The US Open kicks off today, and it’s returning to Oakmont Country Club for the first time in nine years.
The 2025 event marks the tenth time the Pennsylvania golf course has hosted the major event, with Dustin Johnson claiming the crown back in 2016.
The course is traditionally tough, and the gruelling format of the US Open will only make it more demanding.
Two of the icons of the sport, and two US Open favourites, Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler have weighed in on what makes the iconic course so difficult.
Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler prepare for ‘tough’ US Open
Two of the greatest the sport has to offer are under no illusion about the test that stands in their way at the 2025 US Open.
Oakmont is considered one of the hardest courses in the world, and no winner has ever won with a score better than five under par.
The best player in the sport, Scheffler, is preparing for an exceptionally tough test at the Country Club that first hosted the tournament all the way back in 1927.
Scheffler, who once compared himself with Tiger Woods, doesn’t usually lack confidence, but he’s frightened at the prospect of Oakmont.
“This is probably the hardest golf course that we’ll play,” declared the two-time Masters winner to ESPN. “Maybe ever.”
DeChambeau, meanwhile, who won the 2024 US Open at the Pinehurst Resort, described the legendary course as a ‘great test of golf’.
“I think everybody knows this is probably the toughest golf course in the world right now,” continued the World No. 4.
So, what makes Oakmont so difficult? Several different issues according to the two American greats.
“You have to hit the fairways, you have to hit greens, and you have to two-putt, worst-case scenario. When you’ve got those putts inside 10 feet, you’ve got to make them,” said DeChambeau.
Scheffler shares similar worries to one of his great rivals for the crown, as he looks to win the US Open for the first time.
“When you miss the green at the Masters, the ball runs away and it goes into these areas, and you can play a bump, you can play a flop. There’s different options,” explained Scheffler.
That’s not the case with Oakmont, and it’s a worry to the 2025 PGA Champion.
“Here, when you hit the ball over the green, you just get in some heavy rough, and it’s like, let me see how I can pop the ball out of this rough and somehow give myself a look.”
The 2025 US Open begins on June 12 and runs until June 15.
What did Tiger Woods think of Oakmont Country Club?
It’s not just the new breed of golfing greats who have worried about the test Oakmont Country Club may bring.
Back in 2007, when the tournament arrived in Pennsylvania for the eighth time, Tiger Woods was fearful of the course.
“That golf course is going to be one of the toughest tests that we’ve ever played in a U.S. Open, especially if it’s dry,” said Tiger Woods to the Press Gazette.
The legendary player continued: “If it’s dry, it will be unreal because those greens are so severe.”
Woods was right to be anxious, too, as the then-World No. 1 failed to win the competition, finishing one stroke behind winner Ángel Cabrera.
Tiger Woods bounced back to win the US Open in 2008, when the event took place at Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego, California.