Tiger Woods Shares Blueprint on How to Win U.S. Open at Oakmont

The 15-time major champion isn't playing in the U.S. Open this year, but he explained how much of a beast the course is in an Instagram video.

Tiger Woods knows how much of a brute Oakmont Country Club is. / Danielle Parhizkaran / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Ahead of the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club, Tiger Woods did not mince his words explaining how much of a beast the venue is. 

“If you’re a 10-handicapper, there is no way you’re breaking 100 out there,” Woods said. 

Eighteen years later, the 15-time major champion expanded on that sentiment. 

“There is no faking about Oakmont,” Woods, who is nursing an Achilles injury, said in an Instagram video.

“The golf course is big, yes, but it’s just—there is no way around it. You just have to hit the golf ball well, and it favors longer hitters, just because of the degrees, the complexes.”

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And the further—and straighter—the ball is hit, the easier the second shot is. 

“It just helps so much to be coming with a shorter iron,” Woods said, “to be able to sock the ball. It’s about missing the ball on correct spots ... because if you don’t, it's horrible.”

Woods is a three-time U.S. Open champion. In 2007 at Oakmont, he bogeyed the par-3 16th in the final round and finished one stroke back of champion Angel Cabrera. Woods did not play in Oakmont’s 2016 U.S. Open. 

The course is hosting the championship for a record 10th time.