PITTSBURGH — The U.S. Open is generally the toughest of the four major golf tournaments, so it is appropriate it will be played this year for the 10th time ever at Oakmont, a course generally regarded as one of the five toughest in the United States.

A good friend of mine described Oakmont Country Club as “a beautiful walk ruined by having to play golf,” and I would tend to agree.

It beats you up and is not very forgiving, especially when they grow it out and get it ready for the U.S. Open. The rough becomes more like a jungle, the greens are like putting on a marble floor, and some of the pin placements make it almost impossible to get an approach shot close.

And then there are the bunkers, which can make even the best in the world want to quit playing golf, as they can be very difficult to get out of or to stop the ball in the right place once it lands.

I remember the final 10 holes of the 2007 U.S. Open like it was yesterday as I walked along the ropes with the final pairing. It was amazing how the entire gallery lived and died with almost every shot Tiger Woods made or missed. He needed to find one birdie, but he just couldn’t despite having several really good looks at them.

That was Woods, though. He was different. He was on a different level, and in some ways, you can credit him with pulling the entire PGA Tour and professional golf up a notch.

Now, it is a group of elite players who seem to be pushing to take things to the next level — and all of it together will make for a weekend of watching the world’s greatest golfers fight off bogeys and double bogeys like they are hackers on a muni on Saturday morning. I enjoy watching the pros destroy some of these courses, and in general, I want to see low scores, but I thoroughly enjoy watching one or two times a year when a particular golf course brings them back to reality.

That’s what I would typically expect at Oakmont, though I have a funny feeling that a few of these pros will get the better of the course this time.

That’s mainly because the field is so good right now, and so many of the best players are playing their best golf leading up to the event that it won’t shock me if the winning score is comfortably in the red.

The last time the U.S. Open was played at Oakmont, Dustin Johnson won at 4-under par, and then three players — Jim Furyk, Scott Piercy and Shane Lowry — tied for second at 1-under.

That’s the entire list of players in the red that weekend, and only one (Johnson) was comfortably in the red. Angel Cabrera won the 2007 U.S. Open at Oakmont, and he was 5-over, just edging Woods (6-over) and Furyk (6-over), as the track was obviously made much more difficult than any of the players would like.

Johnson is a big name and former winner, obviously, but he has faded of late. He is the one guy who seemingly took the LIV Golf money and ran with it. He made it clear he liked making lots of money without having to play nearly as much, and it has enabled him to have the lifestyle with his family he wants. That’s admirable, but in terms of keeping his golf game sharp enough to win these major events, it hasn’t translated.

Jon Rahm struggled a little but showed at the PGA Championship a few weeks ago that he will still be a factor. Rahm tied for eighth at 4-under, but that’s mostly because he had a bad stretch on the final day. He was in contention for most of the weekend. I would be willing to bet he will be even more fine-tuned for the U.S. Open with another month or so to work on his game.

Scottie Scheffler just won the PGA Championship. Rory McIlroy won the Masters. Bryson DeChambeau has been hanging around in just about all these events, and it even feels like guys like Collin Morikawa, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Keegan Bradley and Tony Finau are playing better of late.

The competitive nature of the field, the stars at the top of the leaderboards, and the aura of Oakmont all coming together for one weekend tell me this will be one heck of a show and display of golf. And what we have seen in the first two majors this year is that all of that competition and big names on leaderboards push players to even greater heights.

Sure, it isn’t the same as when there was one lead dog — Woods — and everyone hunting him, but more often than not, those tournaments were more about who was finishing second than anything because, for a 12-year period, he was absolutely dominant.

Woods is done, though, and despite all of these futile attempts to label every guy who wins a few tournaments early in his career as “the next,” the reality is we won’t see another Tiger for a long, long time.

Even Scheffler, as great as he is, will not likely get to 10 major championships, much less 15.

But what is fun now is there are four or five — maybe more — lead dogs whom everyone seems to be chasing, and that has made the competition even hotter and greater than ever. On a given weekend, any one of those top five or six guys can sit on top of the leaderboard, giving it the Woods-like feel of the lead dog being chased by everyone else.

And given how well so many of the top players are playing, it could be an epic day for the last three or four groupings on Sunday at Oakmont, as it won’t be surprising if there are the big names everyone seems to root for — or against — battling for the title.

Oakmont will absolutely be a challenge, and I am sure all these golfers will have their moments — good and bad. But I think what we have seen this year, especially in the two majors, is many of the best players will show up and shine.

I’m not saying they will beat Oakmont Country Club, but don’t be surprised if they at least make it look beatable by the end of the weekend.

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