The essentials

When: Thursday-Sunday (if necessary, an 18-hole playoff will be played on Monday)

Where: Oakmont Country Club (7,254 yards, par 70). The course is famous for its "Church Pew" bunkers between the third and fourth fairways, for its notoriously fast greens, and for being one of the hardest golf courses in America.

The field: 156 players

TV: Fox Sports (Ch. 9) and FS1

Past U.S. Open winners at Oakmont

1927: Tommy Armour1973: Johnny Miller

1935: Sam Parks Jr.1983: Larry Nelson

1953: Ben Hogan1994: Ernie Els

1962: Jack Nicklaus2007: Angel Cabrera

five things to know

Youth movement: Seven of the past eight major champions were in their 20s, the most over a span of two years since 1921-23.

Never a bride: Phil Mickelson has finished runner-up in the U.S. Open a record six times, most recently in 2013 at Merion.

Go low? Not so: There were only eight rounds in the 60s all week the last time the U.S. Open was held at Oakmont.

A feat to repeat: Jordan Spieth will try to become the first back-to-back winner since Curtis Strange in 1989, four years before Spieth was born.

Better late than never: Former PGA Tour winner Wes Short Jr. is playing his first U.S. Open at age 52.

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