The U.S. Open is never easy, but that is especially true whenever Oakmont Country Club hosts the Major Championship. The incredibly tough course doesn’t favor rookies or vets — the course is equally tough for everyone. But the longer the pros can hit the ball, the better chance they have to hoist the trophy on Sunday.

Players looking for their first Major Championship thrive at Oakmont

Oakmont is no small task, even for the savvy veterans who have Major Championships under their belt. In the nine times that Oakmont has hosted a Major Championship, the victor was a first-time winner in seven of those cases.

Six of those seven went on to win another Major Championship in their career — Pitt alum Sam Parks Jr. was the lone exception who never won another.

The six other first-time Major Championship winners at Oakmont were Tommy Armour in 1927, Jack Nicklaus in 1962, Johnny Miller in 1973, Ernie Els in 1994, Ángel Cabrera in 2007 and Dustin Johnson in 2016. Miller, Cabrera and Johnson would all win one more Major Championship, Armour two others, Els three more majors and Nicklaus won the first of his record-setting 18 Major Championships at Oakmont.

There’s usually a big advantage of playing under serious pressure in a Major Championship, but for some reason, that pressure isn’t felt at Oakmont. Over 75% of the time, golfers achieve their dream of winning a major for the first time at Oakmont. 

This year, according to FanDuel Sports Book, the top six players with the best odds to win the U.S. Open are all past Major Championship winners. Ludvig Åberg, who has never won a Major Championship, has the seventh-best odds to win the U.S. Open this year at Oakmont, a place that loves seeing players win their first Major Championship.

Chicks dig the long ball, and so does Oakmont Country Club

Power wins at Oakmont, it’s as simple as that. At least for the past two U.S. Opens at Oakmont. 

Both Johnson and Cabrera led the field in driving distance en route to their Major Championship victories. Johnson, on average, from the tee box on non-par 3’s, hit the ball 317.1 yards, and Cabrera hit the ball 311 yards. 

“Somehow, I figured out a way to get it under par. It was mostly the driving,” Johnson said, reflecting on his Major Championship win in 2016. “Obviously, even driving it in the fairway here, it’s still really difficult, but I hit a lot of good drives and a lot of good iron shots.”

There’s danger next to every single fairway at Oakmont, no matter if you are hitting the ball extremely far, like Johnson and Cabrera, or short. The rough is up to 5 inches high, and there are 175 bunkers littered across the 7,372 yards on the course. So why wouldn’t you — if you were a long hitter like Rory McIlroy or Bryson DeChambeau — hit a driver every time? Justin Thomas thinks they should.

“You look at someone like Rory McIlroy, you drive it like he does, I would pull that driver out as often as I can,” Thomas said. “He hits it further and straighter than maybe anybody that’s played the game. It’s hard to argue why he wouldn’t hit driver as often as he could.” 

It’s easier to get out of trouble when you are closer to the hole and not far out. It helps to have this power when the shortest par 3 that the players will face is 182, and the longest par 3 they will face is 289.

A beastly par 3 — that’s not fun for any player

The eighth hole is no easy par 3 — it’s set up as a 289-yard par 3, but may go out as far as 300 yards. In 2016, the hole was set up as 299 yards, and in 2007, it was a Major Championship record of 300 yards. 

But now, the hole is even harder than it was in 2016 and 2007. Oakmont Country Club built a bunker that goes across the fairway and is in front of the 8th hole green. The bunker’s location, once a viable landing area for many players, is now a very difficult up-and-down for any professional golfer. 

And the fifth-best player in the world according to the Official World Golf Rankings, Thomas, isn’t a big fan of these almost unnecessarily long par 3s.

“Yeah, I couldn’t tell you a par 3 over 250 yards,” Thomas said in a press conference just a few weeks ago. 

No. 8 at Oakmont is asking a lot from the players. They will most likely hit hybrids or driving irons and hope they escape with a three. In 2016, the behemoth par 3 was the eighth-hardest hole for the pros.