2025 U.S. Open: Cutmakers
Generally good weeks at Oakmont. With caveats.
With Champions in the books, now time for those who had good weeks at Oakmont. With light to moderate quibbling…
Carlos Ortiz. Forgotten since moving to LIV and losing to teammate Joaquin Niemann, he delivered an impressive T4 finish. It’s the best-ever major finish from a player from Mexico and featured the strongest tee-to-fringe effort of the top 5 finishers with only Sunday’s double at the 15th marring an otherwise standout week. Now back to anonymity.
Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy. The major winners and biggest names experienced both good and strange moments. Rahm’s final day 67 suggested he still can be as good as any player in the world despite playing Oakmont’s par 4s +8. Scheffler hung around without his best game, but kept missing key opportunities like Sunday’s (ultra generous) 17th hole sprinkler head drop from a downhill lie in the Big Mouth hay, to a flat spot in the semi-cut. The usual club slams are one thing, but the range unraveling seemed odd. Schauffele, who maintained an incredible streak in the U.S. Open, seems to be relying too much on his caddie to tell him to what to do (at least based on featured group audio). The intense focus of last year has yet to return over four days but he still seems close to another win. (Maybe a little game self-ownership at Portrush?). McIlroy’s clear post-Masters fog/fatigue, combined with the condensed modern major schedule, has turned out to be a massive negative and he only has a few weeks before Portrush to catch his breath. At least he returned on Sunday in a good mood after Saturday’s bizarre press session. A final round 67 might be the homeland send-off he needs.
Ben Griffin. Take away Saturday’s third round 74 where a crushing 18th hole double killed his momentum, and the upstart of 2025 looks like he’s become America’s second most consistent player after Scheffler. A Ryder Cup spot now seems set.
Phil Mickelson. The 55-year-old six-time runner-up, still-living-in-California, self-declared billionaire/reformed wagerer was in position to make the weekend. But two late double bogeys sent him Hy Flying back to his beloved social media crusading. Mickelson has had a terrific U.S. Open run without winning. But no exemptions are coming at this age and after playing hockey at Shinnecock where he was, somehow, not DQ’d for the ultimate breach. Of course, there is always hope for an invite since he had one in 2021 before winning the PGA. But he’s gone pretty cray-cray since so there’s always Final Qualifying. He can ask fellow LIVster GMac how that works since he, as a former champion no longer exempt, still admirably gives it a go every year.
American Ryder Cup Hopes. With 13 birdies at Oakmont, the USA team must make room for Griffin (now 8th in the standings). The win by J.J. Spaun, and a resurgent performance from Cameron Young (now 15th in points), helped offset the dismal performances of Justin Thomas and Bryson DeChambeau. Captain Keegan Bradley (T33) continues to show he’s hovering around good-enough form to be needed more for his game than his…whatever reason he was picked to be the 2025 captain.
Ballstrikers. It’s not as if top three finishers Spaun, MacIntyre or Hovland hit the ball poorly. But claims that old school U.S. Open rough and fast greens reward hitting fairways and greens? That did not pan out. At least in comparison to what putting meant for the best finishers (above). Only Hovland lost 1.612 strokes to finish 56th, but he also holed out a few times from around the greens and merely gained a stroke with his off-the-tee work.
Rain. The Thor Guard predictors were remarkably spot-on all week. In hindsight, the USGA should have started the final round an hour earlier given the 60% chance that morphed into 100% misery. Particularly now that we know NBC seemed more excited about racking up a rerun from 2008 than prepping viewers for the restart. Very few inland courses could have handled what Oakmont took on. It’s a tribute to the agronomic team led by GCSAA super Mike McCormick, surface drainage, and years of under-the-hood efforts to help absorb water.
Bunkers. Less deep than last time and with sand groomed by pitifully light furrows, the bunkers took on new meaning last week thanks to steep faces. Yet the pits were nothing like the rough around them, except maybe the 18th fairway’s rightside bunkers that claimed several high-profile victims. Given how much the “Fownes vision” demanded bunkers to have real meaning, maybe the rough around them could be less injury-thick and the sand a little more imperfect?
The Druckenmiller Bridge. A longtime friend of golf, Stan Druckenmiller funded a club caddie scholarship mentioned by qualifier Matt Vogt. He also funded the creation of a new spectator bridge after 1990s USGA leadership said a new one was needed or else Oakmont would never host again. The current bridge is now too narrow for the ample galleries and other modern U.S. Open needs. Matters were not helped by a new cart road as part of anchor site life that also seemed dangerous at times. Now, maybe by 2032 everyone in a cart will be droning around the property. And while the bridge did the job—if you don’t mind being sandwiched with your fellow spectators for as long as 30 minutes to cross over a major turnpike—it’s fine. But as an anchor site with big events committed into Bennett Scheffler’s Champions Tour years, a solution is needed to help fans spend less time crossing and more time watching.