Scottie Scheffler aims for his first US Open title

(AFP) Fresh from being crowned at the PGA Championship, American Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 men's golfer, is the early favorite in the U.S. Open, which starts Thursday with Chile's Joaquín Niemann as another of the hottest players.

Scheffler, 28, arrives to the challenging Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania with a streak of three trophies in his last four events.

His win in May at the PGA Championship gives him a chance to become the first champion of two consecutive Grand Slam titles since Jordan Spieth in 2015.

The winning pace of Scheffler, who also owns two green jackets (2022 and 2024), is already on par with the greatest.

In the last 80 years, only the legendary Tiger Woods, out this season due to injury, and Jack Nicklaus also totaled at least three Majors and a total of 15 tour victories before the age of 29.

Scheffler, however, faces a daunting challenge this week at Oakmont, a 7,431-yard course feared for its ultra-fast greens, tricky bunkers and thick, high rough.

"If there's a weakness in your game, [Oakmont] is going expose it pretty quick," Scheffler warned. "This is probably the hardest golf course that we'll play, maybe ever."

The world No. 1 also played down his status as a wide betting favorite ahead of Bryson DeChambeau, defending champion, and Rory McIlroy, winner of the Masters in April.

"I don't pay attention to the favorite stuff or anything like that," he stressed. "Starting Thursday morning we're at even par and it's up to me to go out there and play against the golf course and see what I can do."

"I'm always chasing history"

Scheffler was not the only contender to warn of the dangers lurking for them at Oakmont, located just outside the city of Pittsburgh and the site of the U.S. Open for the 10th time.

The last one dates back to 2016 with triumph by American Dustin Johnson.

"It's still a big brute of a golf course," summed up Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, world No. 2. "You're going to have to have your wits about you this week."

McIlroy, 36, comes to Oakmont after his historic triumph in April at Augusta, where he ended a decade without a Major title by winning the only one he was missing.

One of the worst moments of that cursed decade occurred in the last edition of the U.S. Open, where the Northern Irishman collapsed in the final stretch, leaving the triumph on a platter to DeChambeau.

The American, winner of the U.S. Open also in 2020, will try to be the first champion to defend his crown since Brooks Koepka in 2018.

"I’m always chasing history, everybody is. ... Going back-to-back would be great," said DeChambeau, a member of the Saudi LIV Golf circuit.

"I've been playing really good golf," stressed the Californian, who won the May stop in South Korea.

Jon Rahm, the only Spanish champion of the U.S. Open with his victory in 2021, is another memeber of the LIV Golf delegation, which also places high hopes this time on Joaquín Niemann.

The Chilean arrives backed by his eighth-place finish at the PGA Championship, his best performance in a Major, but above all by his spectacular season on the LIV Golf circuit, in which he has triumphed in four of the eight events, the last of them last Sunday in Virginia.

The Hispanic-American representation is completed by Colombian Nico Echavarría, Venezuelan Jhonattan Vegas, Argentinean Emiliano Grillo and Mexicans Álvaro and Carlos Ortiz, Roberto Díaz and Emilio González.