Rory McIlroy says a battling performance is what is required to emerge victorious at the Oakmont County Club where composure on the challenging greens will be key.
The US Open gets underway tomorrow and McIlroy is hoping to add a second title after his stunning 2011 victory at Congressional Country Club.
His previous four major wins have come on soft and under par course, but the treacherous Oakmont presents an entirely different challenge and the 27-year-old has admitted earlier this week that a win would rank as his biggest achievement in the game.
The last US Open held in Oakmont in 2007 saw Angel Cabrera win on five-over par and speaking to RTÉ Sport, McIlroy says a cool head is imperative.
“The players in control of their emotions, they are the players that are going to come to the top of this golf tournament,” he said.
“The guys that get flustered by bad breaks, or bad lies in the rough, not hitting fairways, they are the guys going to struggle a bit.
"You have to accept that there are going to make mistakes, it’s a matter of how you get out of those and how you scramble for your pars and keep the momentum of your game going.”
"If you make pars out here you will be doing well"
The recent Irish Open winner has been in good form of late, his lowest finish in the last three months has been a 12th place finish and is happy with his game, particularly his putting which will be tested to the limits this week.
“It’s going to be tough. Mentally, that’s what’s going to be the hardest, trying to grind it out.
“You are not going to hit as many greens as you would like and you are going to have to get it up and down and make putts for pars. If you make pars out here you will be doing well.
“You start to let these greens get away from you and all of a sudden you lose a bit of confidence, you start to doubt yourself.
"You can turn a decent 72 into a 77 or 78 very quickly.”
