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By John Maginnes
PGATOUR.com Contributor

Few people know Oakmont Country Club better than Bob Friend. He spent his childhood walking the rolling fairways of the famed layout honing his craft.

Bob was a teammate of David Toms at LSU, then spent nearly 15 years on the PGA TOUR and Nationwide Tour. In 1994 Bob played the U.S. Open on his home course -- a U.S. Open that Ernie Els would eventually win. A veteran of four national Opens, Bob is now the director of golf at Pikewood National Golf Club in Morgantown, W. Va.

There are few who know Oakmont better than former PGA TOUR player Bob Friend. (Badz/PGA TOUR/WireImage)

As a club member for more than 30 years, Bob has an intimate knowledge of the club's storied history. As a veteran TOUR player, he knows exactly what the players will face when the U.S. Open visits the club next week.

Bob will not be in the field at Oakmont but he will still be in the locker room where he belongs. He will act as chairman of Player Hospitality for the Championship Committee. Oakmont could not have chosen a more worthy ambassador.

I caught up with Bob Monday morning to discuss the Open. Here is what he told me.

Maginnes: What is different about the Oakmont today compared to the 1994 U.S. Open?

Friend: There are two things that stand out. The first is the complete lack of trees. All the trees have been removed. Back in 1994 there were still quite a few pin oaks and fur trees remaining on the golf course. Literally, there is one tree still remaining on the interior of the golf course that could possibly come into play. That is an elm tree between No. 4 and No. 5. Other than that, there are no trees lining holes. They are all gone. That is the obvious thing. When you get out there it is a very sparse landscape.

The second thing that has been improved and strengthened for the Open is the bunkering. We did an extensive renovation of every bunker on the golf course -- and that is 190-plus bunkers. That was not a small project. All the sand was taken out of every bunker. They were drained, deepened and then relined. We used to have some flashing around the bunkers. They are all grass-faced now, and they are deep. It is nothing but darkness down there. They are beefy, beefy bunkers.

Maginnes: Is there a style of player that the set up for Oakmont favors?

Friend: Well, obviously any U.S. Open favors accuracy off the tee. Whether you are hitting a hybrid or a driver you are going to have to place it. As important as accuracy will be distance control on approach shots. And then, most importantly, it is going to demand patience. This golf course will not be overpowered by any stretch of the imagination.

We do have some long par 4s. No. 7 comes to mind. At 490 yards, it plays into the prevailing wind. It is 240 yards just to reach the fairway. Then the fairway is actually pitched back toward the tee so you don't get much roll there. So it's going to require length off the tee.

But in terms of someone coming in and saying they are just going to eat the par 5s up -- it's just not going to happen. The golf course doesn't lend itself to the power game. It is not like Bethpage Black, for example. Oakmont requires more finesse and imagination around the greens than any golf course that I have ever seen other than possibly Augusta National Golf Club.

Maginnes: You have had several of the top players come in and play over the last couple of months. Have you gotten any feedback from them on the course?

Friend: Yeah, buckle your chin strap.

Vijay came in last fall; he hasn't been back this spring. When he played there was no U.S. Open rough whatsoever. All the lengthened tees had been put in place but other than that, the course was playing as it normally does. Vijay made the comment to his good friend, Tom Pernice Jr., that he thought that 10 over looked good as a winning score. Tiger's comment was that the course is "quirky" the first time that he saw it. That may sound like a knock, but it is quirky. When someone says quirky to me it means that this is not a golf course that you are going to learn in one or two rounds. The greens are as true a putting surface as you are going to find anywhere. From mid-May on, the greens are like glass. They are a combination of subtlety and intimidation.

For example, there are certain situations where a guy may have to play a bunker shot away from the hole or past the hole to use the slope to get the ball anywhere near. Most glaringly is the sixth hole, a par 3 that will play around 194 yards. A shot from the left bunker when the hole is in the middle of the green can't be played at the hole. You can't get it close playing the standard shot. You are going to have to play the ball 20 feet left of the hole and hope the ball comes back down the slope.

Maginnes: We saw Geoff Ogilvy win at Winged Foot last year at 5-over par. What do you see as the winning score at Oakmont?

Friend: If the course plays firm and fast, it could be quite high. If the Lord blesses us with warm dry weather and little humidity, the winning score could be as high as 8-over par. I think that 288 looks pretty good right now. If it gets soft and we get the afternoon thunderstorms, it could be a different story. The fairways are all pitched and when they run out the ball oftentimes runs into the rough. If it's soft and balls stay in the fairway, then I think the winning score could be even par or even 1 under.

Oakmont has the length of Winged Foot but doesn't play as long. A lot of our longer holes play downhill. Take No. 1 for example. It is a 480-yard par 4 but guys are likely to hit 3-wood off the tee and as little as 7-iron to the green. The key is to keep the ball on the right spot on the green. If the pin is all the way back and you are on the front of the green, you are in trouble. I would give you a 70 percent chance that you putt the ball off the green.

Oakmont tests every facet of the game. I can tell you that the guy who wins the golf tournament is going to be physically and mentally exhausted on Sunday afternoon. We all know that a major places more demands on your emotions than any other tournament. But this place is unlike any other place because there is no let-up. You can have 5-foot putts that run 2 and 3 feet by going uphill and now the next one is even harder. The golf course puts you on the defensive right from the very beginning. No. 1 has been called the hardest starting hole in golf.

Maginnes: It has been suggested that Oakmont is the hardest golf course in the country on any given day of the year.

Friend: Not even close

Maginnes: Is it true that the greens always run at a near U.S. Open pace all year long? Is it true that the fairways are the same width for the members as they are for the U.S. Open?

Friend: This is what makes Oakmont unique. Once the greens get into shape in May they run 12 (on the Stimpmeter) every day and they are like concrete. We top-dress the greens and the aprons every other Monday, and we dump a bunch of sand on them. On the weekends, they are triple cut in the morning. Single cut at night and triple cut in the morning -- so, yes, we like them firm and fast.

As for the fairways, because of the bunkering, they are never wide. The bunkering is right there off the edge of the fairway. Lee Trevino said back in 1973, "Oakmont is the only golf course that can host a U.S. Open in a week's time." And that statement is correct.

The amazing thing is that the greens are 104 years old. One of neat things about Oakmont is that if Mr. Fownes, the course designer, could see this golf course today he would recognize it. There were no trees when he died. They were added later. The greens are blindingly fast, just as he left them. They have never been changed. The golf course looks remarkably like it did back in the 1920s. We pulled an aerial photograph from the '20s and started working off of that as our blueprint for what we wanted to do with the golf course.

Maginnes: Okay, Bob. I have let you off easy so far, but now it is time to make a prediction. Who wins the U.S. Open at Oakmont?

Friend: You have to give Tiger the nod. In my years of watching, then playing, he is the greatest player that I have ever seen. He has no weakness. Jack Nicklaus still has the most majors but if Jack had Tiger's short game he would have won 30 majors. The fact is that with no weaknesses you have to always give Tiger the advantage.

But I think that you have to look at Jim Furyk. He has been hitting the ball well lately. He has won the U.S. Open which certainly means a lot. Statistically, he is wonderful in terms of accuracy. He is a great putter.

My darkhorse selection would be David Toms -- if you can consider him a darkhorse. Obviously, he was an LSU teammate. But, besides that, he has the game to do it. He hits a fade, which the golf course is very receptive to, to keep the balls from running out of the fairways. He is a wonderful iron player and a great putter. And he has a major under his belt already.