Everybody said this was going to be hard. Everybody knew it was going to be hard. When the U.S. Open made its return to Oakmont, the general consensus was that it was going to be an absolute nightmare for even the best golfers in the world.
Through the first two rounds of the 125th U.S. Open, that has pretty much proved to be the case.
One of the world’s best — and toughest — golf courses has spent the past two days frustrating everybody, while also preventing some of the top-ranked golfers on the tour from making it through to the weekend.
Following Friday’s second round, which ended with Sam Burns atop the leaderboard at three-under, only three golfers in the field were below par. That honor belonged to Burns, J.J. Spaun (minus-2) and Viktor Hovland (minus-1), while only Adam Scott and Ben Griffin were even.
Everybody else competing?
Over par.
That includes 66 golfers who were plus-10 or worse and 10 golfers who finished more than 20-over par.
The list of golfers who failed to make the cut is also long and distinguished, and it includes some of the top-ranked golfers in the world.
Among them are Justin Thomas (plus-12), Ludvig Abert (plus-8), Bryson DeChambeau (plus-10), Shane Lowry (plus-17), Tommy Fleetwood (plus-9) and Justin Rose (plus-14).
All of them entered the weekend among the top 25 golfers in the world.
None of them made the cut.
There are not many courses that challenge the professionals to this degree, but sometimes it’s fun to see the pros pushed to their absolute limits. Not every tournament needs to end with a winner 15 or 16 under par. Not every course needs to produce the lowest possible scores. Sometimes, as fans, it’s fun to just sit back and see how the professionals react to the same sort of frustrations everyday golfers can have when trying to play out of impossible conditions.
This is what the U.S. Open is all about. It’s supposed to be the toughest tournament, and Oakmont always delivers.