How challenging is we open in Oakmont? 2 stars explain the pain

Best in the world spent their Thursday in 2025 US OPEN By inserting their teeth By Oakmont Country Club. This was expected.

When the dust settled after the opening round, The average note was 74.64Which made it the first most difficult round at US Open since 2018 at Shinnecock Hills, where Era destroyed the field. There were only two holes playing under Thursday, and there were 16 rounds in the 80s. only Eight players shot under the par in the opening round.

Rory Mcilroy fired a four-oni 74which was just a worse shot than the world number 1 Scottie Scheffler and Royal Champion Bryson Dechambeau.

“Judah is just difficult to get the ball in the game, and it’s really hard to bring the ball,” Scheffler said after the round. “Every time you’re not out of position, the golf course just becomes really challenging.”

But there was no complaint from the US open field. They were punched in the mouth by a Challenging but fair test. This is what Henry Fowns wanted to build the course, and Gil Hanse’s restoration has emphasized the pain.

So what makes Oakmont so difficult, even when there are no conditions? Two holes from two of the best games tell the story.

First, we start with Scheffler and the 12th PAR-5 hole. Scheffler hit his tee fired 367 yards and rolled in the first cut. Normally, this would be a green light to get the flag and potentially give yourself an look at the eagle. But in Oakmont, the challenge is just the beginning, even if you hit a good blow.

“You think of a hole like 12,” Scheffler said. “I hit a good car out of the box. It goes down there in the first cut, and you think that a par-5 accessible where you have 6-And in hand will be a pretty good note option, and I’m lying, and if I hit the left I will have a bunker stroke from essentially 40 yards less than green.

“You simply try to play a right blow because this is the uphill chip knowing as it is in the first cut I can’t hold it in green, and you hit it there on the right and the ball ends up in a hole in the middle and the first cut. A few days that the ball ends up in the first cut, I have taken a light chip.”

Scheffler hit his second shooting in the rough next to the front right of green. He had to play his chip to the left of the flag and dive over the green and placed in the rough. Scheffler rose up and down from 31 yard, but his score was gone.

The 12th hole became only harder as the day continued and the upper roads were raised. Scheffler noted that it was almost impossible to lower the ball in the middle of the road and keep it not to run in the harsh.

For Jon Rahm, who shot a Thursday under 69, it was Par-3 16 and his diabolical green that was in the front of his mind coming out of the course. Rahm hit an excellent 5-legged up to eight legs, but the green slope did it, so he was unable to make an aggressive run in Birdie not to risk giving himself too much to return to par.

“Hit one of the top 5-and-unhes I could hit and I probably had (8 1/2 feet) in the hole,” Rahm said. “Mentally, like I want to make that blow, but I am thinking that I will hit three legs straight and down. I will get a tap. There are things you don’t understand, or if you leave it just a little from green (No.1) in that small upslope, how hard it is. You realize that you don’t really understand. “

Robert Macintyre left the course on Thursday with an equal round. You would have thought that he would shoot the record of the course from the splendor emanating from him.

“You shoot four rounds of levels, you are walking away with a medal and a trophy,” Macintyre said.

“Just just so hard – honestly, every stroke you’re on the edge of a knife.”

Welcome to the US Open in Oakmont.