Oakmont aim in 125th US Open is to 'get every club in bag dirty'

For many, though, Oakmont County Club in Pennsylvania will be remembered for the US Open in 2007, when Argentinean Angel Cabrera’s winning total was five-over-par and just eight sub-par rounds - just think about that for a few seconds - were recorded over the entire four days.

If you like, it’s the USGA’s equivalent of Carnoustie on The R&A’s list of courses for The Open and next week’s 125th edition of the US Open looks as though it is going to be another ferocious test.

In an early practice round last Monday, Masters champion Rory McIlroy felt he hit three good shots at the par-4 second yet ran up a 7 while, on a similar preparatory visit, fellow Augusta National winner Adam Scott revealed he’d hit every fairway on the front nine and still shot three over.

“We want to get every club in their bag dirty, all 15 of them, 14 in their bag and the one between the ears,” declared John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s chief championships officer, intending to see what the game’s top players are made of.

This will be Oakmont’s tenth staging of the event, with Armour’s title triumph coming in the first one before seeing Sam Parks jnr (1935), Ben Hogan (1953), Jack Nicklaus (1962), Johnny Miller (1973), Larry Nelson (1983), Ernie Els (1994) and then Cabrera and Johnson follow in his footsteps.

“When you say the word ‘Oakmont’, I don’t think any other course brings that instant thought of that tough, unrelenting difficulty that this place has,” declared Dan Hicks, who will be leading the coverage of the season’s third major for NBC Sports in the US. “They, of course, don’t hold US Opens at places for a record ten times, which is incredible, without its ability to continue to challenge the best to the absolute limit.”

Originally laid out by William Fownes, the test for this edition has been changed by Gil Hanse, who, of course, was involved in the creation of Castle Stuart near Inverness and the Craighead Links at Crail. “He’s described it as open heart surgery with a little bit of plastic surgery in there as well,” said Hicks of Hanse’s work at Oakmont.

Kevin Kisner, who still holds a PGA Tour card but will be sharing the main commentary duties with Hicks, likes the look of what lies in store. “I’ve gone through the changes with Gil Hanse’s team and USGA,” he revealed, “and I think the No 1 priority that USGA wants to have in the US Open is driving the golf ball. I think those changes will put a premium on driving the golf ball just like they do at every US Open.

“From a greens standpoint, I think you’ll see more balls run away from the centre of the greens which will make approach shots more difficult and getting the ball up-and-down more difficult. I think they’ll have more hole locations than we’ve seen in the past. Some pins will even appear they’re off the edges of the greens with the renovation.

“I love the quote about wanting to get every club in the bag dirty. When I finish a golf course, no matter where I play, I think that’s one of the greatest attributes to a golf course if you hit every club in the bag - and I think Oakmont will be the perfect venue for that.”

Johnson, who now plays on the LIV Golf League, was one of the game’s dominant forces when landing his maiden major win nine years ago after a farcical end, having played the final seven holes knowing he had to review a possible rules infringement at the end of the round.

Having let a four-shot lead heading into the final circuit slip from his grasp on that occasion, Shane Lowry will be a man on a mission heading back to the venue in the north-east suburbs of Pittsburgh, but the man they’ll all have to beat is current world No 1 Scottie Scheffler.

“He’s the best player that I’ve seen with my own eyes,” said Smylie Kaufman, another PGA Tour player who will be part of the NBC Sports team next week. “I watched Tiger on TV as a kid growing up, and so I can’t really speak to watching the golf ball in the air like I can with Scottie - mand it’s the best I’ve ever seen.

“He’s got no weaknesses in his game. You just feel like when you’re behind Scottie, you have to press because you know he’s not going to make any mistakes. I think it’s just a blend of so many great things that he has. Like, when you’re a 65-per cent-accuracy driver of the golf ball and you hit as many fairways as he does, then you couple it with maybe one of the best iron players to ever play the game, and now throw in a strokes-gained, top-20 putter along with a second in scrambling, he just doesn’t have any weaknesses.”

“What Scottie does an incredible job of doing is his bad days where he doesn’t have anything, he shoots 70. And Tiger Woods used to do the exact same thing. How many times have you seen Rory McIlroy or Xander Schauffele or Justin Thomas shoot rounds of 76 or higher on major championship Thursday rounds and, all of a sudden, they’re out of it?

“Scottie Scheffler doesn’t do that. He turns those days into 71s, 70s, 69s. And it just speaks to really just being an athlete and finding a way to get it done. I would say that’s probably the most impressive thing that Scottie does for my eyes.”

Kisner is also a huge fan of the man who has now won an incredible 16 times in just over three years. “He does the exact same thing the last 20 seconds before he hits a golf shot, every shot in practice and in play, and in competition,” he observed. “He has the same look in his eye. When he steps in, he has the most intense concentration that I’ve ever seen on every shot, and he makes sure that he’s in the zone on every shot. That’s something that, in my eyes, I always look back at Tiger Woods in his heyday, and that’s what he did as well.

“One of the other fascinating things that’s starting to happen that happened when Tiger was on that run was his peers started to talk about him in the same way that Tiger’s fellow competitors talked about him. You saw Jordan [Spieth] talk about him last week and a few others. I just found it fascinating that it’s getting to the point that his peers are even talking about how good he is and how great he’s playing and how hard it is to beat him, and I think that even helps your advantage when you’re the guy that others are talking about.”

By the sounds of things, they’ll be talking about Oakmont, too, next week.