PITTSBURGH — Rory McIlroy called it a big brute. Dustin Johnson said it's the hardest course he's ever played. Bryson DeChambeau went a step further and proclaimed it the hardest in the world. Jon Rahm said it's an extreme challenge where a lot of bad things are going to happen.

"It doesn't really get harder than this," said Ludvig Aberg, the world's sixth-ranked player.

Oakmont Country Club.

There are no trees, no water, and yet it is regarded as maybe the hardest course in the world.

There is so much trouble lurking on every hole the USGA should consider placing orange cones on some of the fairways.

There are bunkers named Church Pews that demand prayer, Bigmouth that leaves you speechless and Piano Keys that play misery, not melodies.

The greens pitch and tilt and run away from the player as though someone stole their lunch money. And stopping the ball on the putting surface is akin to stopping a marble in a bathtub.

And the ditches? They're on 12 of the 18 holes and slither and slide through the property like a garden snake, filled with venomous gnarly grasses that swallow shots and eat clubs.

"I'm glad we have spotters up there," said McIlroy, who played in a private event June 2 and had to birdie the last two holes to shoot 81. "It's very penal if you miss [the fairway]. Sometimes it's penal if you don't miss. The person with the most patience and the best attitude this week is the one that's going to win."

Oakmont is ready to lift the curtain and start the 125th U.S. Open, and the members are giddily rubbing their hands together in anticipation after two days of sunshine and warmer temperatures have cooked the 7,372-yard layout back to its humbling, nasty self.

You can fit all the people into a broom closet who believe the winning score will match or even come close to Johnson's winning 4-under 276 total in 2016.

"It's not about the score; it's about getting every club in a player's bag dirty, all 15 of them — the 14 in their bag and the one between their ears," said John Bodenhamer, the USGA's chief championship officer.

It all begins at 6:45 a.m. Thursday, when Cranberry native and Indianapolis dentist Matt Vogt, one of 15 amateurs in the 156-player field, gets to bat leadoff at the course where he once caddied for five years. That might be the only feel-good story of the tournament.

"I don't think people turn the TV on to watch some of the guys just hit like a 200-yard shot on the green, you know what I mean?" said two-time major champion and world No. 3 Xander Schauffele. "I think they turn on the U.S. Open to see a guy shooting 8-over and suffer."

There should be plenty of that at Oakmont.

The USGA said on Wednesday the rough will be "a little over" 5 inches deep — 2 inches higher than in 2016 — and the greens will roll at between 14.5 and 14.9 on the Stimpmeter. That is the equivalent of hiking the speed limit on the Pennsylvania Turnpike from 70 mph to 85 mph.

Oakmont even had 153 yards added when Gil Hanse restored the layout over the past two years, but length won't be an issue. Strength — handling the nasty enough — is another matter.

"This golf course, there's not many trees out there, but there's so many bunkers," said world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who comes in as the overwhelming favorite after winning three of his past four starts by an average of 5.7 shots. "I don't really know if this is a golf course you can necessarily just overpower with kind of a bomb-and-gouge-type strategy, especially with the way the rough is. You have to play the angles. Some of the greens are elevated; other ones are pitched extremely away from you."

That, apparently, is not going to deter DeChambeau, the defending champ who has finished in the top six of five of the past six majors, including back-to-back PGA Championships.

He comes to Oakmont with a new set of irons but the same attitude that also saw him win the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot.

"It's not like every single hole is Winged Foot out here," DeChambeau said. "You can't just bomb it on every single hole and blast over bunkers and have a wedge run up to the front of the green.

"I think this golf course, you have to be just a fraction more strategic, especially with the rough so long. I'm going to be as fearless as I can possibly be out there, I know that."

It's not getting any easier out there. With another warm, sunny day forecast for Thursday, Oakmont will grow more unpleasant by the hour. The conditions for at least the first two rounds are starting to look as they were in 2007, when Angel Cabrera's winning score was 5-over 285.

"Candidly," Bodenhamer said, "we'd like to see more [of it]."

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