up. Sometimes they do. Sometimes they have a sending off when they shouldn\u2019t.\u201d\u00a0 Shiels said on his show.\u00a0 \u201cThat is my feeling with the US Open this week. I felt like the main character was Oakmont, and for me, it ruined it for the whole of the US Open.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He goes on to specify that he doesn\u2019t like seeing the players struggle their way through the US Open.\u00a0 The sight of that makes him feel a bit uncomfortable.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit like when watching a talent show and seeing an act fall apart.<\/span><\/p>\n

It Was A Hard Watch<\/span><\/h2>\n

The weekend was full of moments where the players lost their cool.\u00a0 Rory McIlroy threw his club<\/a> on the Friday of the major.\u00a0 Wyndham Clark was accused of damaging the lockers<\/a> at the historic Oakmont Country Club.\u00a0 This is a major where last year\u2019s champion missed the cut.\u00a0 At one point, other players were defending the ones who had outbursts on and off camera.\u00a0 To top it all off, this was the third major this year that had rain.\u00a0 No doubt giving the players more grievances while trying to just make it to the next hole.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oakmont\u2019s Reputation<\/span><\/h2>\n

Oakmont is a beautiful course with a gorgeous clubhouse.\u00a0 The club takes pride in its history, which is evident in even the locker room.\u00a0 Where the benches are covered in pits from cleats, and the lockers still have a booze box from prohibition days.\u00a0 The course is also well known for being the hardest venue on tour.\u00a0 It has been called unplayable, and the video of the lawn mowers was seen by the players as more of an insult than anything.\u00a0 It has been called a great test of the player’s mental fortitude and has proven to bring out the worst in some.\u00a0 This course should be given some thought when it comes time to renovate.\u00a0 Especially when the viewers are getting uncomfortable with the course.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Ethan Morrison \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much to the relief of all the players involved, the US Open at Oakmont has wrapped up with some property damage.\u00a0 Through all the anger and tears, a winner has been declared in JJ Spaun.\u00a0 With all the trouble the Oakmont has caused the players, they can finally put it behind them until the next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":435324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246],"tags":[34,71,190],"class_list":["post-435323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-us-open","tag-wyndham-clark"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435325,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435323\/revisions\/435325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}