I had to read up on the course. I’m no golfer, but do live in the Seattle area. It looks like a cool course - obviously a lot different than what is usually shown on TV. It sounds like the folks wanted to make the players work and think hard. They got their wish.
This course separates the players from the wimps — spectators, too!
To gauge the difficulty of the US Open, just listen to all these pampered pros whine and moan and complain about how unfair the course is. Those guys won't win. Only the guys that persevere and are patient to the end, win this major. If it was easy, everybody would do it.
US Open scores are notoriously close to par. Usually low scores are not in abundance. There were only 8 players who finished under par in this tournament. Spieth's 5 under was superb for this course. Congratulations to him.