OAKMONT, Pa. — When asked which golf course is the hardest he’s ever played, Dustin Johnson, who won the U.S. Open here at Oakmont in 2016, answered in his typical, succint manner.
“Probably this one,” Johnson said.
Johnson, who normally doesn’t have much to add, did add this—Oakmont Country Club is hard in every single kind of condition. It’s hard when it’s wet and soft. It’s hard when firm and fast. It’s hard when it’s breezy. It’s hard when winds are calm. Just. Plain. Hard.
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“You go to a place like this, [the USGA] doesn’t need to set it up any differently or trick it up or do anything for it to challenge both the physical and mental part of our game,” Justin Thomas said on Monday. “Oakmont is plenty challenging in both of those aspects.”
The operative word in every piece of preview content you consume this week is “carnage.” Fans expect to see plus signs on the leaderboard when they tune in on Thursday and Friday. Those have been harder to come by in U.S. Opens in the era of bomb-and-gouge. In the last 11 U.S. Opens, there has been just one winning score with a plus sign next to it, and that was Brooks Koepka’s winning total of one over in 2018 at Shinnecock, where two-time major winner Zach Johnson famously said that the USGA “lost the golf course.” Crossing the proverbial “line” is essentially what it takes to produce an over par victor in the modern pro game.
Yet, as Thomas alluded to, Oakmont might be the one place where it’s still possible, and the USGA won’t need to trick the place up to get there. In 2016, only four players posted under par 72-hole totals, and that was with a deluge of rain that softened the course considerably, and only the winner, Johnson, was lower than one under. And then there is this stat, which is what the kids would describe is “aura.”
Fun Oakmont fact from Mike Whan: 1385 players have teed it up here for a U.S. Open. Just 28 (or 2%) have finished under par
— claire rogers (@kclairerogers) June 11, 2025
The forecast for this week’s U.S. Open features only a slight chance of showers on Saturday and Sunday. As for Thursday and Friday, highs of 82 and 87 with plenty of sun. With the rough at its current length and the greens running at a 14 in on the Stimpmeter, golf fans can expect the national championship to get back to its roots: pain.
“I don’t think people turn the TV on to watch some of the guys just hit like a 200-yard shot on the green, you know what I mean?” said two-time major champion Xander Schauffele. “I think they turn on the U.S. Open to see a guy shooting 8-over and suffer. That’s part of the enjoyment of playing in the U.S. Open for viewers.”
Surely, though, this is all hype. We do this every year at this event. Look at the rough! Wow, the greens are lightning! The U.S. Open is back, baby! Fast forward to Thursday morning and someone with an (a) next to their name is six under through five and the Open is declared dead again. Rinse, repeat.
No one we spoke to on the range Wednesday was ready to go that far, but, depending on who you asked, there is still reason for optimism at Oakmont. Or, a different way of saying it might be that it’s not AS scary as some are making it out to be.
“I love this place,” said Russell Henley, who has finished T-14 or better in three of his last four U.S. Opens. “Obviously, if you ‘lose’ the golf course with weather conditions and it gets too dry and too fast, that’s something you have to worry about at a place like this with this much slope on the greens. But I feel like it rewards hitting the ball straight, missing on the right side of the hole, hitting it high, being able to work your irons, creative short game, imagination with the putter. It’s just a big boy golf course, and I love it.”
Adam Scott, teeing it up in his 24th career U.S. Open this week and his 96th consecutive (!) major championship, doesn’t hate the place, either. The grizzled 44-year-old veteran Aussie competed here both in 2007 and 2016, missing the cut in his first try and tying for 18th in his second.
“I think the course is better than when we were here in 2016,” Scott said. “It’s not easier, bit it’s a better golf course today than it was then. I think some of the work that’s been done since then is fairly subtle, but I think the course balances better even though it’s always difficult. The green sizes are a bit bigger. The fairways, in some spots, are a bit bigger, and the bunkers are better positioned in certain spots.
“I think the playability of the course is better, although it’s still very difficult,” Scott added. “I like it.”
As Scott implies, do not mistake “playable” for “easier.” That’s the opposite of what renowned architect Gil Hanse set out to do when he began his renovation project at Oakmont in March 2023. In fact, he was told by the membership: “do not make it easier.” The goal, as is the case with many Hanse projects, is to restore courses to their original design intent, while seamlessly blending in touches applicable to the modern game. It often results in a finished product that accomplishes two feats: challenging the best players in the world under tournament conditions and remaining playable for the average amateur golfer the rest of the year.
Not everyone is predicting doom and gloom this week at Oakmont.
Warren Little
Most importantly this week, Oakmont will reward execution, which is all an elite player can ask for.
“It being hard is a positive,” said Ryan Gerard, who is playing in his third U.S. Open this week. “You really have to think about your shots instead of just getting up there and whacking it, and I think that’s a very interesting test of golf that we don’t get to see very often. It’s very refreshing, especially at a major championship, where I feel like a lot of the field has a chance to go out there and shoot a good number if they manage their ball correctly. I know a lot is being said about the rough, but the course does give you a lot of options, especially off the tee.
“It’s not easy, but if you go out there and execute, put your ball in good spots and keep it underneath the hole for the most part, you can walk away with a good score.”
How good, exactly? In multiple made-for-social-media videos this week, some of the top players in the sport said they’d all sign for even par on Sunday. Ben Griffin, arguably the hottest golfer on the planet not named Scottie Scheffler, said he’d sign for four over right now and expect to have a chance to win.
“Think right around even is kind of the number, but there are guys capable in this field of shooting five, 10 under for the week if they play their best,” Gerard said. “But if the wind picks up, if the greens get firm and [the USGA] decides to make it as difficult as they can, you could be looking at four, five over as a score that gets it done on Sunday.”
Scott, whose six-over total was good enough for a top 20 in 2016, agrees on the “right around par” mark. He also competed in the 2007 version of this event, when Angel Cabrera got it done at five over for the week.
One man who is not playing this week but also played in the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont, Johnson Wagner, had a more ominous outlook when we caught up with him on the range on U.S. Open eve. Wagner says in 2007 it was the hardest course he’d ever stepped foot on, and it does not sound like Golf Channel’s newest star has wavered on that opinion one bit nearly 20 years later.
“I think plus two wins,” said Wagner. “I don’t think there’s any way anybody finishes this golf tournament under par, no matter if we get rain Saturday or not. I just don’t see it happening. There maybe 20 total rounds under par this week. And that might be high.”
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
