After enduring the difficulty of Saturday at The Players Championship and a slightly less demanding version of TPC Sawgrass on Sunday, Rory McIlroy seemed downright giddy to get out of northeast Florida.
...and is excited to play on the hardest golf course on the planet?
The U.S. Open is a month away, and Oakmont C.C. near Pittsburgh will host the national championship for the ninth time. It's probably the only golf course in the country that could host the year's second major on three days' notice. Oakmont plays like a U.S. Open setup pretty much every day of the year.
Nonetheless, McIlroy, himself a streaky putter, can't wait to take on an Open challenge that's more like the archetype for this championship instead of the deviation that was Chambers Bay near Tacoma, Wash., last year.
“I’m looking forward to it,” he said, according to Golf Digest. “Back to a nice traditional U.S. Open, not like we’re playing on the moon this year.”
Chambers Bay was a first-time U.S. Open host, and the USGA practically lost the fescue greens to the point that some, including McIlroy, used vegetables to describe their texture. It was an experiment gone wrong. That won't be the case with Oakmont. USGA president Mike Davis has made it clear that he and his team know, from experience, the blueprint for a perfect Oakmont Open.
However, McIlroy still has two more tournaments between him and a chance at a fifth career major. This week he hosts the European Tour's Irish Open at The K Club. Two weeks later, he'll compete in the Memorial Tournament at Jack Nicklaus' Muirfield Village in Ohio. Then, the Open.

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.
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