Scheffler is wary of the challenges of Oakmont to open us

Oakmont, Pennsylvania – After a few days of preparation for the US Open in Oakmont Country Club, the best player in the world reached a striking conclusion on Tuesday.

“This is probably the most difficult golf course we will play,” said Scottie Scheffler. “Maybe never.”

Scheffler is seated in n ° 1 in the official ranking of world golf course and is the prohibitive favorite this week. He won the victory at Augusta National Look Routine and beat the fields of the best sport players in some of the most difficult golf courses in the world.

This week, however, even he is at the mercy of the place that welcomed the most United States, the one who never presented a winner with a score better than 5 under the peer.

“In a way, I assimilate some of the main tests – such as tennis majors you play on a different surface,” said Scheffler. “You have grass, clay and then hard court, and it is a different style of play. The United States Open compared to Masters is a completely different type of test.”

Oakmont, however, is not only a place open to the United States traditionally difficult. It’s more than that.

“When you miss the green at the masters, the ball runs away and it goes to these areas, and you can play a bump, you can play a flop. There are different options,” said Scheffler. “Here, when you hit the ball on the green, you just get a big rough, and it’s like, let me see how I can get the ball out of this rude and give me a look.”

The subject of Oakmont’s difficulty has been at the forefront of the championship so far. The players have spoken at length about the challenge that this week will bring, whether the rough thickness of fairways, deep bunkers or fast greens.

“I think everyone knows that this is probably the most difficult golf course in the world right now,” said Bryson Dechambeau. “You have to hit the fairways, you have to hit the Greens, and you have the scenario with two strokes and worse. When you have these putts at 10 feet, you have to do them. It’s an excellent golf test.”

Dechambeau published a video on his YouTube channel last week which detailed each plan of a training lap that he played during the course. He pulled an equal 70.

“It is not as if each hole was winged here,” said Dechambeau, who won the first of his two United States or Winged Foot in 2020. “You can’t just bomb it on each hole and explode on bunkers and have a corner in front of the golf.

The major double winner, Collin Morikawa, did not take an early visit to Oakmont this year, but he said that he had watched part of the video of Dechambeau. Nothing, however, could have prepares him to really do on some of these holes and have to strike some of these blows.

“I don’t think people understand how thick the rough,” said Morikawa. “It is not vaporous as the club was going to pass. It’s just thick. The clubs will turn around. You will see guys try to hit the pitch, and it will stay at 45 degrees because it is the thickness of the rough. This is how you have to play it.”

Morikawa said on Tuesday that he had almost tried to forget all the things he had seen from the course before this week, in part not to be psyched. Players are preventively preparing for the possible carnage that Oakmont will bring Thursday, especially if the rain planned for the weekend does not happen.

“The Greens are already accelerating,” said Morikawa. “They will become firmer as the sun retires, while the wind resumes.”

Being in the raw bunker or a fairway will make problems for players, but it is the Greens of Oakmont, with their dramatic slopes and their potential median speed, which could really determine the type of bite of the course this week.

“Being perfectly honest and very selfish, I hope it expresses a lot of players,” said Justin Thomas about the difficulty of the course. “It is part of the preparation, like trying to go and try to get the speed of the Greens or anything. This is a match plan for the way you will approach the course mentally and strategically. I understand that this place is difficult. I don’t need to read articles, or I don’t need to hear horror stories. I play it.”

However, even if they try to predict the difficulty of a task they will have, many find at least a little comfort in the fact that each of the other 155 other players on the field they are trying to beat must face the same golf course as they will do.

“It will be a good test, a difficult test,” said Jon Rahm. “And I think that one of the most real representations of what a US Open is.”