It feels as though before every U.S. Open or PGA Championship, there’s some sort of fear mongering about the length of the rough, and how unplayable it will be.

Predictions about over-par winning scores, player interviews calling it unfair, and, of course, the obligatory “ball dropping in the rough” videos posted to social media.

We’ve gotten most of that at Oak Hill Country Club this year ahead of the 2023 PGA Championship.

As I’m writing this article right now, I suppose I’m feeding into the frenzy, too. I don’t mind that, though. I’ll be part of the system that draws intrigue to major championships. That ain’t so bad.

The thing is, though, that the Oak Hill rough is some of the most difficult rough I’ve ever seen on a golf course. It’s not 10 inches long like Winged Foot, or knee-high like some Open Championship fescue. It’s just healthy, juicy, and dense rough that makes it imperative for players to hit fairways.

During the Monday-Wednesday practice rounds, players tested their limits from the rough. They dropped balls in different spots, seeing how far they could advance a fairway wood…a hybrid…a 4 iron…a 6 iron.

Players were looking to answer this question: “What’s the lowest-lofted club, realistically, that I can use to advance the ball as far as possible when I miss the fairway?”

As many quickly found out, the answer is likely “none of the above.”

The longest “realistic” club that I heard from most players, caddies, and Tour reps that I spoke to is the 7-iron. And that’s being generous, because more responses seemed to fall on the 8-iron side of the coin.

Some players have replaced their longest iron with a hybrid or higher-lofted fairway wood to try and combat the rough and get more launch/spin on the ball, but the truth is, hitting a short iron or wedge back into the fairway will be the most prudent play when the ball sits down.

And, in this Oak Hill rough, in this mid-May upstate New York weather, the ball always seems to settle down.

PGA Championship alternate (and the 139th best player in the world) Aaron Rai is catching a social media stray right now as one of his rough experiments with a hybrid got posted to Twitter.

The result wasn’t pretty.

So, you’re telling me the rough is thick @PGAChampionship ? pic.twitter.com/9C5ZvKvBiq

— Steve Scott (@sscottpga) May 17, 2023

But Rai’s result wasn’t completely uncommon, either. Especially during the practice rounds when players were testing out their limit.

Tommy Fleetwood provided GolfWRX his full Oak Hill review in an Instagram video, which is embedded below.

 

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In the video, he says, “You might get lucky with a lie that you can get a mid-iron out of it, but for the majority it’s a gouge with one of the short clubs.”

That’s a scary statement. You might get lucky to be able to hit a mid-iron?!

Yikes.

I asked a Trackman rep if he spent time on the course with any players. He told me he was regularly seeing short iron spin rates drop below 3,000 rpm. In one instance, for example, Xander Schauffele’s spin rate with an 8-iron was just 2,400 rpm.

The general rule of thumb for iron spin is to take the iron number and multiply it by 1,000. So, an 8-iron spin rate should generally be around 8,000 rpm. The Oak Hill rough is so thick that his 8-iron spin rate dropped over 5,000 rpm, looking more in the range of a well-struck driver.

At Oak Hill this year, if the ball is in the rough, the first priority is getting up and over the thick patch of grass directly in front of the ball. Hitting the green comes secondary.

Oh, and before you clown Aaron Rai for duffing his hybrid out of the rough during a practice round, or say something like “that’s why he’s an alternate,” just keep in mind that he’s currently 10th on the PGA Tour in driving accuracy, 28th in Greens in Regulation percentage, 23rd in approaches from 200-225 yards, and he’s hit 33 consecutive greens in regulation.

Maybe the rough is just really friggin thick.

Strap in for a fun 2023 PGA Championship. Hopefully this gave you a rough idea of the situation outside the fairways at Oak Hill.