OAKMONT, Pa. — The 125th U.S. Open Championship returns to Oakmont Country Club this week for the 10th time and first time since 2016.
Despite a rules controversy during the final round that penalized him with a one-stroke penalty, Dustin Johnson came out on top during Oakmont’s last go-around in 2016, while Bryson DeChambeau is the defending U.S. Open champion, having won by one shot over Rory McIlroy last year at Pinehurst.
Some storylines heading into the first round, which begins on Thursday:
HOMETOWN KID
Despite briefly playing college golf at Butler, Matt Vogt never had any aspirations of playing professional golf.
Vogt, currently a practicing dentist in Indiana, grew up in the Pittsburgh area about 30 minutes from Oakmont and spent five years caddieing at the course.
Now this week, after qualifying at Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Washington, Vogt is making a return to his hometown to play in this week’s U.S. Open.
“Honestly, with the restoration work here at Oakmont and everything going on with the Open, I try not to even pay attention to it because I knew that it was an absolute pipe dream to get here,” Vogt said during his press conference at Oakmont on Monday. “It is for the best pros in the world, let alone amateurs. So I almost didn’t want to think about it too much.
“I’m still trying to soak it all in, but also not get too sentimental about it because it’s incredible. I mean, where we’re sitting right now is not far from where I sat in the caddie yard waiting for people on the range. Even as I just talk about it now, I get sentimental on it. This place means so much to me. … So I’m just indebted to this place, and I’m so grateful. I’m just so grateful honestly.”
Vogt defied astounding odds to get into the 156-player field since only 17 players out of 10,202 entries made it through local and final qualifying.
He put together back-to-back 68s to shoot 8-under and finish atop the field to earn one of the two qualifying spots available at Wine Valley.
“That’s the crazy part about qualifying,” Vogt said. “You qualify, and you’ve got to get going, the U.S. Open is the next week. Kind of took a flier on it being a great course fit for my game, and it paid off.”
Vogt previously played in the 2021 U.S. Amateur Championship at Oakmont, where he shot 9-over 149 over two days to miss the cut. But he’s not thinking about expectations this week — he’s just trying to maximize his experience this week as much as he can.
“I don’t have a specific goal this week. I don’t have expectations, and I don’t have the same going forward. It’s just what’s possible,” Vogt said. “It’s all because I love golf so much. I love the people that you come in contact with, and I love the places that you end up. That’s honestly what it’s all about for me at this point.”
MASTER TINKERER
As a two-time U.S. Open champion, DeChambeau has had his best stuff during recent major championships.
He finished tied for fifth at Augusta and led the tournament during the final round. Then, despite being five shots behind winner Scottie Scheffler, DeChambeau still tied for second at last month’s PGA Championship.
Despite the pair of top-five finishes, DeChambeau still wasn’t satisfied. After struggling with his irons and approach play, he hinted after the PGA Championship at a possible equipment change ahead of the U.S. Open.
He put a new set of irons in his bag at last week’s LIV Golf Virginia event and is ready to debut them at this week’s U.S. Open.
“I’ve optimized it a little bit more, so hopefully that helps with those overdraws in my irons,” DeChambeau said during his pre-tournament press conference Tuesday. “You never know, but they seem to have helped (last week), and hopefully it aids me this week.”
DeChambeau’s new LA Golf prototype irons are the third version he’s worked through, and they emphasize a specific curvature on the face of the club.
“We’re just optimizing for the gear effect on the heel and on the toe based on the mass properties that are there,” DeChambeau said. “I’ve got such heavy grips and heavy golf shaft that it moves the CG (center of gravity) of the club all the way to the heel, so we try to offset that with that tungsten weight on the toe.”
However, the new irons aren’t necessarily a panacea for DeChambeau’s chances to defend his title this week. He knows he still has to perform in all areas to succeed on a course as trying as Oakmont.
“Is it going to be the ultimate answer to me winning? Probably not,” DeChambeau said. “You’ve still got to putt well, drive it well and everything. Will it help me on certain shots in certain conditions? I think it might. If it doesn’t, I’ll go back to the drawing board and try to figure out why that occurred and continue to optimize.”
PHIL’S LAST STAND
Having finished as runner-up at the U.S. Open a record six times, Phil Mickelson is back in the field and is still chasing that elusive crown at America’s national championship that would complete his career Grand Slam.
However, the U.S. Open exemption that he earned after winning the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island is expiring after this year, which means that 2025 could be his last U.S. Open appearance and his last chance to finish the slam.
Mickelson even admitted as much ahead of last week’s LIV Golf Virginia event, where he had one of his best performances since making the move to LIV in 2023. He showed flashes of vintage “Lefty” while shooting 13-under at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club to finish two shots behind tournament winner Joaquin Niemann.
Mickelson also has a third-place finish in Hong Kong in March and a sixth-place finish in Miami in April this year.
Going forward, in order to play in the U.S. Open, Mickelson would have to either go through qualifying or receive a special exemption from the USGA.
WHAT’S NEXT FOR RORY?
After finally checking that last box and capturing the Masters in April to complete the career Grand Slam, McIlroy has searched for motivation for what comes next in his decorated career.
“I’m sort of just taking it tournament by tournament at this point,” McIlroy said during his press conference on Tuesday.
Since the high of winning at Augusta, McIlroy has struggled through a hangover of sorts the last couple months by his standards — a surprise since he’s already won three times this year, including at The Players in March.
A course he has excelled at in the past, McIlroy finished tied for 47th at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. Then he missed the cut at the RBC Canadian Open last week after a second-round 78, the second-worst mark of his career.
“I think it’s trying to have a little bit of amnesia and forget about what happened six weeks ago,” McIlroy said. “Then trying to find the motivation to go back out there and work as hard as I’ve been working. I worked incredibly hard on my game from October last year all the way up until April this year. It was nice to sort of see the fruits of my labor come to fruition (at Augusta) and have everything happen.”
He arrives at Oakmont this week having settled on a driver, which has been an issue and a reason for some of his recent struggles since his previous one was deemed non-conforming at the PGA.
After winning the U.S. Open in 2011 at Congressional for his first major championship, McIlroy struggled in the tournament from 2016-18, missing the cut three straight years.
Since then, however, McIlroy has finished in the top 10 each of the last six years, which includes back-to-back runner-up finishes at the U.S. Open at LACC in 2023 and Pinehurst in 2024.
With the confidence of his success in recent U.S. Opens and his renewed sense of purpose, he’ll try to continue that this week at Oakmont.
“Shinnecock (2018) was a really hard one because I love that golf course, and to perform the way I did there, it really hurt me,” McIlroy said. “That’s when I made the decision at that back end of 2018 into 2019 — I want to try to build my game around the toughest tests that we have in the game.
“I’ve definitely become a much more confident U.S. Open player and I’m way more comfortable on those firm, fast setups. Obviously the U.S. Open went from probably my least favorite major to probably my favorite because of what it asks of you, and I love that challenge.”
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