U.S. Open 2025 Round 2: What to know from a weird, wild day at Oakmont

New York Times

15 hours ago

Through two days, Oakmont has delivered on its reputation as a brutally difficult test of golf.
Only three players will be under par when the second round concludes Saturday morning. There were 13 players still yet to finish the round when lightning stopped play at 8:15 p.m. local time.
Here are the top numbers and notes to know from Round 2 at Oakmont.
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1. Five-time PGA Tour winner Sam Burns is your 36-hole leader after a brilliant Friday morning 65. Only two players have ever shot lower scores in a U.S. Open at Oakmont: Johnny Miller's closing 63 to win in 1973 and Loren Roberts' third-round 64 in 1994. Burns is on pace to beat the field scoring average by 9.78 shots, which would give him the most strokes gained total in a men's major championship round since Brooks Koepka's opening 63 at the 2019 PGA (+10.06).
Burns was excellent through the bag, hitting nine fairways, 14 greens in regulation and rolling in more than 102 feet of putts. His 6.54 strokes gained tee-to-green led all players at Oakmont on Friday.
When the second round ends, Burns will be the ninth player since 2000 to hold a one-shot lead after 36 holes at the U.S. Open. Only two of the previous eight went on to win — Angel Cabrera and Dustin Johnson, both here at Oakmont.
2. Through two days, the field at the U.S. Open is a combined 1,462 strokes over par. There are 10 players at +20 or worse for the two rounds, the most through 36 holes of a U.S. Open in 17 years (11 players at Torrey Pines that year). Seventeen of the 18 holes are playing over par so far, including both par 5s. The field is scrambling at a miniscule rate of 38.5 percent. For context, the PGA Tour average this season is about 60 percent.
The three players better than par after Round 2 are the fewest at the U.S. Open since Shinnecock in 2018, when Dustin Johnson was the lone player in red figures. It's also 12 fewer than we saw at Pinehurst last year, and 26 fewer than Los Angeles CC the year before that. There might be some players hoping that Friday evening's rain softens up the course enough to make things a little easier. Many golf fans would be strongly opposed to that development.
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The spread between the best round of the day (Burns' 65) and the highest score recorded (an 89 by qualifier George Duangmanee) was 24 strokes, the largest such gap in any U.S. Open round played at Oakmont. Incredibly, though, it's not even the largest of the year in a major championship: in Round 1 of the Masters, Justin Rose shot 65, and Nick Dunlap carded a 90.
3. A day after the first bogey-free round of his major championship career, J.J. Spaun assembled a valiant Round 2 score of 72. Spaun's putter wasn't as scorching hot Friday — he needed 33 putts, seven more than he did on day one — but he hit three more fairways and the same number of greens (12) as he did in the first round.
Spaun was the 13th player to hold a first-round lead or co-lead in a U.S. Open at Oakmont. Of that group, not a single player backed it up with a second-round score in the 60s. In fact, Spaun's 72 strongly outperformed the scoring average of 74.4 his dozen predecessors set. Spaun will play in the final group on the weekend in a major for the first time Saturday. Before this week, his best 36-hole position in a major was a tie for 16th place (2022 Masters).
4. Moments after securing his first career PGA Tour win, Viktor Hovland famously told a television interviewer, 'I just suck at chipping.' A coarse assessment, but statistically accurate even this season: Hovland is ranked 158th of 179 players on the PGA Tour in strokes gained around the green. It all makes his chipping and pitching Friday all the more impressive. Hovland gained more than four strokes around the greens, the most of any player in the field and easily a personal career high in any round.
Through two days, no player has gained more strokes on the field tee-to-green than Hovland has (+11.52). His average proximity to the hole on approach shots is 31 feet, 8 inches, the best average of any player and a full 15 feet better than the field average. This will be Hovland's best 36-hole position in a major since he shared the lead at the 2023 PGA Championship.
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Hovland, the 2018 U.S. Amateur champion, was low amateur in 2019 at Pebble Beach. Only four players have won the U.S. Amateur, been low amateur at a U.S. Open and won the U.S. Open as a professional: Lawson Little, Jack Nicklaus, Jerry Pate and Matt Fitzpatrick.
5. Two players will begin the third round at even par: one playing his first U.S. Open and another playing in his 96th consecutive major. Ben Griffin is the rare U.S. Open rookie with multiple PGA Tour wins under his belt, having claimed a team win in New Orleans and his first stroke play title in Colonial this spring. He hit 15 of 18 greens in regulation Friday, tied for most of any player. No one has won the U.S. Open in his first attempt since Francis Ouimet in 1913.
Adam Scott made his 15th career cut at the U.S. Open after his second consecutive round of 70. You wouldn't know Scott is turning 45 next month by his ball-striking this week: Through two days, he's ranked seventh or better in the field in strokes gained off the tee, proximity to the hole and strokes gained approach. This is his best career 36-hole position at the U.S. Open, a championship he made his debut in, in 2002.
Round 2 will resume at 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning following today's suspension due to weather.⁰⁰Round 3 will be played in groups of two off of No. 1. Tee times will run from approximately 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
How the leader board looks heading into the morning ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/n6vpvCMhJS
— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 14, 2025
6. Having played through electricity-free rain for a large portion of his round, Thriston Lawrence was lining up a 4-foot par putt on his final hole when the horn blew due to lightning in the area. At one-over, Lawrence will have to come back at first light Saturday (weather permitting), then be forced to wait several hours before having one of the last third-round tee times. A day after recording just two scores worse than par, Lawrence had seven bogeys or worse through 17 holes in Round 2.
Tied with Lawrence is Victor Perez, who aced the sixth hole Friday morning — the first hole-in-one in a U.S. Open at Oakmont since Scott Simpson made one at 16 in the opening round in 1983. No player gained more strokes Friday with his approach play than Perez — a number significantly aided by that perfect shot at six. Perez, who finished one stroke out of a bronze medal at last year's Olympics, has never finished better than tied for 12th in a major.
7. Brooks Koepka's putter might have cooled off a bit Friday, but he will start Saturday just five shots off the pace. In Round 1, despite missing seven greens in regulation, Koepka was able to successfully get up and down five times. Friday, he was just 2-for-9 scrambling, leading to a round with eight bogeys. Koepka trailed by multiple strokes entering the third round in three of his five major championship victories.
Scottie Scheffler made four birdies Friday on his way to a round of 71. The reigning PGA champ is in a tie for 23rd place, seven shots behind Burns. None of the last 50 men's major winners has been seven or more back entering Round 3, and nobody has won the U.S. Open from that deficit since Tom Kite in 1992 at Pebble Beach.
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Rory McIlroy birdied two of his last four holes to sneak under the cut line. McIlroy has not missed back-to-back cuts worldwide since 2017 and hasn't done it in consecutive PGA Tour-sanctioned events since 2012. With a top-10 finish this week, McIlroy will have seven in a row, tying a U.S. Open record last set by Ben Hogan from 1950 to 1956. He undoubtedly still has bigger ambitions than that, though.
8. A bevy of big names and pre-tournament darlings is headed home after missing the cut. Among them are world No. 6 Ludvig Ǻberg, two-time major winner Justin Thomas and the last man to win a U.S. Open at Oakmont, Johnson. Sepp Straka has enjoyed an excellent season on the PGA Tour but has missed the cut in all three majors in 2025. Shane Lowry held a four-shot lead entering the final round here in 2016 — he shot 79-78 for a score of 17-over. Joaquin Niemann, Tommy Fleetwood and Masters runner-up Justin Rose will also head down the road.
Bryson DeChambeau (+10) struggled on the greens for two days, losing more than three strokes to the field putting. He is the first defending U.S. Open champion to miss the cut since Gary Woodland in 2020.
9. Phil Mickelson, done in by two doubles in his last four holes Friday, will also miss the cut in what might be his final U.S. Open start. If this is the last time he tees it up in the only major championship he's not won, he will leave behind one of the most unique legacies for any player in a single event. His six runner-up finishes are two more than any other player in U.S. Open history. He is tied with Hale Irwin for second on the championship's all-time rounds played (120) and career starts (34) lists — only Nicklaus has more.
Phil made his U.S. Open in 1990, turning 20 years old the day of the third round. Of the top seven players on the leaderboard through two days this week, only Scott was alive yet that day. The six-time major champion will turn 55 years old Monday.
10. Of the previous nine U.S. Open champions at Oakmont, eight have been within four shots of the lead entering Round 3. The lone exception was Larry Nelson, who was seven back in 1983 before vaulting up the leaderboard with a Saturday 65.
Over the last 50 years, 44 U.S. Open champs have been in the top 10 through 36 holes. The largest 36-hole deficit overcome to win the U.S. Open is 11 strokes by Lou Graham in 1975 at Medinah.
(Photo of Viktor Hovland: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)