COVERAGE: Burns Paces Tight Pack After Softer Oakmont Saturday

OAKMONT, Pa. — Soakmont, it wasn’t.

But a couple of cloudbursts over a 24-hour span definitely made Oakmont Country Club just approachable enough to introduce a few more red numbers Saturday.

What the rain couldn’t dampen was the U.S. Open drama, as Sam Burns maintained the one-shot lead he took into the day, but just barely. Four players are within four shots, six players are within five, and only one of those men — 44-year-old Adam Scott — has ever won a major championship.

Scott and J.J. Spaun are locked at 3 under, one behind Burns, who seeks his first major to go with five PGA Tour victories to date. The only major-less player with more pro victories since 2020 sits in solo fourth: Viktor Hovland, who’s won seven times this decade.

“All these guys in this field I think would agree that to have the opportunity to win a major is special,” said Burns, who’s watched his good friend Scottie Scheffler collect three of these. “You know this place is special in itself and the history here and all the people that have been before me and walked these grounds and played here.”

Hovland was the only player in the top five to not shoot under par; his three bogeys counteracted his three birdies for an even-par 70. Scott tied fifth-place Carlos Ortiz for the round of the day with 3-under 67, thrilling the appreciative crowds with a throwback performance in his third Oakmont Open.

“I would say I’m less overwhelmed by Oakmont this time, and that’s not a knock on the golf course,” Scott said. “Maybe with a couple trips around here, I knew what to expect.”

Scott has played in a remarkable 96 consecutive majors, dating back to the 2001 British Open, but he’s only won one: The 2013 Masters. He has only one top 10 in a major since the pandemic, that being last year’s British at Royal Troon, and that was only a 10th-place finish.

“Everyone out here has got their journey, you know,” Scott said. “Putting ourselves in these positions doesn’t just happen by fluke. It’s not easy to do it. I really haven’t been in this kind of position for five or six years, or feeling like I’m that player. But that’s what I’m always working towards. It’s not that easy to figure it all out.

“But if I were to come away with it tomorrow, it would be a hell of a round of golf and an exclamation point on my career.”

After sizzling weather the first two days, the combination of a downpour Friday night and a midday shower Saturday took some fire out of Oakmont’s fairways and greens. Birdies began to fall as a result, especially on the back nine. Each of Burns, Scott, Spaun and Hovland managed a 3 on the short par-4 17th, which has maintained its reputation as a pivotal oasis on an otherwise brutal course.

Burns clipped a beauty of a pitch on 17 to tap-in range, delivering a jolt after a bogey at the difficult par-3 16th. The PGA Tour’s leader in Strokes Gained: Putting still hasn’t had a three-putt this week, one of just two players who can say that through three rounds.

“These greens are very challenging,” Burns said. “I think it’s not so much the raw speed of these greens, it’s the adjusted speed with how much slope there is. … I like that kind of artistic ability to kind of see the break. Putts that are really straight are more difficult for me because it’s just hard to see kind of where it’s breaking.”

Burns and Spaun went off in an unexpected final pairing, playing admirably steady golf on their way to dueling 69s. Spaun opened birdie-par-bogey-birdie, but the first-round leader posted 12 straight pars in his second straight day of Open leaderboard pressure.

“I was trying to focus on my game,” Spaun said. “It seemed like we were kind of back and forth; he would take the lead, I would take the lead, I would fall back, whatever. But it was fun. … I’m not putting too much pressure, and I think it’s easy to not have the expectations out at a U.S. Open, especially like Oakmont.

“Everybody’s making bogeys, so I think the key is not making double bogeys.”

Burns’ scorecard looked relatively routine with 13 pars, but he lost 2.64 strokes to the field off the tee, so he had to scramble several times. Indeed, he was the top approach player in the field, gaining 3.71 strokes in that category.

“I think today I didn’t drive the ball as well as I would have liked to,” Burns said. “But when I got out of position I feel like I did a good job of getting myself back in the fairway, having a wedge or short iron in my hand and giving myself a chance for par.”

Hovland could relate to the wildness off the tee. The Norwegian started as one of just three players under par, but began his day in unsettling fashion when his opening tee shot skipped into the bushes on the course boundary. He found the ball, but had to take relief for an unplayable lie. From the muddy path, he striped a recovery shot within 30 feet and saved bogey.

A right miss with the driver continued to plague Hovland through the day, but the 2023 FedEx Cup champion kept it on the rails with superb approach play (fifth-best in the field by Strokes Gained) and solid putting (23rd). His rescue pitch out of the rough on 17 turned a potential round-killer into a kick-in birdie.

“A little bitter about my driver,” said Hovland, who pounded tee shots on the practice range well into the night after his round. “It’s a lingering problem all this year, so it’s kind of pissing me off. … Statistically the iron game has been actually really, really solid this year. I know that even if it doesn’t feel great I can still get over the ball and get the ball out there somewhere. I would like to think my golf IQ is very high, so even if it doesn’t feel good and I’m not comfortable I can still play the game.”

The 34-year-old Ortiz has had next to no success in nine previous major starts, with his best finish a tie for 52nd in the 2019 U.S. Open. He hadn’t even played in a major since the 2023 U.S. Open, the same year he joined LIV Golf.

But there he was, birdieing 4 and 6 to make the turn with momentum, followed by brilliant approaches on 12 and 14 to draw a couple more circles on his card. A drive in the rough led to bogey on 18, but it wasn’t enough to dampen his 67.

“I was just excited to be able to start playing majors again,” said Ortiz, who made the Open via a qualifier in Dallas. “I feel like I’m playing good enough to compete on these things and it’s just been hard for me to get into this. I wasn’t really expecting anything. … I know I was a different player, I’m more mature, and I was excited about the challenge.”

Ortiz’s fellow LIV representative Tyrrell Hatton similarly got it going, making three birdies in the first four holes after the turn. A bad break on 15 left his ball above a greenside bunker instead of in it, but even that resulting double bogey couldn’t sink the stocky Englishman. He counteracted that error with a brilliant U.S. Open par on 18, when he stuck his third within a couple of feet to finish at 1 over for the championship, tied for sixth with South African interloper Thriston Lawrence.

Last year, the famously irascible Hatton joked(?) that maybe this event was tailored for him because it “brings everyone to (his) level for a week,” but in all seriousness a ball-striking test like Oakmont should be up his alley, especially with the greens softened.

“I knew certainly last year when I signed with LIV that majors were going to be very important for me,” Hatton said. “There’s no doubt that you could be a little bit more aggressive (with approach shots). I guess we used the rain to our advantage, and I think we’re all quite happy that we managed to get through today with no delays.”

Scattered rain remains in the forecast for the final round, but given the venue and the stakes, there’s no reason weather will squelch what looks to be an Sunday sweepstakes.