The U.S. Open is always the toughest of the four major golf tournaments, and the 2016 edition will be no different. To get you ready for the big tournament, we at OddsShark have provided a list of facts and trends about Oakmont Country Club and the event itself. Happy wagering!
- This is the ninth time the U.S. Open will be played at Oakmont, with its last renewal coming in 2007. No course has hosted more Opens.
- The combined winning score of the last eight U.S. Opens at Oakmont is nine-over, but the winning score was just five-over par in 2007. In fact, every hole averaged over par.
- Arguably the best round in major history happened at Oakmont in 1973 when Johnny Miler shot the first-ever 63 in a major championship to win by a single stroke.
- The course was extensively reworked prior to the 2007 U.S. Open. Almost every tree was removed in order to transform the look of the course, and it played much tougher as a result.
- On day four of the 2007 U.S. Open, only four men shot par or better.
- Oakmont has two par fours that can be reached by driver (the second and the 17th hole).
- Oakmont contains the longest par three in U.S. Open history. The eighth hole, which measures out to be 288 yards, was hit only 26.7 percent of the time in 2007. Jordan Spieth used a three wood to hit the green in his practice round on June 12.
- Golf legend Arnold Palmer once said "You can hit 72 greens in the Open at Oakmont and not come close to winning."
- There are 11 amateurs in the field. The most notable is Scottie Scheffler of Texas University, one of the top amateurs in the country.
- Angel Cabrera, who won in 2007, was in seventh place after round three. Since 1898, only five U.S. Open winners were further down the leaderboard than Cabrera with a round to go.
- Six of the last 10 U.S. Open winners had previously won at least once on the PGA Tour that season.
- Four of the last five winners have been inside the top 15 in the World Golf Rankings.
- On Twitter last week, Daniel Berger said "Oakmont's rough is like rough on steroids. You can't advance it 10 yards sometimes."
- To say the U.S. Open's playoff format is unique would be a massive understatement. The tournament is the only major event that hosts a full 18 hole playoff system if players are tied for the lead after round four.
- Grizzled PGA Tour veteran Phil Mickelson has described Oakmont as "the toughest course I've ever played."
- 2007 champ Angel Cabrera has played 16 U.S. Opens, and his lone victory was the only one where he was in contention.
- Bubba Watson has only made the top 30 in this tournament once since his debut in 2011. He's missed the cut three times in that span.
- The Oakmont greens are lightning quick and are around 25 percent faster than the average greens on the Tour.
- Weather forecasts indicate warm weather in the 86 degrees Fahrenheit range for the weekend with a chance of thunderstorms on Thursday and Friday.
- Rory McIlroy holds the U.S. Open record with his -16 in the 2011 event at Congressional. Don't expect anyone to sniff that mark this time around, though.
- The last Australian to win a U.S. Open was Geoff Ogilvie in 2006. That could change this year with Jason Day, Adam Scott and Marc Leishman in the field.
- Paul Casey produced one of the best rounds in Oakmont history in 2007 when he went 11 shots below the average score.
