Edoardo Molinari has ranked the 2024 version of Pinehurst No.2 as "easily the most difficult course" he has ever played, prior to this week's US Open.
Molinari - a former Scottish Open winner and the World No.14 during the early part of his pro career - has teed it up on many of the planet's toughest tests over 17 Major appearances, including Augusta National Golf Club, the Old Course at St Andrews, and Torrey Pines.
But while those three have their respective complexities, the 43-year-old says Pinehurst's most famous of nine courses will be the most brutal he has ever experienced.
Both Edoardo and brother of Francesco are in the field at Pinehurst looking to win a Major for the first time since the latter's success at the Open Championship in 2018.
If either is to do it, though, the Ryder Cup assistant captain believes they will likely need to make it around the North Carolina layout four times in around even par.
Greens are firm with run offs everywhere…and the actual surface where the ball can stop is very small!I think if the course keeps getting firmer until Sunday anyone finishing under par will have every chance to win!It’s going to be fun grinding out pars!2/2June 12, 2024
Ahead of his first round, Molinari posted on social media to share his thoughts on the upcoming venue. He said: "Really looking forward to playing this US Open at Pinehurst. Not your typical US Open setup as fairways are generous and there is no rough…yet it’s easily the most difficult course I’ve ever played!
"Greens are firm with run offs everywhere…and the actual surface where the ball can stop is very small! I think if the course keeps getting firmer until Sunday anyone finishing under par will have every chance to win! It’s going to be fun grinding out pars!"
A video shared by Preserved Links on X earlier in the week illustrated the point Molinari was making, with an experiment on the fifth green proving just how unrelenting the putting surfaces are at Pinehurst No.2.
One of the people in the video dropped a golf ball from shoulder height which then slowly trickled off the green before racing past a bunker and settling around 40 yards from its initial point of release.
On Monday, the 2023 US Open champion, Wyndham Clark admitted he was "amazed how fast the greens are" before going on to call them "already borderline."
We often debate speed, how fast is too fast? The US Open sets the bar every year. Hit the wrong spot of the green at Pinehurst Number 2 and end up in the waste area 40+ yards away with the hardest shot in golf. Bring on the carnage! pic.twitter.com/4wDbRyUOZNJune 11, 2024
Clark 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."
During his pre-championship press conference on Tuesday, Tiger Woods said that he and his practice partners had been guilty of pushing the ball off the greens due to a minimal misjudgement already and that he could foresee "guys playing ping pong" as they chase putts back and forth across the green.
"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," said Woods. "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."
Earlier in the week, the USGA revealed that greens should be running at around 13.5 on the stimpmeter.
Meanwhile, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson's coach - Claude Harmon III - echoed both Molinari and Woods' sentiment about extremely penal conditions leading to longer rounds - maybe even up to six hours in some cases.
Speaking on his Son of a Butch podcast, Harmon said: "So I think this week is a lot about managing the expectations. I think the rounds are gonna take forever. I don't think we're gonna finish, I certainly don't think people are gonna finish Thursday. The field's too big and the golf course is just too difficult.
"I think we're looking at in excess of five hours, I think we could get into six hour rounds this week because the test is just so difficult. That's what the USGA wants, they want this to be the toughest test possible."
The field is made up of 156 players this week, with the final tee time going out at 2.42pm local time on Thursday. Sunset in Pinehurst, North Carolina is due to be at 8:34pm ET.
