U.S. Open Round 2 live updates, leaderboard: J.J. Spaun leads as Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy struggle early
J.J. Spaun pulled out one of the best rounds that Oakmont Country Club has ever seen during a U.S. Open on Thursday.
Spaun fired a bogey-free 66 to kick off the U.S. Open, which gave him a one-shot lead over the field. He's playing in his first U.S. Open, and he carded what was just the second bogey-free round at a U.S. Open at Oakmont. Thriston Lawrence sits alone in second at 3-under, and Brooks Koepka leads a group tied for third at 2-under.
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Other big names, however, struggled. Rory McIlroy posted a rough 4-over 74 on Thursday, and he left the course without speaking to reporters once again. Phil Mickelson, who is possibly playing in his last U.S. Open, matched him at 4-over. Bryson DeChambeau was only a shot better.
Scheffler also shot a 3-over 73, which put him seven shots back from Spaun. Scheffler, who was a massive favorite entering the week, posted six bogeys on the day.
Stick with Yahoo Sports for all of the updates throughout the second round of the U.S. Open.
How to watch the 2025 U.S. Open
All times ET
Friday, June 13
Peacock: 6:30 a.m. - 1 p.m., 7 p.m. - 8 p.m. (Watch U.S. Open All-Access on Peacock)
NBC: 1 p.m. - 7 p.m.
Saturday, June 14
USA: 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
NBC: 12 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Sunday, June 15
USA: 9 a.m. - 12 p.m.
NBC: 12 p.m. - 7 p.m.
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Forbes
2 hours ago
- Forbes
U.S. Open 2025: Burns Surges To Lead In Round 2 At Oakmont.
Oakmont Country Club has lived up to its reputation during the first two rounds of its record tenth United States Open Championship. That did not deter Sam Burns, who shot a superb 65 in round two, while surging to the lead at the midway point of the championship. OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA - JUNE 13: Sam Burns of the United States reacts after making par on the ninth ... More green during the second round of the 125th U.S. OPEN at Oakmont Country Club on June 13, 2025 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. (Photo by) As Oakmont continued to firm up on Friday, only three players managed to remain under par as the combination of Oakmont's greens, and a brutal USGA setup featuring rough over five inches long gave the best players in the world fits. The difficulty didn't seem to bother Sam Burns, as the world's 22nd ranked player shot a five-under par 65, the lowest round of the event so far. The brilliant play Friday by Burns has him in the lead through two rounds as only three players have managed to break par for 36 holes at Oakmont. After an opening round of +2(72), Burns had an early tee time Friday and came out firing. Playing in the morning with little wind, cloud cover, and a golf course still drying out, Burns used magnificent ball striking which led to 6 birdies made from inside 10 feet. If not for a brutal finish Thursday, where Burns saw himself one shot out of the lead before playing the final four holes in 5-over par, Burns could have himself with a sizeable lead. 'I played really well yesterday other than the finishing holes. So I think today was just kind of getting mentally ready to come out and try to put a good round together,' he said. Round one leader, JJ Spaun sits one shot back of Burns at -2 heading into the weekend. Playing in his first U.S. Open, Spaun shot a bogey-free 66 to take a one-shot lead heading into Friday. Spaun carded a +2(72) on Friday and sits one-shot behind Burns at two under par heading into the moving day on Saturday. OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA - JUNE 13: J.J. Spaun of the United States hits a chip shot on the 17th hole ... More during the second round of the 125th U.S. OPEN at Oakmont Country Club on June 13, 2025 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. (Photo by) Rounding out the group of players still under par after 36 holes at Oakmont is Viktor Hovland. Hovland rode two hole-outs from over 50 feet to fuel a second round 68 to get him into red figures at -1 for the tournament. He started his round on number 10 by making a putt of over 50-feet from the collar for birdie and also made a chip-in eagle on the drivable par-4 17th hole. If not for a double bogey on the second hole, Hovland could be even further up the leaderboard. Talking after the round, Hovland discussed how exhausting a U.S. Open at Oakmont can be. 'Definitely tired, exhausted because you're just focusing so much on every single shot,' he said. 'I'm very pleased with two under par, but also I know that I was 4 under at some point. So it's like very pleased, but also 'Man, that could have been a little lower.' But we're in a really nice spot after two days, so I'm just kind of happy.' OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA - JUNE 13: Viktor Hovland of Norway hits an approach shot on the 10th hole ... More during the second round of the 125th U.S. OPEN at Oakmont Country Club on June 13, 2025 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. (Photo by) Adam Scott, playing in his 96th consecutive major and third U.S. Open at Oakmont, shot a second consecutive even par 70 to sit three shots back of Burns at even par. Joining him is one of the hottest players in the world currently, Ben Griffin. Griffin, who had given up on professional golf years ago and was working in finance until a friend talked him into giving golf another try, shot a +1(71) Friday and also finds himself just three shots back at even par. As heavy rains came at the end of Friday and play was suspended, a few groups will be finishing the second round on Saturday morning. Currently, there are 34 players within seven shots of Burns, including world number one Scottie Scheffler. Scheffler was visual frustrated during Friday's round, one that saw him make an uncharacteristic five bogeys for the round. Scheffler, who is considered the best ball-striker in the world, really struggled off the tee for a second straight day and found himself playing from the penal rough more often than he is used to. Even with ball-striking not up to our expectation of Scheffler, he still managed to scratch out a +1(71) for the round and is at +4 for the tournament and still not out of the conversation heading into the weekend. Rory McIlroy also displayed a lot of frustration, at one point breaking a tee marker with his club, but did manage to birdie two of his final four holes to make it to the weekend. He sits nine shots behind Burns at +6 after shooting a 72 in round two. McIlroy again declined a media request after his round, making this six straight major championship rounds where McIlroy has declined speaking with the media. One of the favorites who will not be around for the weekend is defending U.S. Open champion, Bryson DeChambeau. The long hitting DeChambeau, who came into the week seemingly ready to defend his title, had all kinds of trouble with Oakmont's narrow fairways and punishing rough, finishing +10 and over the cut line. OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA - JUNE 13: Bryson DeChambeau of the United States hits a chip shot on the 15th ... More hole during the second round of the 125th U.S. OPEN at Oakmont Country Club on June 13, 2025 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. (Photo by) Other notable players to miss the cut include: Ludvig Aberg, Shane Lowry, Tommy Fleetwood, Wyndham Clark, Cameron Smith, Patrick Cantlay, Joaquin Niemann, Phil Mickelson and 2016 U.S. Open champion at Oakmont, Dustin Johnson. One player who did make the cut, but was not happy about his play was Jon Rahm. The LIV Golf star shot a 75, leaving him in the same spot as Scheffler at +4 for the tournament and seven shots back of the lead. Rahm, who hit the ball brilliantly, struggled on the difficult greens of Oakmont and took 35 putts for the round. Afterwards, Rahm was asked about the difficulty of Oakmont. 'Honestly, too annoyed and too mad right now to think about any perspective,' he said. '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.' With more rain expected Saturday, a softening Oakmont may provide an easier test for the remaining players that made the cut. Whether or not it will play easier is yet to be seen, but with many players within striking distance of the leader Burns, the U.S. Open could be setting up for a dramatic weekend of championship golf.
Forbes
3 hours ago
- Forbes
Brutal Start: Oakmont Yields More 80s Than 60s In First Two Rounds
OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA - JUNE 12: Richard Bland of England plays a shot from the bunker on the third ... More hole during the first round of the 125th U.S. OPEN at Oakmont Country Club on June 12, 2025 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. (Photo by) With a scoring average of just over five over par through the first two rounds, Oakmont Country Club has proven to be a formidable test for the U.S. Open. But the bigger story might be the sheer number of high scores it has produced. Breaking 80 is a significant milestone for 90 percent of amateur golfers, but among the pros, it's hardly a badge of honor. At Oakmont, for every player who broke 70, two failed to break 80. The most notable name to miss the 70s in both rounds was Justin Lower. Usually consistent at most PGA Tour stops, Lower shot 73-87, a rough two-day total that included two triple bogeys on par 4s in the second round and another in round one. He carded just two birdies across both rounds and had scorecards filled with squares. The rough and bunkers punished his approach shots, and once on the greens, he lost 1.55 and 1.73 strokes to the field in rounds one and two, respectively. OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA - JUNE 12: Justin Lower of the United States plays a shot from the 16th tee ... More during the first round of the 125th U.S. OPEN at Oakmont Country Club on June 12, 2025 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. (Photo by) Robert Diaz bounced back from an opening 85 with a much-improved 73 in round two. His first round featured two triple bogeys, including one on hole 9, where he reached the greenside bunker in two but needed five more shots to hole out. Diaz lost nearly three strokes off the tee and another 2.75 strokes to the field in that opening round. LIV Golf standout and PGA Senior Champion Richard Bland struggled as well, shooting an 82 in round one that included two birdies, three double bogeys, and a triple. His primary issues were off the tee and on approach, where he lost nearly six strokes to the field. His 278-yard average driving distance left him both short and offline compared to the rest of the field. Matt McCarty also shot an 82, with a card that included one birdie, 10 bogeys, and a triple on a par 5. McCarty is coming off a T-4 finish at the Canadian Open and claimed victory earlier in 2024 at the Black Desert Open in St. George, Utah. But at Oakmont, he lost more than three strokes to the field on the greens in round one alone. One of the roughest second-round scores came from Matthew Jordan. After a respectable opening 74 that put him mid-pack, he followed it up with an 80 that included two double bogeys and no birdies. The second time around the course usually helps players get a better feel around the greens, but Jordan lost 2.88 strokes putting in round two.
New York Times
3 hours ago
- New York Times
U.S. Open 2025 Round 2: What to know from a weird, wild day at Oakmont
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. Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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 ⬇️ — 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. Advertisement 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)
