PITTSBURGH — When he played his first practice round before the 2016 U.S. Open, Shane Lowry quit after six holes because he thought Oakmont Country Club was too paralyzing — and too damaging to his confidence.

"I sat there in the locker room going, I have no idea how I'm going to play golf around this place," Lowry said.

Six days later, Lowry had a three-shot lead after 54 holes going into the final round.

"It wasn't that I felt like I couldn't play it, but I was just like, 'This is too hard, I'm going in.' You know what I mean?" Lowry said at the Memorial in Dublin, Ohio. "Honestly, if it didn't rain — I remember it rained on Wednesday and Thursday that week — God knows what the winning score would have been."

It ended up being 4-under 276. But it was posted by Dustin Johnson, not Lowry, who shot 76 on Sunday and finished tied for second — three shots behind the winner.

Flash forward to Monday, six days ago, when world No. 2 Rory McIlroy and former Masters champion Adam Scott were part of a private event at Oakmont with a shotgun start.

McIlroy began on No. 2, the driveable 346-yard par-4, and made 7. Scott hit every fairway on the front and shot 3-over.

Yes, it's tough out there, and the 125th U.S. Open hasn't even started.

And if it stays relatively dry, unlike 2016, it's going to get tougher than a three-day-old pork chop.

"I don't get too caught up in the whole carnage, pre-tournament reports because we hear that almost seemingly every year at these events," said NBC's tower analyst Kevin Kisner, who played in nine U.S. Opens, including 2016 at Oakmont when he finished tied for 49th. "And then when we show up on Thursday, somebody's 3-under at the turn, and it's, like, 'What happened to all the carnage reports?'

"You put 156 of the best players in the world at a course, it doesn't matter; you stick a hole in the ground, and they're going to figure out a way to make birdies."

Can Scheffler's dominance continue?

The U.S. Open is back at Oakmont for a record 10th time, with practice rounds open to the public beginning Monday and the real fun commencing Thursday. The field of 156 players includes McIlroy, a three-time winner in 2025, world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler and defending champ Bryson DeChambeau, who has become a major presence at major championships.

No player, though, is hotter than Scheffler, who has won three of his past four starts — including the PGA Championship — by an average of 5.7 shots.

Scheffler was an amateur when he shot 69-78 and missed the cut in 2016 at Oakmont, and it has been a long time since he missed a cut on the PGA Tour. His streak of 56 consecutive cuts made is second among active players behind Xander Schauffele (65).

Nobody expects that streak to end at Oakmont, however, no matter how difficult the course might play for four days.

"I think that great players are ones who rise to the occasion and ones who know how to play coming down the stretch in important events," Jack Nicklaus said after Scheffler won the Memorial by four shots two weeks ago.

"Looking at the leaderboard, I mean, Ben Griffin's a nice player, Sepp Straka is a nice player, Nick Taylor is a nice player. Those were all the guys that were there basically coming down the stretch. But he knows that those guys, you know, are not in his league."

Back-to-back Bryson?

Meantime, DeChambeau will be looking for his third U.S. Open title in six years after beating McIlroy by a shot last year at Pinehurst No. 2. He has made the most of his limited opportunities away from the LIV Tour, finishing in the top six in five of his past six major starts. Two of those were back-to-back runner-up finishes in the PGA Championship.

"He's been a major killer over the past couple of years now," said NBC's on-course analyst Smylie Kaufman, who played and missed the cut in 2016 at Oakmont. "He's always near the top of the leaderboard.

"It's incredible how this guy, he is kind of the needle out there when it comes to getting a crowd going. It's fun to be around his groups because you can definitely feel where the Bryson fans are."

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