The fairways are city-sidewalk narrow and angled rudely toward danger. The greens are also postage-stamp small and rimmed with similar dollups of lush green grass, threatening even the least offensive miss. While there’s some room to quibble with the severity of the putting surfaces here in Rochester, Winged Foot isn’t a bad comparison. “It’s not quite as thick, but the grass is different here. “It’s almost like Winged Foot,” said Joe Greiner, caddie for World No. Open, there was more disagreement around how difficult it’ll play once things get underway this week. While almost everyone agreed that the rough at Oak Hill wasn’t nearly as high as what’s expected from Los Angeles Country Club at next month’s U.S. Sam Burns took the unusual step of beginning a practice session from the rough, but abandoned that effort after successive cold-tops traveled a combined distance of 100 yards. Some needed two or three shots to trust their aggressiveness through the weeds, like an explorer testing a blunt machete. All throughout the day’s practice rounds, golfers could be seen clubbing their way through the grass with a morbid curiosity. Evidently, the Memorial can be tough, too.Ī walk around the East Course on Monday revealed Rodgers was far from the only victim. He grimaced as he dropped two more balls into the turf and got back to work.

His next one was better - his ball gently tumbling next to the flag - but the damage had already been done. Just as the words left his mouth, Rodgers’ ball flubbed from the rough and rolled a dozen feet past his target. Open,” offered Patrick Rodgers, who took to greenside chipping practice from the deepest stuff he could find on the practice range Monday afternoon.

Through one day at golf’s second major, the answers tell the story - if only because no two of them are alike. It is the question that may come to define the PGA Championship as we know it: Where on earth did the rough at Oak Hill come from? Jon Rahm hacks his way through the rough on Monday at the PGA Championship.

Method spookied still playing