It’s a tale as old as time. Well, as old as the U.S. Open. Golf fans see the best players on the planet struggling at the national championship and people start wondering how normal golfers would fare on the course. There are different versions of the question that pops up, but essentially players get asked, “What would a (blank) handicap shoot here?”
With the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont, arguably the most difficult of all the U.S. Open venues with its famously thick rough and slick greens (and even slick fairways) and a par 3 that some players are hitting driver on, it was inevitable that this question would arise this week. Also not surprising was that when the DP World Tour asked several top players “What would and 18-handicap shoot this week at the U.S. Open?” their answers were high. Really high.
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Bryson DeChambeau, a two-time U.S. Open champ, answered, “Probably 100. On the front nine.” Our math isn’t as good as Bryson’s, but that means he thinks breaking 200 isn’t a given. Wow. That’s a LOT of strokes. And others like Jason Day, Justin Thomas and Min Woo Lee weren’t far off from that with their assessments. Have a look:
What would an 18 handicap shoot this week at the US Open? 👀#USOpen pic.twitter.com/aiG8x2O7ON
— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) June 10, 2025
Thomas then took to Twitter to ask the U.S. Open to find a way to make this happen:
So much talk about “what would X handicap shoot at Oakmont”…
Why don’t we find a way to make it happen? Have a 5, 10, 18 whatever handicap play Monday after the @usopengolf. Back tees full rules of golf, and see what happens? May have to let a few groups thru and allow for 6-7…— Justin Thomas (@JustinThomas34) June 10, 2025
It’s a great idea. It’s also one that was already done.
The Golf Digest U.S. Open Challenge ran from 2008 through 2010 and had regular golfers taking on the tournament venue the week prior. Spawned from Tiger Woods saying at Oakmont in 2007 that a 10-handicap couldn’t break 100 there, this event was a mix of celebrity golfers and contest winners. And based on how those three contest winners played those three years, DeChambeau’s claim about an 18-handicapper isn’t so crazy.
Let’s start at Torrey Pines in 2008. Tony Romo (whose handicap index then was 2.2) shot a 13-over par 8, Justin Timberlake (a 6.0) shot 98 and former Today Show host Matt Lauer (a 6.2) shot 100. But contest winner John Atkinson (chosen from a pool of 56,000 entrants), an 8.1 handicap shot 114.
Tony Romo and Justin Timberlake joke with contest winner John Atkinson at the inaugural Golf Digest U.S. Open Challenge in 2008 at Torrey Pines.
In 2009 at Bethpage Black, the celebs fared even better with Ben Roethlisberger shooting 81, Michael Jordan 86 (to win a bet with Woods that he couldn’t break 92), and Timberlake back again to shoot 88. Contest winner Larry Giebelhausen, a Phoenix police officer with a 3.8 index had entered a six-word contest essay that read: “I’m a cop. I’ll shoot low.” Instead, he shot 101.
And, finally, in 2010 at Pebble Beach, I witnessed Mark Wahlberg shoot 97 and Wayne Gretzky and Drew Brees fail to break 100. Contest winner Peggy Ference, a 5-handicap, shot 118. The Great One thought he had shot his number, 99, before being informed he missed one. He was extremely bummed. And everyone was extremely tired. Because these rounds took forever.
The experiment not only proved how difficult these golf courses are—especially when you’re playing from the tips under U.S. Open conditions—but how much pressure players feel when people outside their normal foursome are watching. And as the scores showed, the celebrity golfers—in particular, the pro athletes—were able to handle that pressure better.
But back to Bryson’s claim that an 18-handicap might struggle to break 200 at Oakmont, consider that those three single-digit golfers couldn’t break 100 those three years. And two of them didn’t come close. So, at a more difficult Oakmont an 18 could put on quite a show.
Anyway, it would be a fun contest to revive as Thomas, who was still in high school during the last Golf Digest U.S. Open Challenge, suggested. Well, fun to watch, at least.
RELATED: PGA Tour pro pulls off 120-YARD putt on Oakmont’s fast fairways
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
