Mental toughness of golfers will get a workout at US Open

The mental fortitude of the world's finest golfers will be tested by unrelenting challenges and moments of adversity when the 122nd US Open starts Thursday at The Country Club.

Defending champion Jon Rahm, who won his first major at oceanside Torrey Pines last year, seeks a repeat on a 7,254-yard layout at a 140-year-old urban club where golf has been played since the 1890s.

"I always love coming to courses that were designed so long ago," Rahm said. "The uniqueness of the architecture from back then still stands."

But it's the usual formidable US Open set-up.

"It's going to be long rough and firm and fast greens," said fifth-ranked American Justin Thomas. "It's old school."

It is a mental toughness test as much as a shotmaking one, Spain's second-ranked Rahm said.

"It's a US Open. You need everything," he said. "You need to drive well, hit your irons well, chip well and putt well and be mentally sane for four days. You can't hide. Period.

"Your biggest asset is mental strength out here and that's what you need. You're going to have a lot of holes where things are going to go wrong, but I just have to know going into it and accept certain things that happen. Par is a good score."

Thomas, coming off his second major triumph at last month's PGA Championship, agrees that adversity will provide the true test of mental discipline.

"A lot of it is depending on how you're playing," Thomas said. "If you're cruising and everything feels good, you just basically keep doing what you're doing, stay focused and in the moment.

"It's when things start going south or maybe you get a couple of bad breaks or some wind gusts, whatever it is, to where you just get thrown some adversity, and it's like, how are you going to handle it?

"Those are the