PITTSBURGH — It’s hard enough to reach the greens at Oakmont Country Club.

Players must navigate narrow fairways surrounded by thick rough and punishing bunkers.

They then must land approach shots not just on the green, but in particular parts of it, to have any hope of their ball staying on the putting surface.

Players have described the...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Sam Burns began his day with the third-lowest round ever shot in a U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club. He spent the rest of the day watching players slide down the leaderboard as though it were greased with cooking oil.

After 36 grueling holes that continue to try the patience of the best two players in the world, only three ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — There aren’t many big names at or even near the top of the leaderboard at the U.S. Open after two rounds, and there is a number of the bigger names who didn’t even survive the cut.

Some people love the underdog stories. Some want star power. And if you are one that is looking for star power, this has certainly not been the U....Read more

PITTSBURGH — Sam Burns was playing the round of his life. The kind golfers prefer not get interrupted — think of the Bishop in “Caddyshack” who was struck by lightning because he refused to pause his best day ever on the course.

So he could have been forgiven if he paid no attention to the commotion behind him on the eighth tee. After ...Read more

Scottie Scheffler pays attention to the leaderboard, though it usually doesn’t matter.

He watched during the PGA Championship in May and saw his five-shot lead wiped away by Jon Rahm nine holes into the final round. By the time he approached the 18th green, Scheffler had a six-shot cushion and Rahm was out of contention.

It was a similar ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — The first round of the 125th U.S. Open produced more surprises than a 13th birthday party, from the top of the unlikely leaderboard right down to the target practice players were fearlessly taking at some of Oakmont’s notoriously difficult holes.

There was a hole-out eagle to wake up the morning crowd, the fourth double eagle ...Read more

Golf’s big three — Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Bryson DeChambeau — was hoping to put on a show for the gathered crowd at Oakmont Country Club. The three had large galleries throughout the practice round leading up to the start of play Thursday and were three of the favorites in the sportsbooks.

That didn’t happen, though, as all...Read more

PITTSBURGH — J.J. Spaun had seen the chatter on social media about Oakmont Country Club, site of the 125th U.S. Open. He knew the course would pack a punch ... and might knock a few of the best golfers in the world to the mat. The 34-year-old Los Angeles native also didn't care.

Ignorance is bliss? Yeah, something like that.

As the lid ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — It was like Easter Sunday at Oakmont Country Club on Thursday morning: The Church Pews were packed.

The massive bunker lining the third and fourth fairways drew player after player into its deadly ridges — even first-round leader J.J. Spaun — and many of them left saddled with bogey or worse during the first round of the U.S ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — The golfer who emerges victorious Sunday at the U.S. Open here at Oakmont Country Club is probably the one who minimizes bogeys, and that generally means the golfer who hits the most fairways.

It is a simple formula that some would say plays in every golf tournament, but after two days of listening to the best guys in the world ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — Sharp bettors don’t see any value in backing Scottie Scheffler to win the U.S. Open as the shortest favorite to win a major in 16 years.

But it’s still tough to bet against him.

“It almost feels like you could be lighting money on fire doing that,” Westgate SuperBook golf oddsmaker Jeff Sherman said.

Sherman and VSiN ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Rory McIlroy called it a big brute. Dustin Johnson said it's the hardest course he's ever played. Bryson DeChambeau went a step further and proclaimed it the hardest in the world. Jon Rahm said it's an extreme challenge where a lot of bad things are going to happen.

"It doesn't really get harder than this," said Ludvig Aberg, the...Read more

That Scottie Scheffler is the prohibitive favorite to win the U.S. Open this week at historic Oakmont Country Club surprises no one. He's the top-ranked golfer in the world, winning three of his last four starts, including the PGA Championship.

That Scheffler deleted his Venmo account because bettors continually clicked the pay/request link on ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Scottie Scheffler’s first U.S. Open was in 2016 at Oakmont Country Club. He was an amateur, mostly an unknown. He was in awe of Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, whom he got to play a practice round with. Scheffler missed the cut.

At that point, nobody outside of some golf insiders really knew who he was, and certainly very few...Read more

LAS VEGAS — Scottie Scheffler is widely considered the world’s most dominant golfer since Tiger Woods in his heyday.

Fittingly, Scheffler is the shortest favorite to win a major at this week’s U.S. Open since 2009. Woods was a favorite of +250 or less in all four majors that year, including +175 to win the U.S. Open, according to ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Rory McIlroy is doing more than struggling to find the right driver and recapture the form that made him the game’s greatest driver of the ball.

He is struggling to find the proper motivation and recapture the desire that fueled his fast start to the season and ultimately resulted in winning the Masters.

The world’s No. 2 ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — Dustin Johnson’s prominence in the golf world was a lot different the last time he was at the U.S. Open at Oakmont.

At the time, he was the No. 6-ranked player in the world who finished no worse than seventh in five of his previous seven major starts.

He had never won a major championship, despite any number of near misses, ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — When he played his first practice round before the 2016 U.S. Open, Shane Lowry quit after six holes because he thought Oakmont Country Club was too paralyzing — and too damaging to his confidence.

"I sat there in the locker room going, I have no idea how I'm going to play golf around this place," Lowry said.

Six days later, ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — No offense, Oakmont. You're incredible. But you might need to shove over and make some room.

Until this past weekend, much of the fuss surrounding the U.S. Open has focused on the golf course — the diabolical rough, the ridiculous pin placements, the sadistic challenge it presents.

There hasn't been enough talk about the ...Read more