during a practice round prior to the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills on June 13, 2017 in Hartford, Wisconsin.

The U.S. Open tees off on Thursday from Erin Hills, outside Milwaukee. The Comeback will be on-site all week, starting Wednesday, but here are five big-picture storylines to follow once the competition gets going.

How will the pros play Erin Hills?

The course has already made headlines thanks to its lengthy fescue rough, which players whined about to such an extent that the USGA actually cut it down, at least along four holes:

Now, the USGA is countering that narrative, saying the rough was cut down due to heavy rains rendering it unplayable:

But that’s a sorry excuse, to be honest, and it reeks of a reeling USGA wanting to avoid the kind of issues that have plagued the last two Opens. In 2015, there was the Chambers Bay setup catastrophe, which left players (and spectators unable to get close to the action) unhappy, and left viewers at home annoyed with the product on display. (The concerns there might have been a bit overblown, but those greens really were pretty bumpy.)

And then last year was the Dustin Johnson rules controversy, objectively a bad look for the USGA.

So are they a bit gunshy, worried how it would look if players were hitting balls in the tall stuff and futilely attempting to hack it out? Maybe! Or maybe it really did just rain, and that was all part of the plan:

But not all the players are thrilled with this move, either, most notably Rory McIlroy, who pointed out that Erin Hills is already one of the most drivable courses in U.S. Open history, with fairways offering plenty of width before that fescue came into play:

Rory is essentially right, but hey, it’s mowed now, so it’s not going to matter. Side note, Rory is hilarious:

With the course even more open in spots, with plenty of length, it seems like this could be the most bomb-and-gouge friendly U.S. Open in recent memory.

So which big hitter does that favor?

Well, Dustin Johnson isn’t exactly a bomb-and-gouge player, he’s just a bomb-it-straight player, and that tends to work out really well. He won his first major at last year’s U.S. Open, and he’d come close in prior editions as well. Now, firmly entrenched as the No. 1 player in the world, it’s tough to draft any player other than Johnson, if forced to pick one. We didn’t get to see him at Augusta after he fell down some stairs (supposedly), so this is his first major start in 2017, and if he’s striping it, it seems like he’s destined for contention.

This SI piece from Alan Shipnuck on Dustin’s relationship with his brother/caddy Austin is great, and features one of my favorite new 2016 Ryder Cup anecdotes:

During last year’s event at Hazeltine, Dustin faced a sloping mid-length putt that plainly had two or three feet of right-to-left break. After conferring with his brother, he started his ball a yard left of the hole, missing the putt by at least six feet. Had the tension short-circuited his stroke or perhaps clouded his vision, even though this was just a practice round?

In his soft South Carolina drawl, Dustin offered his caddie a different explanation: “Awwwww, man, I had the [green-reading] book upside down.”

Johnson has the perfect U.S. Open mentality (or lack thereof), and though we haven’t seen anyone win back-to-back since Curtis Strange in 1988 and 1989, Johnson really might be the guy to do it again.

How will the newest Masters champion fare?

Sergio Garcia went so long without winning a major that it became a cliche to suggest that once he finally won one, more would come in rapid succession. Now 37, he certainly has a ceiling to his longevity, but it is fair to assume Garcia could be heading for a few more titles before he’s done. He’s played well recently, going T30 at the Players, T20 at the Byron Nelson, and then T12 at Colonial.

He’s also enjoyed success at this tournament in the past (five top-ten finishes, including last year’s T5 at Oakmont), and he’s probably well-suited for the linksy-type setup we’re likely to see at Erin Hills. Sergio picking off a Masters and a U.S. Open back-to-back for his first major titles would certainly be something, and it’d be the second time in three years that one player won both of the year’s first two majors. (Jordan Spieth did it in 2015.)

So is Phil going to play or no?

Phil Mickelson
(Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

Probably not, right? Mickelson announced his intention to skip this year’s iteration so he could instead attend his daughter’s high school graduation, where she’s delivering a commencement address. Phil then backtracked a bit, saying he wasn’t officially giving up hope on being able to go to the graduation in California in the morning, fly across the country, and make his afternoon tee time. He’ll need some lengthy rain and/or weather delays, likely thanks to the kind of intermittent thunderstorms that are far from unheard of for a Midwestern June.

There’s little doubt that Mickelson wants very much to do both. His commitment to family has always been either real or some kind of Prestige-level “live the act” performance art. But he most definitely loves trying to win this tournament, and only has so many chances left. Presumably Thursday will feature Phil Mickelson in the air over the United States, waiting on weather reports to determine if he’ll finish the trip. Imagine if there’s a delay in the morning, setting up a possibility? Golf Twitter, assembled media, and fans would all be talking of nothing else, and if it somehow worked out that he could make it, the ovation he’d receive would be raucous even by Phil’s lofty (Lefty?) standards.

But, that said, he’s probably not playing.

Probably.

About Jay Rigdon

Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.