Rory McIlroy Comments on Difficulty of Playing US Open 2016 Course

Rory McIlroy has thrived on the major stage, with four titles to his name in golf's biggest events, but even he is rather fearful of the upcoming 2016 U.S. Open venue, Pennsylvania's Oakmont Country Club.

Asked to summarize Oakmont in one word, McIlroy said Tuesday, per USA Today's Luke Kerr-Dineen, "Trepidation."    

McIlroy elaborated on the "prevailing emotion" he was feeling leading up to Thursday's start to the second major championship of the season, per Kerr-Dineen:

"

You know you're going to be put under a lot of pressure on basically every single golf shot you hit out there. So you have to be prepared for that. You have to be prepared for how mentally demanding it's going to be, how much concentration you're going to need out there.

I think that for the guys who have to go play — well, don't have to, but for the guys that are going to play Congressional next week, they're going to need a couple days off in between this and going there. It' going to be quite the mental grind. You expect that coming into a U.S. Open. It's the toughest test in golf, and you know that, and you have to do everything you can to prepare for that and try to do your best.

"

The Northern Irishman had his major breakthrough at Maryland's Congressional Country Club in 2011's U.S. Open. He ran away from the field with an eight-stroke triumph after blowing a four-stroke, 54-hole lead at the Masters Tournament that year.

But soft conditions from McIlroy's lone U.S. Open win contributed to lower scores. Birdies will be far harder to come by at Oakmont, which last hosted the event in 2007, when Angel Cabrera emerged as the champion with a five-over-par score.

What could save McIlroy some strokes around the difficult course is recent improvement with his putter.

It's been a mostly disappointing season for McIlroy with the flatstick, but in his last start at the Memorial Tournament, he ranked third in the field in strokes gained putting, per the PGA Tour's official website. He wound up tying for fourth with Matt Kuchar, J.B. Holmes and Gary Woodland in the event and also ranking first in strokes gained off the tee.

Despite his reservations about his outlook for this week's tournament, McIlroy may have the skill set necessary to hoist the U.S. Open trophy a second time based on recent history.

Cabrera memorably chain-smoked, often pulled his driver and holed timely putts during his aforementioned triumph at Oakmont. He averaged 310.9 yards off the tee, per USGA.com, leaving himself shorter yardages on his approach shots to somewhat neutralize Oakmont's penalizing rough.

On the other hand, perhaps McIlroy won't be as aggressive based on his emphasis on how important it is to be patient at Oakmont, per Golf.com:

McIlroy is nevertheless one of the better drivers in the game right now, so it'd behoove him to pull the big stick out when appropriate and at least allow for shorter clubs to hold the ball better on Oakmont's slippery greens. 

The key for him and all other hopeful contenders will be to keep their rounds going with clutch par saves because such scores will be at a premium at the challenging venue.

With Jordan Spieth looming as defending champion and world No. 1 Jason Day capable of his own grip-and-rip brilliance, though, McIlroy figures to have his work cut out for him to win a fifth major title.