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All week long, Golffans has heard of the treacherous conditions lurking on the Oakmont Country Club for the 125th US Open.
Rory McIlroy was among the golfers who proved why the course is so hard in this third major of the season.
Masters Champion from 2025 really went through it at Oakmont during his Thursday round, and it came towards the end of what seemed to be a good start for McIlroy.
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Rory McIlroy hits his shot on the 17th hole during the first round of the US Open. (Bill Streicher-Preferred Pictures)
McIlroy posted a front-ni 33 that birded his second and third holes while shooting pairs on the rest. However, the rear nine were where things started to fall off the rails, and Oakmont’s notorious thick rough played a huge role in it.
His first bogey a day came on hole 1 (McIlroy began his round on hole 10) and things could have been much worse on hole 4 as his driving on par-5 fired to the right and landed on terrible, tall grass.
The ball was not at all visible when McIlroy took a hack on it and the result was that it landed only a few meters ahead of him. So with a foot in a fairway bunker, McIlroy swung again, but to no use. The ball landed a few feet to the right this time.
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McIlroy entered his fourth shot on a hole that could have derailed its entire round. But he was able to get the ball on the fairway right in front of the green with a chance to at least go up and down to save bogey.
That’s exactly what he did, where he needed a 30-foot putt to fall into the hole and he got it. McIlroy went away in the hope that it was all the mishaps he would meet, but more came.
Holes # 6-8 saw bogey, bogey and double-bogey as McIlroy could not find any consistency in his turn. His put -slaughter also didn’t help, lack of short putts that could have gone down to level.
Rory McIlroy plays a shot from a bunker on the 17th hole during the US Open. (Bill Streicher-Preferred Pictures)
On his second-last hole, McIlroy’s tee-shot of 289-yard par-3 went deep into the hard behind the green, and he relaxed a frustrating iron over it as his pitch again went just a few feet ahead of him.
McIlroy completed his round 4-over (74), which sets him tied to 64. On the US Open Leaderboard.
McIlroy was not the only one dealing with the harsh conditions of Oakmont, as one of his best friends, Shane Lowry, really reviewed it in his 9-over 79 Thursday. He was even stained to throw a microphone around the green after a chunked chip shot.
Top players like Justin Rose (7-over), Patrick Cantlay (6-over), Matthew Fitzpatrick (4-over) and Wyndham Clark (4-over) were also among those who fought Thursday.
Rory McIlroy goes off the first tee during the first round of the US Open. (Charles Leclaire-Preferred Pictures)
It will be interesting to see the leaderboard when in the afternoon they finish their rounds as McIlroy and more could have some work to do on Friday to get the United States to cut back.
