Tuesday At The 125th U.S. Open
The course begins drying out, tee times announced, players discuss a range of matters, and more course perspectives from Oakmont.
Under partly cloudy skies and much-needed (drying) breezes, Oakmont began to dry out Tuesday. While still soft by U.S. Open standards and on a collision course with an under-par winning score—the horror!—the course made huge strides today and should continue to firm up during Wednesday’s final day of practice.
Large galleries once again came out to observe players as their growing entourages rejoined the fairways after laying low Sunday and Monday. Among those in the gallery: Pittsburgh Pirate ace Paul Skenes.
Groupings were announced and defending champions Bryson DeChambeau will tee off the first hole Thursday alongside last year’s U.S. Amateur champion, Jose Luis Ballester, and 2024 Open Champion Xander Schauffele.
Several former champions and star players took to the dais to answer questions and their best quotes are featured below. Today’s edition also includes a few more course perspectives and the latest weather updates. We’re almost ready for the 125th!
Tee Times
The groupings are out for rounds one and two. You can access the full list and begin favoriting players here or in the USGA app.
Former Oakmont caddie-turned-dentist Matt Vogt fittingly kicks off the 125th U.S. Open at 6:45 a.m. Thursday. The final groups tee off at 2:42 p.m. off split tees.
First round 1st tee groups of note:
7:29 a.m.: Schauffele, Ballester, DeChambeau
7:40 a.m.: Fitzpatrick, Clark, Woodland
10th tee:
7:40 a.m. Lowry, Rose, McIlroy
8:02 a.m.: Smith, Harman, Mickelson
Afternoon 1st tee:
1:03 p.m.: Lee, Thomas, Koepka
1:25 p.m.: Hovland, Morikawa, Scheffler
Afternoon 10th tee:
1:14 p.m.: Spieth, Rahm, Johnson
1:25 p.m.: Hatton, Im, Straka
The round one morning wave:
The afternoon wave:
Quotable
Rory McIlroy on the U.S. Open. “The U.S. Open went from probably my least favorite major to probably my favorite because of what it asks from you, and I love that challenge.”
McIlroy on the difference between Oakmont a week ago and today. “Last Monday felt impossible. I birdied the last two holes for 81. It felt pretty good. It didn't feel like I played that bad. 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. This morning it was a little softer. The pins aren't going to be on 3 or 4 percent slopes all the time. If you put it in the fairway, it's certainly playable. But then you just have to think about leaving your ball below the hole and just trying to make as many pars as you can. You get yourself in the way of a few birdies, that's a bonus.”
McIlroy on what he learned from last week’s missed cut with a 44-inch driver before returning home to practice. “I learned that I wasn't using the right driver.”
Jon Rahm on Oakmont. “It never ceases to amaze, in the sense of the history, the old school feel of the clubhouse. I think I saw a scale in there that's probably older than every building around here. Then the golf course in itself with some new changes that still maintains the essence of what it's all about and what Oakmont is. Extreme challenge. Even when you just stand on the putting green, seeing the whole property, you know you're somewhere special.”
Rahm on his LIV top 10 streak. “I've been playing really good golf, yes, but I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't easier to have top 10s with a smaller field. That's just the truth, right? Had I been playing full-field events, would I have top 10 every single week? No. But I've been playing good enough to say that I would most likely have been inside the top 30 every single time and maybe even top 25, which for 21 straight tournaments I'd say that's pretty good.”
Bryson DeChambeau on Oakmont. “It's not like every single hole is Winged Foot out here. You can't just bomb it on every single hole and blast over bunkers and have a wedge run up to the front of the green. You can on a lot of the holes but not on every one of them. I think this golf course you have to be just a fraction more strategic, especially with the rough is so long.”
DeChambeau on what he would tell a 17-year-old Bryson: “Learn how to hit it farther. I didn't realize how much of a tremendous advantage -- look, I'll say hitting it farther, there's also difficulty to it. You have to be ready. You have to be unafraid. You can't be scared of missing it off line. You have to be fearless, in a sense.”
Scottie Scheffler on arriving at Oakmont rested. “Having the week off was really important for me to get home, get some rest, recover, and I showed up here on Sunday and was able to play maybe 11 holes and really get used to the conditions. It feels much more like my normal major prep versus last year where you're coming in from basically a major championship test.”
Scheffler on being the betting favorite. “I had to get rid of my Venmo because I was either getting paid by people or people requesting me a bunch of money when I didn't win. It wasn't a good feeling…I don't remember the most that somebody would send me. Maybe a couple bucks here or there. That didn't happen nearly as much as the requests did.”
Collin Morikawa on the long par-3 eighth hole. “I completely forgot that that was the long par-3, and I honestly asked Joe, my caddie, and everyone in the group, I was like, ‘is this like a -- do you go for this par-4 or do you lay up?’ I recommend going for it.
Morikawa on how he’ll play the hole. “Probably hit driver or 3-wood and hopefully hit the green. If not, make up-and-down. Honestly, there's not a ton of strategy other than like hitting your driver within 15 yards or your 3-wood within 15 yards. Just hit and hope, honestly.”
Course Perspectives
Amateur Matt Vogt said something that made me wonder many players have taken into account the best way to read Oakmont’s difficult greens:
“Sometimes using your eyes out here doesn't work. So trying to use your feet, trying to look from the sides really as you're walking up and around the greens, it's different than just maybe telling someone, a 10 handicapper, hey, kind of hit it up in here and have fun….some of them run a little bit away -- it might look like a bowl. Some of them actually start to curve away. So those fingers have changed and little restorations around the edges of the greens have kind of changed the visuals.”
On Sunday I recorded this about the eighth green and how it supposedly slopes toward the tee when a rear view perspective gives the impression that it goes with the property slope toward the turnpike: