It is widely believed that a US Open should be the toughest test a player will face all year, therefore making it a rare and beautiful sight for every passionate amateur who wants to see their idols suffer for just one week.
But even so, Pinehurst No.2 is already shaping up to be an absolute beast – especially when closing in on the hole.
Rory McIlroy spoke of the shot from the tee box being relatively friendly, in terms of the avenue the field is being asked to hit down. Without thick and juicy rough to consider – it is quite the opposite here – players can miss the fairway and still have an option or two left when aiming for the green.
Yet, it is on and around the putting surface where problems are likely to arise. Tiger Woods said in his pre-championship press conference that he and his practice partners have been guilty of pushing the ball off the greens due to a minimal misjudgement already, while Viktor Hovland shared a very similar tale earlier in the day.
Woods suggested he could foresee “guys playing ping pong” as they chase putts back and forth across the green.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
“The last few days playing practice rounds – I’m guilty as well as the rest of the guys I’ve played with – we’ve putted off a lot of greens,” said Woods. “It depends how severe the USGA wants to make this and how close they want to get us up to those sides.
“But I foresee just like in ’05 watching some of the guys play ping-pong back and forth. It could happen.”
And on Monday, last year’s champion, Wyndham Clark admitted he was “amazed how fast the greens are” before going on to call them “already borderline.”
Clark said: “The greens are extremely fast and penal. You hit it on the green, the hole is not done. I was just amazed how fast the greens are. Yeah, I mean, they are extremely fast. If they get any firmer and faster, the greens, I mean, they’d be borderline. They already are borderline.”
And to prove that point, a group who set foot onto Pinehurst No.2’s iconic layout carried out a simple test on the fifth green earlier this week. The video, which was shared by Preserved Links on X, showed a man dropping a golf ball from shoulder height around 15 to 20 feet from the pin.
We often debate speed, how fast is too fast? The US Open sets the bar every year. Hit the wrong spot of…
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