The USGA invariably ensures that anyone teeing it up at the US Open has to work for their success, with tight scoring, thick rough, narrow fairways, punitive bunkers and challenging greens usually the order of the day.
If the pre-tournament quotes from some of the biggest names in the field before the 2024 tournament are anything to go by, Pinehurst No.2 is going to continue that tradition and is being set up to punish even the smallest mistakes.
Here are eight quotes that suggest the 2024 US Open is going to be particularly treacherous.
Wyndham Clark
The 2023 champion set the alarm bells ringing early over the potentially hazardous nature of the challenges to come, particularly in reference to Pinehurst No.2’s famous domed greens.
On the Monday before the event he said: “The greens are extremely fast and penal. You hit it on the green, the hole is not done. I was just amazed how fast the greens are. Yeah, I mean, they are extremely fast. If they get any firmer and faster, the greens, I mean, they'd be borderline. They already are borderline."
Bryson DeChambeau
If anyone has a right to feel confident heading into the tournament it’s the 2020 US Open champion, particularly after his T6 at The Masters was followed by runner-up at the PGA Championship.
However, DeChambeau is preparing for an altogether different test this week, and is well aware that tackling Pinehurst No.2 will be far from easy.
“Looking forward to a tough test of golf out here,” the LIV golfer began. “Pinehurst is no joke. This is a ball striker's paradise. You have to hit it in the middle of the greens.”
He’s also aware of what parts of his game need to be at their peak to compete: “I'd say that for the most part, you have to focus on your wedge game around the greens,” he said, before warning: “You're not going to hit every green. Your putting and wedging has to be pristine in order to compete at this Major championship and at this venue.”
Viktor Hovland
The Norwegian is still looking for his maiden Major title, but if he is to achieve that here, he knows he will first have to get to grips with his approach to the greens, then his mastery of them.
“You've got to drive it well into the greens. It's a very high value of hitting greens,” he said. “Then with so much slope and how fast the greens are, you've got to really have some touch on the greens as well.”
He added: “I think the best players play aggressively off the tee and conservatively into the greens. I think this course is basically that strategy, just on steroids. I think just hitting the greens itself is of high value.”
Martin Kaymer
The German won in style the last time the US Open was held at Pinehurst No.2, finishing nine-under to romp home by eight, but after his initial impressions of the way the course has been set up for the 2024 edition, he's not expecting a repeat.
He said: "To be honest, I was a little bit overwhelmed this morning when I played the first four or five holes.
"I said to my caddie, 'Has it been that hard 10 years ago? Was it that difficult to hit the greens in the first place and then make the up-and-downs, because the grass obviously is a little bit greener than 10 years ago.
"I found it really hard the way the golf course played today. To make up-and-downs, it's going to be a good challenge."
Rory McIlroy
The 2011 champion sees his work around the perilous greens as pivotal to his chances of success.
He began by addressing the potential for difficulties further back, saying: “It's obviously generous off the tee in terms of the playing corridors that you're asked to hit it into. If you hit it outside of those, you can get yourself into trouble, this sandy waste area.
“Like most Donald Ross courses, it's on and around the greens where I'm going to have to sort of do the most work and sort of figure out what shots to hit around greens.”
Scottie Scheffler
After five wins so far in 2024, the most recent coming just a few days ago at the Memorial Tournament, not much appears to faze Scottie Scheffler on the course at the moment, although he's well aware the set-up at Pinehurst No.2 will be a different beast to what he's been used to in recent months.
He outlined the task facing him and his competitors, and admitted even a hole full of good shots could lead to bogeys.
He said: "There's certain holes out here where, like especially some of the par-3s where there's not really a place where there is a good miss, it's just you just better just get up there and you better hit it right where you're looking or else you're going to be in big trouble.
"A lot of that is just being committed to what you're doing. I can't really worry about where the ball is going to go because I am going to hit a lot of really good shots this week that just don't work out, and you're going to make bogeys hitting good shots. That's just the nature of how difficult the golf course is."
Webb Simpson
The 2012 champion is another who is under no illusions about the potentially punishing nature of Pinehurst No.2 heading into the event.
He said: “This is pretty typical US Open in the sense that par is a great friend to you all week. It's a brutally hard golf course. It's very long and there's no let-up. You have to be incredibly disciplined. You have to accept 30-footers all day.”
Tiger Woods
The 15-time Major winner thinks the work needed on and around the course’s Bermuda grass greens could provide a severe test of judgement – something he’s already found in practice rounds.
He explained: “There's a lot of different shot selections, and the grain is going to play a big part of it. The last few days playing practice rounds - I'm guilty as well as the rest of the guys I've played with - we've putted off a lot of greens.
“It depends how severe the USGA wants to make this and how close they want to get us up to those sides. But I foresee just like in '05 watching some of the guys play ping-pong back and forth. It could happen.”
While players are still assessing exactly what Pinehurst No.2 may require of them over the coming days, it seems as good as certain that it’s not going to be easy.
