[Photo: Getty images]
Just over a week ago, Adam Scott joined Rory McIlroy for a scouting mission at Oakmont Country Club. Descriptions of the world’s toughest golf course seem credible when you hear two Masters champions played well, and were still given an absolute bollocking by the Pittsburgh area course.
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Long, thick rough and severely sloping greens that are running at breakneck speed combine to make Oakmont a brut test of golf.
“It was the most stressful round in a ‘Monday comp’ I’ve ever had,” Scott told Australian Golf Digest through laughter via phone Wednesday. “I only missed one fairway that day and shot five over (75 on the par 70). I didn’t have a birdie. I had a double and three bogeys and just a lot of pars. I didn’t think it was too bad, and I drove it really well. But putting is not easy when they’re running 15 on the Stimpmeter. I guess the talk was that Rory birdied the last two for 81.”
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McIlroy, whose Masters win completed the career grand slam and earned him a fifth major title, has faced some criticism in fan and media circles recently. He did not talk to media on all four days at the PGA Championship, which McIlroy himself attributed to being “a little bit pissed off” that test results showing his driver was non-conforming at Quail Hollow were “leaked” to the media. He then opted out of Jack Nicklaus’s Memorial Tournament before shooting 71,78 to miss the cut by a wide margin at the Canadian Open.
From the outside, McIlroy looks exhausted. He had faced unrelenting questions between the 2014 PGA Championship and the 2025 Masters about when his majors drought would end. He exacerbated that when he squandered the 54-hole co-lead at the Open at St Andrews in 2022, and when he finished runner-up at the 2023 and 2024 US Opens. McIlroy said at Oakmont in his pre-tournament press conference that, “you dream about the final putt going in at the Masters, but you don’t think about what comes next. I’ve always been a player who struggles to show up with motivation the next week because you’ve just accomplished something and you want to relish the fact that you’ve achieved a goal.”
Scott, who won the 2013 Masters to become the first Australian winner at Augusta National, said he could empathise “although not to the level of Rory McIlroy.” The Queenslander had carried the burden of an entire nation wanting one of their own to don Augusta National’s coveted green jacket, something plenty of Australian golf icons including Greg Norman couldn’t manage.
“I can understand that; Rory pushed for 11 years,” Scott said of McIlroy’s drought. “Scottie Scheffler wasn’t around for all of that, which makes Rory the most dominant golfer through that period even without winning majors. I can’t blame him for wanting to take a bit of a breather. Obviously, you could see what the Masters meant to him. It’s probably taken a bit out of him, those 11 years. I think high expectations are put on athletes, generally, to perform – especially the best of their generation. It’s hard to wrap your head around, but I can understand it if only a little bit.”
After Scott’s 2013 breakthrough, he had a month off and finished T-19 at the Players Championship, then T-3 at the Open Championship at Muirfield before winning The Barclays on the PGA Tour, then the Australian PGA and Australian Masters. Ironically, it was McIlroy who denied Scott Australian golf’s triple crown when the Northern Irishman birdied the final hole of the Australian Open to defeat runner-up Scott at Royal Sydney.
“When I when I won the Masters, I had three weeks off,” Scott said. “I remember being there at TPC Sawgrass with Steve [Williams, Scott’s caddie at the time], and we outlined a new goal right there. Otherwise, you’re going out there asking, What are we now playing for? Our goal was to win a major when Steve came on the bag, and we did that. We reset a new goal that week, not just for the week, but for the longer term. When Rory is ready to do that, I think he’ll do that.”
GUIDE TO THE US OPN [COURTESY OF AUSTRALIAN GOLF MEDIA]
There will be a total of 45 hours of live tournament coverage on Fox Sports and Kayo, starting at 8:30pm AEST Thursday night.
US Open
Oakmont Country Club, Oakmont, Pennsylvania
Recent champion: Bryson DeChambeau
Past Aussie winners: David Graham (1981), Geoff Ogilvy (2006)
TV times: Live 8:30pm-10am Thursday, Friday; Live 12am-10am Sunday; Live 1am-9am Monday on Fox Sports 503 and Kayo.
Australasians in the field
Cam Davis
Age: 30
US Open appearances: 2
Best US Open finish: MC (2023, 2024)
Best finish in a major: T4, 2023 PGA Championship
PGA TOUR wins: 2
How he qualified: Top 5 players in the 2025 FedExCup standings, not otherwise exempt, as of May 19
Jason Day
Age: 37
US Open appearances: 12
Best US Open finish: 2nd (2011, 2013)
Best finish in a major: Won, 2015 PGA Championship
PGA TOUR wins: 13
How he qualified: Top 60 points leaders and ties from Official World Golf Ranking, as of May 19
Ryan Fox (NZ)
Age: 38
US Open appearances: 6
Best US Open finish: T41st (2018)
Best finish in a major: T16, 2019 Open Championship
PGA TOUR wins: 2
How he qualified: From the current Official World Golf Rankings, the top 60 points leaders and ties as of June 9, 2025
Min Woo Lee
Age: 26
US Open appearances: 3
Best US Open finish: T5 (2023)
Best finish in a major: T5, 2023 US Open
PGA TOUR wins: 1
How he qualified: Top 60 points leaders and ties in the Official World Golf Ranking, as of May 19
Marc Leishman
Age: 41
US Open appearances: 11
Best US Open finish: T14 (2022)
Best finish in a major: T2, 2015 Open Championship
PGA TOUR wins: 6
How he qualified: Shot 70-69—139 at Final Qualifying at Woodmont Country Club (North Course) in Maryland on June 2
Adam Scott
Age: 44
US Open appearances: 23
Best US Open finish: T4 (2015)
Best finish in a major: Won, 2013 Masters
PGA TOUR wins: 14
How he qualified: Players who qualified and were eligible for the season-ending 2024 Tour Championship
Cameron Smith
Age: 31
US Open appearances: 9
Best US Open finish: 4th (2023)
Best finish in a major: Won, 2022 Open Championship
PGA TOUR wins: 6
How he qualified: Winner of 2022 Open Championship
