Friday At The 125th U.S. Open
Sam Burns posts 65 to lead by one over J.J. Spaun. Play is suspended late after a long day at Oakmont. Plus, Perez's ace, Quotables, This And That, the 12th plays over par with a wild pin.
Round Two By The Numbers
65: Low round by Sam Burns
6: Birdies by Burns
8:15 p.m.: Horn sounds with 13 players on the course
+6: Lowest 36-holes by an amateur, Justin Hastings
10: Rounds under par Friday
74.783: Second round scoring average
+7: Likely cutline (67 currently inside the line)
3: Number of players under par through 36 holes (10 in 2016)
Upper 14s to low low 15s: Stimpmeter readings after Friday mowing
7,382: Second round yardage
5: groups on the 12th hole at one point in the afternoon
89: High round of the day (George Duangmanee, 175 total)
62: Players finishing two rounds at double digits over par
5:52: Time in hours and minutes for afternoon groups
It’s not a proper Oakmont U.S. Open without griping, grumbling, clear threats to tee markers, and all topped off by a healthy serving of misery spending six hours on edge.
Just ask nice guy instructor Randy Smith, who dealt with a petulant Scottie Scheffler after the World No. 1 shot one-over-par. (If you don’t want to hit the link, Scheffler went with the exasperated sideways cap and way too much driving range drama). Jordan Spieth put in a long and feisty session following his round with similar body language. Rory McIlroy cast a fairway wood with his signature Tommy Bolt light action and five holes later broke a 17th tee marker. Shane Lowry picked up his ball without putting a marker down and laughed, then said after the round it was one of the “stupidest things I’ve ever done.” I believe the clinical term is brainfart.
Now, contain yourselves Oakmont members.
Sam Burns shot a 65 that could have easily been a Johnny. And not everyone left Oakmont wondering why they chose to golf as a living.
Burns, the runner-up last week in Canada, posted a 65 before the media could even debate how best to craft a sandwich out today’s deliciously moist pork loin. He finished the day with the solo lead at -3 and long before the closing hour turned into a nightmare for the final six groups.
Burns’s round was the 12th of 65 or lower in Oakmont’s U.S. Open history. His Friday seven-stroke swing came down to a huge improvement in approach play. After hitting 10 of 18 greens in round one, Burns finished on 14 Friday. He went from a proximity average of 73’2” to 36’11” en route to the low round of the championship. He also scrambled 3 of 4 times after struggling in round one when going just 2 of 8 from around the dense, rough-guarded greens.
“I think for this golf course, you really just have to free it up,” Burns said. “It's too hard to try to guide it around here. You're going to hit some in the rough, you're going to hit some in some bad spots, you might as well do it with authority.”
Burns recorded his first top-10 in a major last year at Pinehurst (T-9). He will tee off Saturday afternoon with first-round leader J.J. Spaun (66-72-138) at a late afternoon time TBD.
The only other player trailing Burns to appear somewhat in command of his game heading into the weekend is Viktor Hovland. Now working on his game with former tour pro Grant Waite, the relentless tinkerer appeared to have some of his 2023 mojo back during Friday’s 68.
Hovland opened up with a back-nine 32 before finishing on the front with bogeys on two of his last three holes.
“For some reason I've just been in a really nice mental state this week,” Hovland said after hitting 14 of 18 greens despite only hitting six fairways in round two. “Both my rounds have been very up and down. I feel like a couple times if it would have happened at another tournament, for example, I could have potentially lost my mind there a little bit. But I felt like I kept things together very well.”
The warm afternoon gave way to huge backups, slow play, and before the round could be completed a series of downpours late rain that led to a play suspension at 8:15 a.m. Five groups will complete play early Saturday.
This And That
Burns and Hovland have 11 birdies/eagles each. When Dustin Johnson won the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont he made 11 birdies/eagles for the entire championship.
Hovland led the field Friday in strokes gained around the green (+4.10).
YouTube sensation and defending champion Bryson DeChambeau finished +10. The last defending champion to miss a U.S. Open cut was Gary Woodland in 2020 (Winged Foot GC).
Scheffler’s 71 was his sixth consecutive over-par round at the U.S. Open dating to last year at Pinehurst.
In 11 of the last 12 U.S. Opens, the eventual winner was in the top-5 at the end of the second round. (Matt Fitzpatrick was T-13 after 36-holes in 2022 at The Country Club.)
Phil Mickelson (+8) played his 120th career U.S. Open round Friday and potentially his last, leaving the 55-year-old tied with Hale Irwin for 2nd-most all-time. (Jack Nicklaus/160).
Perez Hole-In-One
Victor Perez made the second ace in Oakmont’s 10 U.S. Open’s and the 54th in U.S. Open history. He joins Scott Simpson, who made one on No. 16 in the 1983 U.S. Open first round.
“I was trying to hit something maybe 15, 20 feet past the hole and it maybe spun a little bit more and bounced in,” he said. “So a little fortunate which I'll definitely take going into the weekend.”
Perez said it was his second this month. The other came at his home course in the Bahamas.
“I guess I'm on a hole-in-one run at the moment. It might dry up for the next so years now, who know, so, yeah, really happy.”
He’s also received praise for nailing the celebratory chest bump with caddie James Erkenbeck.
Quotable
Viktor Hovland on Oakmont’s green complexes. “It's just amazing how many holes -- how many greens you can have that are sloped front to back. Usually that's a pet peeve of mine. I almost automatically think it's a bad hole if it's sloped front to back. Somehow they make it work here. I think it's a fun challenge. It's a fun test.”
Jon Rahm (69-75) on his perspective after shooting five-over-par. “I'm too annoyed and too mad right now to think about any perspective. Very frustrated. Very few rounds of golf I played in my life where I think I hit good putts and they didn't sniff the hole, so it's frustrating.”
Scottie Scheffler (T23) on his one-over-par 71. “How do I feel about my round? I feel like I battled really hard. It's challenging out there. I was not getting the ball in the correct spots and paying the price for it. Felt like me getting away with 1-over today wasn't all that bad. It could have been a lot worse.”
Denny McCarthy on the toll Oakmont takes. “Everyone seems like they're exhausted when they come in off the course just because it's a punch in the face. Even if you've played okay and grind it out and shoot a couple under to a couple over, it's still just a grind. It just takes a lot out of you.”
Adam Scott (Even) on what he’s playing for. “This is all I'm really playing for are these big events. There's probably eight of them off the top of my mind a year that I really want to win.”
Ben Griffin (Even) on how he plans to deal with wet conditions Saturday. “I'll play in anything unless it's lightning pretty much or tornados…What does the rain look like tomorrow? Steady all day? Bring it on. I don't really care. I'm down for whatever.”
Hole Of The Day: No. 12
