OAKMONT, Pa. A bit past the third tee box atOakmont Country Club sits a tree. It's a nice tree.Oh, how the sun shines through its branches!MORE: On Saturday, between the second and third round, about 50 people were standing in the shade. Some sat. It was the only official spot on thecourse they could've done that.That tree isthe only in-bounds tree at Oakmont.In the last 25 years, the home of Jack Ham Jersey the 2016 U.S. Open has removed 15,000 of them. More than half of thosehave come downin the last decade alone; the thought and it was a good one, albeit a source of the purest formof rich-people controversy was to return the course to its open, Kevin Greene Jersey links-style roots in time for the 2007 tournament.Now, again, it's closer the sort of spotHenry Fownes built in 1903 and, asnoted golf architect Gil Hanse said before the tournament,a pure golf experience. Nothing will give you a better idea of what we're dealing with than thisGoogle Earth comparison between 2007and today ."When you look at a golf course that's designed this well, there's plenty of strategy out there without the trees. There's the ditches, the bunkers, the greens, the contours, the slopes, and the trees really just pile on to that," Hanse said."(They)detract John Stallworth Jersey from the thought proce s because if it you get behind a tree, you're just playing out sideways, and you're really challenging golfers to take on shots that maybe they shouldn't take on. I think that's the e sence of great architecture, and I think without the trees here, you might start to see players take chances, and that will truly reveal the character of the design."MORE: And while there are player benefits to the design Jordan Spieth said it's easier, believe it not,to drive the ball without trees blocking his view there's no real point in avoiding the reality of Vince Williams Jersey the situation: The course is harder now. It's as hard as it gets. Phil Mickelson called it "the hardest," in fact, a bit before he mi sed the cut."(When) players don't have that horizon, when it's an empty horizon, that always gives you a little bit of uncertainty, and that's what gets in the player's mind," eight-time PGA Tour winner Brad Faxon said. "Uncertainty wreaks havoc."It's nearly as weird for those of us walking the course; this isn't Augusta. This isn't your average public course. This is its own thing; to walk around Oakmont is to have your golf-course preconceptions challenged. The stereotypical American course has trees on trees on trees. If you go to Oakmont expecting that ... whoops.And if you actually head over to the third hole, the presence of one only calls attention to the absence of the rest.MORE: All that work, and all that drama, and all those Rocky Bleier Jersey clandestineremovals and trips to the mulcher have paid off;Oakmont is a special place. It's just not particularly shady.