Never mind that Rory McIlroy is finally a Masters champion and the first player in 25 years to join the exclusive list of players with the career Grand Slam. Or that Scottie Scheffler won the PGA Championship and reasserted himself as golf’s best player. Forget about how Bryson DeChambeau has been able to bomb and grind his way through major after major lately.
In fact, nevermind any of the players. That group and the rest of the participants this week might be the biggest stars in the game heading into the third major of the year. They're not going be the main attraction. The one name that gets everyone’s attention at this U.S. Open: Oakmont.
It's not very often that the course is the story but this is different. The course Henry Fownes built in 1903 is tough as Pittsburgh steel. Geoff Ogilvy, a former U.S. Open champion, once said playing Oakmont “was like the hardest hole you’ve ever played on every hole.”
The USGA doesn’t have to do much to achieve what it always wants: the toughest test in golf.
Oakmont hosts the U.S. Open for the 10th time on June 12-15, more than any other course in the championship’s 130-year history. There’s a reason it keeps going back.
“There are certain places in our game where you stand on the first tee and you look out over the landscape, and it’s just meant to play the U.S. Open. Oakmont is that place,” John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s chief championships officer, said in an interview with Golf Channel. “It was built for a U.S. Open.”
Adding to the hype are players who have gone to Oakmont in the weeks leading up to the U.S. Open and sharing tales of deep rough and greens that make it feel they are putting on linoleum. There have been videos of golf balls in the thick grass with only a few dimples visible.
“I would say all of the rumors and everything are pretty on point,” said Justin Thomas, who toured Oakmont before heading to the Memorial.
Xander Schauffele has finished out of the top 10 only once in his eight U.S. Opens. He has yet to see Oakmont, but its reputation is enough for him to realize what to expect.
“It’s just a battle. It really is,” Schauffele said. “It can be extremely rewarding if you are able to stay disciplined for 72 holes. The cliche statement of golf is a marathon — it seems to be the most true feeling when you play at U.S. Opens. You just feel like you’re going to war every day.”
DeChambeau is the defending champion, one of eight players who broke par at Pinehurst No. 2 last year. That was a stern test of a different variety, more about domed Donald Ross greens and fairways framed by sand dunes.
Before that was the experiment at Los Angeles Country Club, where Schauffele and Rickie Fowler made U.S. Open history, each with a record 62 about 10 minutes apart.
In the eyes of Jordan Spieth, what Oakmont provides is a chance to reset what the U.S. Open is all about — narrow fairways, deep rough, tough greens. And at Oakmont, the famous “Church Pew” bunkers that separate the third and fourth fairways.
“If you miss the fairway, it’s really hard to make par. And if you hit the fairway, the job’s not done,” Spieth said. “I think it’s a good test. The way I’ve always talked about Oakmont is the USGA needs one year to be able for people to forget about something they did in a different one. It sets the slate straight.
“It’s the easiest Open for the USGA,” he said. “They don’t have to do a lot to it, and it makes it really good for the tournament.”
The weather will play a role this week. Of the 10 U.S. Opens at Oakmont, five-under par is the best anyone could manage over the four days. But over par is certainly in play, a very rare event in today's world of professional golf where equipment and players make it seem like they can overpower any course. Not Oakmont, says PGATour.com writer Paul Hodowanic.
"In 2007, pretty much no rain, the winner finished 5 over," Hodowanic explains. "It was carnage. There were 60 rounds of 80 or higher, so it made it look like we were playing the U.S. Open. And then In 2016, rain-soaked, Dustin Johnson wins at 4 under, a lot less carnage. I mean, still, regardless of the conditions, we're going to see some big numbers, some blowups here. But the weather really will decide whether this is one of the hardest tournaments we've had in this century, or just kind of an on par U.S. Open."
The rough - which is akin to a shag carpet at this point - is getting a lot of attention and videos on social media show wild lies when a golf ball finds the thickest parts of the rough. But Oakmont was built with greens that are wildly, wildly complex and fast.
"I think the main defense at Oakmont is its green complexes, very, very intricate," Hodowanic told WCCO's Adam Carter. "Incredibly, incredibly fast. The Oakmont membership kind of prides itself on just basically putting on glass. It's like nothing that we would ever put on any normal, public or private course. It is insanely, insanely fast."
Scheffler and DeChambeau seemed primed for a showdown
Scheffler made his U.S. Open debut as a 19-year-old at the University of Texas. He shot 69 in the first round and then missed the cut. Now he is a three-time major champion, fresh off his five-shot victory in the PGA Championship. Perhaps more telling was a four-shot victory at the Memorial, where players felt they were getting a preview of the U.S. Open with rough so thick that just getting back to the fairway could be a challenge.
The freak injury Scheffler suffered — he tried cutting ravioli with a wine glass on Christmas Day and punctured his right hand — might have set him back at the start of the year. He is in full stride now, winning three of his last four tournaments.
"That includes the PGA Championship, the last major that we've played on the calendar," Hodowanic says about the heavy betting favorite. "The lowest margin of victory that he has in those three wins is 4 shots. He's won by 4 shots, 5 shots, and 8 shots, just completely dominating right now. And then you go to Oakmont, where the prototype of guys that are successful are people that hit the fairway off the tee with enough length. That's Scottie Scheffler to a T. And then it's the best ball strikers. And Scottie Scheffler is the best ball striker we've had since Tiger Woods."
Not to be overlooked is DeChambeau. For all the talk about Oakmont’s toughness, Winged Foot in New York is another brute of a U.S. Open test. That’s where DeChambeau blasted away off the tee and powered wedges out of the rough. He set the scoring record at Winged Foot (274) and won by six.
Now he is the defending U.S. Open champion and ready to match muscles with Oakmont. Only five players in the last 100 years have won the U.S. Open back-to-back.
“I think I’m always chasing history. Everybody is. We’re all trying to accomplish feats that haven’t been done in a long time, and going back-to-back would be great. Three in a row would be an even better accomplishment,” DeChambeau said. “So it is in the back of my head.
“How am I preparing for it? Just like I would any other tournament. Just like I did last year with Pinehurst, focusing on executing the right shots, hitting the fairways, not three-putting — that’s going to be a big deal — and keeping it out of the rough. I try to keep it simple.”
That’s a recipe for a traditional U.S. Open. Avoiding three-putts is always mentioned at Augusta National. That comes into focus at Oakmont because of its reputation for fast greens. Sam Snead once famously (and jokingly) said of Oakmont, “I put a dime down to mark my ball and the dime slid away.”
One only has to look back at the last time at Oakmont, in 2016, when Dustin Johnson’s ball moved ever so slightly as he was stepping in for a par putt on the fifth hole. He didn’t think he caused it to move. The USGA didn’t tell him until the 12th tee that it was being reviewed, and he was penalized after the fourth round was over. By then, he didn’t care — he won by three shots instead of four.
Johnson is bound of the World Golf Hall of Fame, and so is practically every U.S. Open champion at Oakmont, a testament to its stature.
Missing is Phil Mickelson, who takes on Oakmont for the fourth time. He missed the cut the last two times at Oakmont, and shot 297 — 18 shots behind — in 1994. The U.S. Open remains the only major keeping him from the career Grand Slam, and this likely will be his last one.
Mickelson won the 2021 PGA Championship at age 50. His five-year exemption to the U.S. Open runs out this year, and he already accepted one special exemption (which he didn’t need when he won the PGA). Only once has the USGA awarded a second exemption to a player who had not won the U.S. Open. That was the late Seve Ballesteros.
U.S. OPEN
Site: Oakmont, Pennsylvania.
Course: Oakmont CC. Yardage: 7,372. Par: 70.
Prize money: TBA ($21.5 million in 2024). Winner’s share: TBA ($4.3 million in 2024).
Television (CT): Thursday, 5:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. (USA Network), 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. (Peacock); Friday, 5:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. (Peacock), 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. (NBC), 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. (Peacock); Saturday, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. (USA Network), 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (NBC); Sunday, 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. (USA Network), 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (NBC).
Defending champion: Bryson DeChambeau.
Last year: DeChambeau closed with a 1-over 71 and won his second U.S. Open title at Pinehurst No. 2 when Rory McIlroy bogeyed three of his last four holes.
Notes: This is the 10th time the U.S. Open is being played at Oakmont, the most of any course in the 130-year history of the championship. ... Scottie Scheffler has won three of his last four tournaments heading into the U.S. Open. ... Dustin Johnson won his first major the last time the U.S. Open was held at Oakmont in 2016. ... Phil Mickelson is making his 33rd start in the U.S. Open. It’s the only major keeping him from the career Grand Slam. This is the final year of his five-year exemption from winning the PGA Championship. ... The U.S. Open has gone the longest of the four majors without a playoff. The last one was in 2008 at Torrey Pines. ... Xander Schauffele has only finished out of the top 10 once in his eight U.S. Open appearances. ... Max Moldovan has made it through U.S. Open qualifying four years in a row. ... Jon Rahm was the low amateur when the U.S. Open was last at Oakmont in 2016.