Rory McIlroy among top golfers struggling through treacherous Oakmont rough in opening round of US Open

Mason Howell, a 17-year-old golfer, joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to share his experience qualifying for the 2025 U.S. Open.

All week long, golf fans have heard about the treacherous conditions that lurk at Oakmont Country Club for the 125th U.S. Open. 

Rory McIlroy was among those golfers who proved why the course is so tough in this third major of the season. 

The 2025 Masters champion was truly going through it at Oakmont during his Thursday round, and it came toward the end of what looked to be a great start for McIlroy. 

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Rory McIlroy hits his shot on the 17th hole during the first round of the U.S. Open. (Bill Streicher-Imagn Images)

McIlroy posted a front-nine 33, birdying his second and third holes while shooting par on the rest. However, the back nine was where things started to fall off the rails, and Oakmont’s infamous thick rough played a huge part in that. 

His first bogey of the day came on Hole 1 (McIlroy began his round on Hole 10), and things could’ve been much worse on Hole 4 when his drive on the par-5 fired to the right and landed on horrible, high grass. 

The ball wasn’t visible at all as McIlroy took a hack at it, and the result was it landing just a few feet in front of him. So, with one foot in a fairway bunker, McIlroy swung again but to no avail. The ball landed a few feet to the right this time. 

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McIlroy was stepping into his fourth shot on a hole that could’ve derailed his entire round. But he was able to get the ball on the fairway just in front of the green with a chance to at least go up and down to save bogey. 

That’s exactly what he did,