3 Things to Know: 125th U.S. Open, Round 3

We’re halfway to crowning a champion, making the turn as more than half the field in the 125th U.S. Open heads home.

Oakmont Country Club has been synonymous with struggle since it debuted in 1904, and its record 10th U.S. Open has thus far proven a fitting chapter to add to its lineage. The 36-hole cut fell at 7-over-par 147, leaving a total of 67 players led by Sam Burns, whose round of 5-under 65 proved the exception to the rule on Friday. Burns’ round was one of just six under-par rounds and bettered the field scoring average of 74.7 by nearly 10 strokes.

Will the champion come from the lead group, the top 11 who are within five strokes of Burns, or will someone make a dramatic come-from-behind charge? It’s been 52 years since Johnny Miller’s 1973 comeback win for the ages, but we all know where that happened.

Here are 3 Things to Know for Round 3:

Tough Day for Past Champions

Among those departing Oakmont Country Club after 36 holes are defending U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who finished 10 over, along with fellow past champions Wyndham Clark, Dustin Johnson, Gary Woodland and Lucas Glover, while 2011 champion Rory McIlroy slipped inside the cut line by two with a birdie on his final hole. The group heading home also includes notables Patrick Cantlay, Ludvig Aberg, Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas. Phil Mickelson, a six-time major champion and record six-time runner-up in this championship, double-bogeyed No. 17 and saw a birdie bid narrowly miss on No. 18 to miss the cut by one in what could be his final U.S. Open.

Meanwhile, Scottie Scheffler, who has been the No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking entering every U.S. Open since 2022, finished at 4 over and pronounced himself lucky to have made the weekend. He spent a good deal of time at the practice range on Friday afternoon with instructor Randy Smith.

“Mentally this was as tough as I’ve battled for the whole day,” said Scheffler after a 1-over 71 on Friday. “With the way I was hitting it, it was easily a day I could have been going home and battled pretty hard to stay in there.”

Volatile Nature

A U.S. Open tests competitors’ resolve and emotions. Round 2 seemed the epitome of the rollercoaster that players ride, more than likely exacerbated by Oakmont’s penchant to perplex. Here’s Scheffler, on his incoming nine, the course’s front nine: “I felt like I got some momentum with a birdie on 2, quickly lost it with a bogey on 3, but then bounced back, birdied 4, great up-and-down on 5, great up-and-down on 6, birdied 7, good par on 8. I made the mistake there on 9 [for a closing bogey], but that's just what happens when you don't hit the fairway.”

His day seemed mundane compared to a few others. Take Thriston Lawrence of South Africa, who at one point held a three-stroke lead after a run of three birdies on Nos. 11-13 (his opening nine), then closed out that nine with bogeys on four of his last five holes. He went birdie-bogey-bogey-double bogey after the turn, at which point he had only two pars on his card through 13 holes. His day ended with the suspension of play, needing to hole a 4-footer for a 4-over 74 on Saturday morning that leaves him in a tie for sixth with Victor Perez – whose even-par round included an ace (on No. 6) and an 8 (on the par-5 12th). How’s that for volatility?

Tom Kim played his first six holes in 6 over par but birdied his last three to salvage a round of 73. Brooks Koepka offset four birdies with eight bogeys and just six pars for a 74. Thomas Detry had an impressive five birdies and a 140-yard hole-out for eagle, but spoiled those with two bogeys and four double bogeys.

The bottom line for the final 36 holes is to hang in there and shake off a bad hole, because no one is immune at Oakmont. Scheffler gave the perfect mental approach for what lies ahead after scrambling to save par seven times in 11 tries: “There were times today where you feel like you could give up, just based on how difficult the golf course is, how my swing was feeling. Am I going to get mad about it, get frustrated, or am I just going to chip it out and see what I can do from there? I felt like that’s what a lot of today was about.”

By the time Round 2 ended, Scheffler had moved up from somewhere around 40th place to a tie for 23rd, demonstrating the value of that perseverance.

Tale of 2 Nines

Along with the player’s mental approach, the course setup will dictate much of what transpires. If Rounds 3 and 4 are anything like Friday’s Round 2, the front nine will be where players just try to keep pace.

Eight of the 10 toughest holes statistically were on the front nine on Friday, with that side playing more than two strokes harder than the back – a stroke average of 38.45 vs. 36.30 on the back. In fact, the par-3 8th (at 299 yards), played nearly two-thirds of a stroke over par (3.63), while the par-4 3rd and the par-4 9th both played more than a half-stroke over par (4.51). They were joined in that category by the par-4 15th, also at 4.51.

The only true birdie opportunity on the front nine thus far is No. 4, the 626-yard par 5, with 75 birdies and four eagles through 36 holes. However, it still yielded an over-par stroke average of 5.05, with 61 bogeys, 12 double bogeys and five higher scores.

The blueprint seems to be, hold on through the front-nine gauntlet, and look to make up strokes on the back, which had the six easiest holes on the course on Friday, three of which (No. 13, No. 14 and No. 17) played to an under-par stroke average.

Ron Driscoll is a freelance writer and editor for the USGA. Email him at v-rdriscoll@usga.org.