It might not involve all the marquee names people expected to start the week, yet the storylines going into Sunday’s final round of the 125th U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club are quite compelling.
You have 54-hole leader Sam Burns, a former junior and college All-American with five PGA Tour victories, but no majors. Burns backed up his second-round, 5-under-par 65 – the third-lowest in Oakmont U.S. Open history – with a 69 on Saturday for a three-round total of 4-under 206.
There’s J.J. Spaun, a one-time PGA Tour winner who has resurrected his career in 2025 with four top 10s, including a playoff loss at The Players Championship. Thursday’s opening-round leader has continued to hang tough, posting a 69 for a 54-hole total of 207. He remains the only player in the field with a bogey-free round (66).
And then we have Adam Scott, the only player in the top 10 with a major to his name, the 2013 Masters. The 44-year-old from Australia matched the day’s lowest round with a 67, and the 14-time PGA Tour winner is the lone competitor to shoot par or better all three days. He’ll be in Sunday’s final pairing with Burns, making for an eclectic twosome: the young star bidding for a major breakthrough against the highly popular veteran who could become the second-oldest champion in U.S. Open history. Only Hale Irwin, who was 45 when he claimed his third title in 1990, would be older. Scott turns 45 on July 16.
They aren’t the only intriguing plots to follow at the top of the leader board.
Viktor Hovland, of Norway, a seven-time PGA Tour winner, sits just three strokes back after an even-par 70 that included a remarkable up-and-down birdie from nasty rough on the par-4 17th.
Carlos Ortiz, of Mexico, a qualifier with one PGA Tour victory and a handful of other worldwide titles that includes the 2024 LIV Golf event in Houston, is at even par after nearly producing the second bogey-free round of the championship. Ortiz posted a 67 (even-par 210) that saw him play flawless golf until he missed a 8½-foot par putt on Oakmont’s punishing 492-yard closing hole. He would be the first qualifier since Lucas Glover in 2009 to win the U.S. Open.
Tyrrell Hatton (68), of England, and Thriston Lawrence (70), of South Africa, are five strokes back at 1-over 211. They have combined for 12 DP World Tour (formerly European Tour) victories.
Saturday – aka Moving Day – can sometimes be the most challenging round at a U.S. Open. But the competitors saw a kinder, softer Oakmont Country Club, as Mother Nature decided to get involved, dumping more than an inch of rain starting Friday evening and continuing overnight that forced Round 2 to be completed on Saturday morning. Intermittent showers greeted the late starters before the clouds broke, revealing partly sunny skies for most of the afternoon.
The third-round scoring average of 72.67 was two strokes lower than the first two days.
“We had a wind switch before we even teed off,” said Spaun, who will be in Sunday’s penultimate pairing with Hovland. “It’s been a south-southwest every day, or like a westerly south sort of direction. Yesterday towards the end of the day it switched to this direction, but we only played about four or five holes in that. So given that and how soft and wet everything was, it played longer. But it kind of allowed for longer irons in to really stop. You were able to control your landing spot, just because of how soft [the greens] were.”
Both Burns and Spaun, playing in the day’s final grouping, seemed impervious to the major-championship pressure that can engulf players unaccustomed to being in this position. Burns’ best finish in 18 previous major starts is his tie for ninth a year ago at Pinehurst. Spaun’s only U.S. Open start came in 2021 at Torrey Pines, where he missed the cut.
Burns, coming off a playoff defeat in last week’s RBC Canadian Open, is one of two players in the field without a three-putt (the other being Ryan Fox). His 1.66 putts per green tops the field. In Round 3, he led the field in strokes gained-approach (plus-3.71), and he leads that same category over the three rounds (plus-2.7). On Saturday, he registered three birdies against two bogeys.
When he got out of position, he scrambled well, including nice par saves at 7 and 14, the former a 122-yard wedge to 5 feet, and the latter another wedge from 105 yards to 7 feet.
“Today I didn’t drive the ball as well as I would have liked to,” said the Shreveport, La., native. “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. I was able to convert some of those and kind of kept the momentum going. That was kind of key to the round today.”
Spaun’s mastery around the greens this week has been remarkable. On Thursday, he converted eight par putts of 7 feet or longer. In Round 3, he hit 15 of 18 greens, and outside of a poor drive and second shot that found a greenside bunker on 18, his performance, especially lag putting, was the kind that wins U.S. Opens at Oakmont. From Holes 4 through 17, he played 2-under golf with a stretch of 12 consecutive pars.
To those who follow the PGA Tour, his performance isn’t completely unexpected. The former San Diego State star owns four top 10s, including that three-hole, aggregate playoff defeat to world No. 2 Rory McIlroy and another share of second at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches.
What has been even more surprising is the play of Scott. Given that his best finish on Tour this year is a tie for 15th in the season-opening, limited-field Sentry at Kapalua, his performance at Oakmont, where he’s played two past U.S. Opens (missed cut in 2007 and T-18 in 2016), has been unexpected.
To be successful at Oakmont, one needs precision and deftness on the greens. Scott’s PGA Tour rankings this year are 126th in driving accuracy, 134th in greens in regulation, 103rd in putting and 133rd in total driving. Not exactly numbers that scream U.S. Open champion.
This week, Scott has found something. He’s second in strokes gained-off the tee (plus-1.87), T-12 in fairways hit (27 of 42), T-11 in greens in regulation (38 of 54) and 16th in putting (1.78 per green).
His third round got off to an inauspicious start with a three-putt bogey on No. 1. From there, Scott played 4-under golf, including consecutive birdies on 13 and 14 when he fired a pair of lasers to 5 feet and 14 inches, respectively. He then added a 14-footer on the 320-yard 17th.
Should he close the deal on Sunday, Scott would own the mark for the largest span between major titles (12 years).
“I just tried not to force anything,” said Scott, who last seriously contended in a major seven years ago, when he finished third at the PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club. “I played safe shots and accepted I wasn’t going to finish next to the hole when it wasn’t dialed in, like on 18, when I [did] not [have] a really good number and I had to throw it out to the right. I think I’ve managed it well.
“I’m playing from the fairway a lot. I’ve played fairly conservative, and I haven’t really been forcing the issue much. Could be a different story tomorrow. A lot can happen in 18 holes out here. But I like what I’ve done so far.”
Scott also knows Oakmont has a tendency to reward those playing from behind. Johnny Miller overcame a six-shot deficit in 1973 with his final-round 63. Dustin Johnson also rallied from four back in 2016.
That means the pack of chasers, which includes world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (7 back at 4-over 214), could surprise on a course that notoriously can give anyone fits.
-Written by
David Shefter
USGA
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