Jon Rahm began naming the past U.S. Open winners at Oakmont, starting with Dustin Johnson, Angel Cabrera, Ernie Els and Larry Nelson. He added Johnny Miller and Jack Nicklaus as he thought back.

He was making a point.

In his mind, they all had something in common: strength. They all were naturally strong men, he said, a physical trait that helped them overcome the grind of Oakmont Country Club.

“It’s a long golf course,” Rahm said. “Any time you have heavy rough and length, just being able to hit a distance, that speed to move the ball forward is always going to be a massive, massive advantage.”

The historic course is set to host the U.S. Open for a record 10th time starting Thursday with the first groups teeing off at 6:45 a.m. If recent history is an indication, the golfer who lifts the trophy Sunday will be strong enough to do it with ease.

Consider who won the past two U.S. Opens held at Oakmont. Both times the tournament leader in driving distance also was the eventual champion.

In 2007, Cabrera averaged 310.88 yards off the tee, about 6 yards farther than anyone else. In 2016, Johnson’s drives averaged 317.14 yards, more than 8 yards better than the field.

Plus, Oakmont is slightly longer by 153 yards after a renovation two years ago.

“Length in a major like this … having that power is always helpful,” said Rahm, one of golf’s longest hitters. “I would like to see all those (past) champions in common. I would like to guess that that week (they won at Oakmont), the driving was very much on point.”

The 30-year-old Spaniard is among 16 players in this year’s U.S. Open field averaging better than 310 yards off the tee, playing either on the PGA Tour or in the LIV Golf League. Defending U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau tops that list at 331.9 yards, prodigious length that helped him win last year at Pinehurst.

The next longest drivers are Chile’s Joaquin Niemann (327.3 yards), Denmark’s Niklas Norgaard (320), Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy (319.2), Rahm (318.9), Johnson (315.4) and Australia’s Min Woo Lee (314.7). But Rahm, who tied for 23rd at Oakmont in 2016 as an amateur, stressed there’s more to winning here than just crushing drives.

Thick rough makes it a risky move.

“It’s obviously nearly impossible to win a tournament here if you’re not hitting it well off the tee,” said Rahm, who won the 2021 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. “If you keep putting yourself off the fairway, for lack of a better term, you’re going to get ‘Oakmont’ very often.”

In 2016, Johnson found the fairway more often than not. He hit 36 of 56 fairways, an accuracy rate of 64% that tied for 18th best in the field.

Johnson finished at 4-under.

“I think this golf course you have to be just a fraction more strategic, especially with the rough so long,” DeChambeau said. “I’m going to be as fearless as I can possibly be out there. I know that.”

Two-time major champion Justin Thomas said Oakmont forces players to make club decisions on the tee. His driver averages 304.3 yards. Pulling out that club has its rewards but also its risks.

“The thing is you have a hole like 15,” Thomas said of the 507-yard par 4. “I hit driver (in a practice round), but again, if it gets a little bit firm and it’s downwind, I could hit 5-wood. I think that’s cool. I think you have a lot of tee shots out here where you’re not just, like, grabbing a club.”

But for those who can drive it the farthest, there’s certainly a much better risk-to-reward ratio.

“You look at someone like Rory McIlroy,” Thomas said. “You drive it like he does, I would pull that driver out as often as I can. He hits it further and straighter than maybe anybody that’s played the game. It’s hard to argue why he wouldn’t hit driver as often as he could.”

Already a two-time U.S. Open champion, DeChambeau said his tee-box strategy will be determined largely by how well he’s hitting his driver. He averaged 337 yards off the tee last year at Pinehurst and 325 yards at Winged Foot for his first U.S. Open title in 2020.

But DeChambeau pointed out that not every U.S. Open course is the same.

“It’s not like every single hole is Winged Foot out here,” he said. “You can’t just bomb it on every single hole and blast over bunkers and have a wedge run up to the front of the green. You can on a lot of the holes but not on every one of them.”

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