Spieth, Johnson and DeChambeau grouped for US Open

I’m already giddy. Do I want four-putts and quadruple bogeys every week on the PGA Tour?

American Express will bring Card Members and golf fans closer to the 116th U.S. Open Championship at Oakmont Country Club just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, through offering interactive experiences focused on the mental game of golf, against the backdrop of one of the sport’s grandest stages. So yesterday the rough was extremely long, I guess, and challenging. I don’t know if anyone looks forward to Oakmont. In this case, we’re talking top-10 finishes at the U.S. Open, good for the most ever. “That’s where Phil is going to have to thrive, going to have to make upwards of 80, 90 percent of those to be up there”, he said. You will have no insane circumstance or bounces or this or that. So what they do is they let the rough grow long, and if it is wet, they’ll leave it like that, and if it’s dry they’ll thin it out.

World number two Spieth, who won last year’s title by one shot after a thrilling finish at Chambers Bay, reigning British Open champion Johnson and DeChambeau will start Thursday’s opening round on the 10th tee at 8:35 a.m. ET (1235 GMT).

“Oakmont has the only spot that you can play from is the middle of the fairway, and the only spot you can really play from is around the green”, said Mickelson, who was second in Memphis in 2013 and third a year ago. “But it’s a very fair test, even though it’s hard”.

“Because of that, I don’t feel like it’s really that big of a deal to really go learn the golf course as much as it is to get your game sharp because you’ve got to perform and execute”.

“And Rory McIlroy blew a similar lead starting the back nine in the 2011 Masters, and came back to win the very next major, the U.S. Open at Congressional, in record fashion”, said Parent, citing another recent “rebound” example in the majors. Now he’s not even playing, missing his second straight major and third U.S. Open in the last six years as he recovers from back surgeries. We posted a video where a guy was able to putt from 118 yards out onto the green showing just how tightly cut the fairways are as well. “It requires me to get the ball in play off the tee, but when I’m not hitting drivers, if I’m hitting 3-woods, hybrids, I feel confident I’m able to do that a fairly high percentage of the time”, he said.

“The reason why I’m optimistic about Oakmont is that it doesn’t require me to hit a lot of drivers”, he said. That’s why I’m optimistic. The layout is as hard as I’ve ever seen, and then you add U.S. Open conditions to it. That’s when the U.S. Open played just 4,423 yards at Shinnecock Hills G.C.in Southampton, N.Y., making it the shortest U.S. Open track in history. Gomez won his first PGA Tour title here a year ago, becoming only the fifth Argentinian to win.

“He’s arguably one of the greatest U.S. Open players of all time”, said Trostel. Bob Rotella, Dr. Gio Valiante, and USGA Senior Golf Course Set-up experts.

The putting surfaces are so fast that it inspired Edward Stimpson, a Harvard-educated engineer who was in the gallery for the 1935 U.S. Open, to create a device to measure green speed. If you miss the fairway, you’re struggling to get to the green because the bunkers are super deep and the rough is thick and the greens are insane slopey.

Phil Mickelson checks out Oakmont.