At its core, golf is a simple game: hit a golf ball from the tee box into the hole in as few strokes as possible. The difficulty comes in the fact that hitting a golf ball long and straight is very difficult to accomplish once, never mind replicate.
The preferred path from tee to green is along the fairway. That’s where the grass is cut the shortest, which means it’s less likely to interfere with the club hitting the ball or the ball’s flight after being struck. If a ball lands to the left or right of the fairway, it’s in “the rough.” This grass isn’t cut as short, providing a tougher experience.
You don’t want to be in the rough, and based on social media videos, you definitely don’t want to be in the rough at Oakmont Country Club during the 2025 U.S. Open.
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Here’s more on the problem with the rough at the 2025 U.S. Open.
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U.S. Open rough, explained
Oakmont Country Club is considered one of the most challenging courses used by the PGA Tour. It’s known for having very fast greens and an above-average amount of bunkers that golfers must deal with.
This year, participants will also have to deal with an unruly rough. The thick cut is supposed to be thick, but fans were given a sneak peek at how bad it had gotten at the Oakmont Country Club.
Reigning champion Bryson DeChambeau played the course and was shocked at how out of hand the rough had gotten. They measured, and the blades of poa annua grass were standing five inches tall. For reference, most roughs tend to run between one and two-and-a-half inches, depending on the course and region of the country.
DeChambeau exaggerates a little bit in the video below — he is a content creator after all — but the video does show that the rough is going to be a problem.
Bryson Dechambeau played Oakmont ahead of the U.S. Open and was surprised by how thick the rough is. Next week is looking like it’s gonna be a tough test of golf.
(@brysondech /YT) pic.twitter.com/atxnVjkpsL
— Tour Pro 🏌️♂️ (@OfficialTourPro) June 5, 2025
Xander Schauffele looked on the bright side of the rough issue. He said that fans don’t watch the U.S. Open to see golfers having an easy time. Instead, he thinks they would rather see the field struggle and shoot high.
Xander Schauffele on the hack-out rough at Oakmont:
“I don’t think people turn the TV on to watch some of the guys just hit like a 200-yard shot on the green. I think they turn on the U.S. Open to see a guy shooting 8-over and suffer.”
— Underdog Golf (@UnderdogGolf) June 9, 2025
Will Oakmont rough be fixed?
Officially, we don’t know. Golfer Jhonattan Vegas posted a video of an army of people with lawn mowers walking the course to his X/Twitter account.
Good news guys, they are cutting the rough but, it’s still unplayable. Have fun 😳😳😳😳😳😳 #USOPEN2025 pic.twitter.com/BCV3FNZ6bH
— Jhonattan Vegas (@JhonattanVegas) June 9, 2025
The fact that the course deployed an army of people with walking mowers to cut the grass had people wondering if the video in question was AI-generated. According to course superintendent Mike McCormick, the video is probably real. McCormick joined the Fried Egg Golf podcast and talked about the unique mowers that the course uses to get the rough cut they want. They have to custom-make the mowers because standard John Deere or Toro mowers won’t leave the grass as high as they want it.
Superintendent Mike McCormick explained on The Fried Egg Golf Podcast how Oakmont uses custom mowers to cut the rough higher than other courses and make the ball fall to the bottom ⬇️pic.twitter.com/xm0nDeS5ne https://t.co/rgACSElBDT
— Fried Egg Golf (@fried_egg_golf) June 9, 2025
We know the rough was unruly, and we have seen videos of it getting trimmed down. We won’t know for sure the official status of the rough until the tournament gets underway on Thursday.
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