Scottie Scheffler tees off on the 13th hole during a practice round ahead of the U.S. Open golf tournament at Oakmont Country Club Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Oakmont, Pa. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

OAKMONT, Pa. — As one of the “cathedrals” of golf, Oakmont Country Club needs no introduction.

Hosting this year for the 10th time, the site of this week’s 125th U.S. Open Championship has a reputation that precedes itself.

Scattered and carefully-placed bunkers, such as the iconic Church Pew bunker, lightning-fast greens and of course, the forest-thick rough all await the best players in the world at the tournament known each year for being “the toughest test in golf.”

“I think everybody knows this is probably the toughest golf course in the world right now,” defending champion Bryson DeChambeau said Tuesday. “You have to hit fairways, you have to hit greens and you have to two-putt, worse-case scenario. When you’ve got those putts inside 10 feet, you’ve got to make them. It’s a great test of golf.”

While the course has been notoriously difficult in the past — Angel Cabrera’s winning score in 2007 was 5-over and only four players finished under-par in 2016 when Dustin Johnson won — noted golf course designer Gil Hanse completed a restoration of Oakmont in 2023 in preparation for hosting the U.S. Open this year.

The bunkers were all rebuilt in the hope of restoring some of the course’s identity from its humble beginnings in the early 20th century. The size, position and variety of the bunkers were altered drastically, as they grew in size and were placed in more strategic locations.

Hanse also lengthened the course by about 125 yards, while also increasing the size of the greens by about 20 percent to restore them to their original expansive size.

“Even though Gil has come in here and done his thing, it’s still a big brute of a golf course,” 2011 champion Rory McIlroy said Tuesday. “You’re going to have to have your wits about you this week all the way through the bag, off the tee, into the greens and around the greens.”

McIlroy, who has won three times this year, came to Oakmont early last week for a practice round. He said he birdied the last two holes, but still shot 81.

“It didn’t feel like I played that bad,” McIlroy said. “It’s much more benign right now than it was that Monday. They had the pins in dicey locations and greens were running at 15 1/2. It was nearly impossible.”

However, despite the lack of water hazards and trees on the course, carnage is expected to ensue throughout the tournament as the course dries out and firms up after the rain the last couple weeks.

The rough measures between 4-5 inches all around the course, even directly off the greens and fairways with no graduated rough, as seen in the past.

Set up as a par-70 at 7,372 yards, Oakmont isn’t the longest test, but length will still be a factor, particularly off the tees with holes like the 289-yard par-3 eighth hole and the two par-5s — the 611-yard fourth and 632-yard 12th.

“When you get here, it’s a lot of hacking out of the rough,” Scottie Scheffler said Tuesday. “You still have to be extremely precise, but it’s a bit more — when you talk about strength and power, I think that becomes more of a factor at these tournaments because when you hit it in the rough you’ve got to muscle it out of there.

“This is probably the hardest golf course we’ll play, maybe ever, and that’s pretty much all it is. It’s just a different type of test.”

With its trying obstacles, Oakmont is as much a mental test as it is a physical one.

“Being perfectly honest and selfish, I hope it psychs a lot of players out,” Justin Thomas said Monday. “It’s part of the preparation, like trying to go hit wedges or trying to get the speed of the greens or anything. It’s getting a game plan for how you’re going to approach the course mentally and strategically.”

In the last two years, golf has seen its best players rise to the occasion at each of the major championships.

Scheffler won last year’s Masters, in addition to last month’s PGA Championship, while DeChambeau emerged victorious at Pinehurst last year and McIlroy completed the career Grand Slam at the Masters in April. That doesn’t even include world No. 3 Xander Schauffele’s victories at last year’s PGA and Open Championship at Royal Troon.

Will the test that Oakmont presents call upon the game’s best again? Or will a rising upstart or surprise name elevate themselves above the field by the end of the weekend?

That remains to be seen, but there’s a reason why Scheffler, the world No. 1, is the heavy betting favorite this week. Scheffler arrives at Oakmont coming off a runaway five-shot victory at Quail Hollow at last month’s PGA Championship and a four-shot win two weeks ago at The Memorial.

“I don’t pay attention to the favorite stuff or anything like that,” Scheffler said. “Starting Thursday morning, we’re at even par and it’s up to me to go out there and play against the golf course and see what I can do.”