Scottie Scheffler shares where Oakmont ranks on his list of toughest courses before the US Open

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Scottie Scheffler heads into the US Open as the clear favourite after picking up his third win of the season at The Memorial Tournament.

Scottie Scheffler has upped his game dramatically since The Masters. Despite a few mediocre opening months of the season, the American is well and truly back to his very best.

His prolific form has put him in pole position as favourite for the US Open as the world No.1 looks for yet another victory on home soil.

This year’s Open marks a return to Oakmont for the first time in nearly 10 years, and that happens to be the year Scheffler made his first appearance in the event. Written in the stars? Maybe – but Scheffler knows playing on this green is no easy task.

Scottie Scheffler suggests where Oakmont ranks among the toughest courses he has played ahead of the US Open

Scheffler spoke to Dan on Golf about where Oakmont ranks among the toughest courses he knows.

“I played Oakmont in ’16 for the US Open, and I know it’s really hard. I know Gil Hanse made some changes to the course, but overall I think it’s pretty similar to the way it was in 2016,” he said.

“It’s going to be another golf course where you’ve got to hit a lot of fairways, you’ve got to hit a lot of greens. From what I remember in 2016, it was the most difficult course that I played, and I assume that didn’t change very much with some reservations.”

How Scottie Scheffler reacted to breaking par in the opening round of the 2016 US Open

Even though a missed cut in 2016 wasn’t entirely unexpected, the strong start made it more disappointing.

After Scheffler’s opening round of golf, he spoke about some of the bigger obstacles, in particular the weather stoppages.

“For me, it was coming into the greens and trying to control the spin on the wedges. All three days before, when we were playing, we were bouncing, trying to put as much spin as possible on the ball to keep it on the green,” he said.

“For instance, I get on hole 11 today, the second hole of the day, and I spin one back like 50 feet off the front of the green. I thought I hit a pretty good shot, and all of a sudden, I’m left with a really hard two-putt. That’s just one example of an adjustment.”

This time around, it’s hard to imagine him struggling to cut. Plenty of people are picking him to come back to Oakmont and win his fourth major title.