Oakmont unleashes carnage: Top stars collapse, 16 shoot 80+, McIlroy and Scheffler stumble.

Oakmont Country Club delivered precisely the brutality it’s infamous for as Round 1 of the U.S. Open unfolded in Pennsylvania. The historic course, designed to break even the best, showed no mercy on Thursday, reducing top golfers to wrecks and spitting out shocking scores.

The par-70 course played to a brutal average of 74.64, making it the most difficult U.S. Open opener since Shinnecock Hills in 2018. And unlike Shinnecock, no wild wind or brutal conditions inflated the scores. The carnage was entirely Oakmont’s doing.

J.J. Spaun briefly defied expectations with a bogey-free 4-under 66, joined by under-the-radar names like Thriston Lawrence and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, who also navigated the chaos well. But these performances were the exception, not the rule.

For most, Oakmont’s punishing design struck hard. Sixteen players shot 80 or worse—more than the entire 2016 tournament at Oakmont, which saw only 18 such rounds across all four days. And the first round was supposed to be the easiest, with soft greens due to recent rain and minimal wind.

Rory McIlroy provided one of the day’s most dramatic collapses. After a controlled front nine where he shot 2-under 33, McIlroy unravelled on the back, carding a 41 to finish with a 4-over 74—his worst U.S. Open opening round since his infamous 80 at Shinnecock Hills seven years ago.

McIlroy’s troubles started early on the first hole, where a simple birdie opportunity turned into a three-putt bogey. At the par-5 fourth, after missing the fairway, it took him three swings just to escape the rough, salvaging a bogey only after an unlikely up-and-down.

Scottie Scheffler, widely tipped to tame Oakmont, couldn’t escape its grip either. His 3-over 73 marked his worst round relative to par since February. Frustration peaked on the 14th hole, where he tore a divot from the fairway in visible disgust. Speaking afterwards, Scheffler admitted, “It’s just really hard to get the ball in play, and it’s really hard to get the ball close. Anytime you’re out of position, the golf course just gets really challenging.”

Veteran players weren’t spared. Shane Lowry needed an eagle hole-out just to break 80. Sepp Straka carded a 78. Justin Rose stumbled to a 77. Robert MacIntyre, who shot even-par, called it one of the finest rounds of his career, saying, “You shoot four level-par rounds, you’re walking away with a medal and a trophy.”

Adam Scott, assessing the course’s evolving brutality, warned that Thursday may have been the calm before the real storm. “It’s really hard. But it’s not blow-your-brains-out kind of hard just yet,” he said. Predicting a winning score of plus-four, Scott added ominously: “They’ve got plenty of tricks up their sleeve.”

How many tricks remain will partly depend on the weather. Rain is forecast over the next three days, potentially softening the greens and easing scoring. But Oakmont’s reputation as a destroyer of egos remains firmly intact—its history of carnage dates back to its 1904 opening, and shows no sign of ending.

The disaster-hungry fans will keep watching as Oakmont’s signature destruction continues into the weekend. Thursday’s mayhem may only have been the opening act.