It sounds as though we could be looking at a winning number this week of level par, or perhaps a first winning over par four-round total at the US Open since Shinnecock Hills in 2018, when Brooks Koepka's +1 score secured the trophy.
The build-up to the 125th US Open at Oakmont has been dominated by talk of the long rough and the "crazy" 289-yard par-3 8th.
Oakmont, of course, already has a reputation for being one of the most demanding Major Championship venues, with its slick putting surfaces and 175 bunkers adding to the degree of difficulty.
The course has been played as a par 70 over the last two US Opens (2007 and 2016), and during this time only four players out of 312 have scored under par for the week.
Nine years ago, Dustin Johnson lifted his first Major Championship trophy with a winning score of -4 (276), with Shane Lowry, Jim Furyk and Scott Piercy the only other players to finish under par (-1).
No one managed to finish in the red numbers in the 2007 edition of the contest, which is not something that bothered Angel Cabrera, whose +5 total was good enough for a one-shot victory over Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods.
Incredibly, a score of +14 that week was good enough for a top-20 finish.
This will be the 10th time that Oakmont has hosted the US Open. Here, we take a look back at the winning scores for each of those tournaments, the first of which came in 1927.
Year |
Player |
Total |
2016 |
Dustin Johnson |
276 (-4) |
2007 |
Angel Cabrera |
285 (+5) |
1994 |
Ernie Els |
279 (-5) |
1983 |
Larry Nelson |
280 (-4) |
1973 |
Johnny Miller |
279 (-5) |
1962 |
Jack Nicklaus |
283 (-1) |
1953 |
Ben Hogan |
283 (-5) |
1935 |
Sam Parks Jr. |
299 (+11) |
1927 |
Tommy Armour |
301 (+13) |
Oakmont Country Club has also hosted three PGA Championships. John Mahaffey posted a four-round total of 276 (-8) in 1978 to lift the Wanamaker Trophy.
Gene Sarazen (matchplay) and Sam Snead (matchplay) were the other winners in 1922 and 1951, respectively.
The US Women's Open has also visited "the beast" twice, first in 1992, when Patty Sheehan won with a four-round total of 280 (-4); and then in 2010, when Paula Creamer took 281 blows (-3) to claim victory.
How Difficult Is Oakmont?
Looking back at the scoring at Oakmont in past US Opens, a number of other statistics underline just how difficult the course is.
Of the 443 official rounds recorded at the 2016 tournament, only one was bogey free. Johnson, who went on to lift the trophy, returned a blemish-free scorecard in the first round 67, which contained three birdies and 15 pars.
Meanwhile, the field scoring average at the 2007 US Open was 75.705 (or +5.705 in relation to par), which is the highest scoring average relative to par for any US Open over the last 50 years.
Finally, just to emphasize the point, the field scoring average has been at least two strokes over par in every US Open round played at Oakmont, dating back to 1927.
