SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. -- There are many distinct ways to tell, as a viewer, you are watching a brutally difficult U.S. Open set up. Usually it involves ankle-deep rough and greens that react like concrete, but as Erin Hills showed us last year, even those features aren't always the best indicator there will be carnage.
The biggest tell is always what is happening on the players' faces. They grimace, they clench their jaw, they growl at their golf ball when it's still in the air and drifting off line. No matter how good they are at controlling their temper, all them engage in some version of what ought to be known as The U.