Only one player conquered a brutal Oakmont Country Club layout and that person finished one under par after 72 holes. So, the word ‘conquered’ is probably a bit strong.

American JJ Spaun was the only man standing in the red zone to claim his maiden Major, with South Africans Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Thriston Lawrence shooting six over par totals, which was enough to snare them a share of 12th. Five over par was enough to secure a top-10 finish.

Most golfers reading this column wouldn’t break 100 on the Oakmont layout that brought the very best professionals to their knees. The average golf handicap for men is around 15, and for women it’s about 24. Throw in the course conditions set up for the week and you might even struggle to break 100 if you were allowed to play your first shot from 200 metres out.

The US Open is notoriously testing. Three times since 2012 the winning score has been over par, while in 2006 and 2007 a final tally of five over was good enough to secure the Major.

Which brings us to the obvious question: Is it fair to set up a golf course so treacherous that level par after 72 holes is going to see you on the first page of the leaderboard?

I’m going to compare it to Test cricket. There has to be a balance between bat and ball. No one wants to see a ‘concrete road’ for a Test like the one at Newlands in 2016 when South Africa scored 629 runs in their first innings and England replied with 627. Batters’ paradise.

Or indeed like the same Newlands in 2011 when South Africa were bowled out for 96 and replied by skittling Australia for 47, all inside 43 overs. Bowlers’ paradise.

The sweet spot lies somewhere in the middle, surely?

And golf?

A man who has won two US Opens, including one at the same venue which hosted this year’s event is Ernie Els – and he saw nothing wrong with the way the course was prepared.

‘It looks to me like the perfect set-up. The thing with Oakmont is you’ve got to play all the shots. The one-dimensional approach doesn’t cut it. You’ve got to shape the ball both ways off the tee and into the greens. This isn’t a course where you hit driver everywhere. In 1994 I hit everything from a driver to a 4-iron to put myself in the ideal position to hit greens. That was key,’ he posted on Instagram.

Els used the words ‘patience’ and ‘endurance’, which brought me back to cricket. When South Africa won the World Test Cricket Championship final, the batter who spent the most time at the crease was Temba Bavuma. He faced 218 balls in total and scored 102 runs, huge in the contest of a low-scoring Test.

Interestingly, Bavuma isn’t sought-after on the frenetic T20 circuit and is regarded as a ‘traditional Test player’, someone who gutses it out to score his runs. So many T20 regulars struggled to survive on a tricky Lord’s Test pitch.

Did Oakmont highlight the ‘T20’ approach that has become part of golf – smash the ball miles with equipment that supports a ‘grip it and rip it’ philosophy? Sure, it would be cruel to expect an average amateur to enjoy their experience on this Oakmont. But, these elite-level golfers get the big bucks. It's their day job. I’d rather see this Oakmont, a test of patience and endurance, than one whereby you have to shoot 16 under par to get into the top 10.

Gary Lemke