In 2016, 10 entered the final round under par; only four emerged sporting red numbers. In 2007, only two players finished any round under par, and that happened in the first round. By the end, 5-over allowed Ángel Cabrera to raise the trophy.
The way that Oakmont can repel golfers left and right at any given moment makes separating a challenge. On Saturday, however, as the setting sun made the course glow, four players appeared to do just that. Fittingly, they were the four that had ventured into the depths of Oakmont’s depths for 54 holes and emerged under par.
“If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times, but this golf course is difficult,” said Sam Burns, who holds the 54-hole lead at 4-under. “It takes a lot of patience.”
Perhaps it is not the U.S. Open leaderboard golf fans or TV executives would have dreamt up before the week. After all, the past six majors have featured winners who are currently inside the top 10 in the world golf rankings. But the four players — Burns, Adam Scott, J.J. Spaun and Viktor Hovland — who will head into Sunday atop the leaderboard make for a final round that sets up to be compelling in its eclecticism.
Take Burns. The 28-year-old has been a professional since 2017. He has five PGA Tour wins but has never, in 19 tries, sniffed a major. His best finish was a backdoor top 10 at the U.S. Open last year at Pinehurst.
The two things most seem to know about Burns is that he’s a great putter and that he’s close friends with Scottie Scheffler. Forget major championship contention: He’s never put himself in a position where most casual golf fans could even form an opinion on him. And yet, Burns has found something this week.
Yes, Burns’ putter has been predictably fantastic. He’s tied for the fewest putts hit per round and he’s made a whopping 12 birdies this week. But no one has hit his irons and wedges better than him — he leads the field in strokes gained: approach. Now, he’s on the brink of a feat that would be unexpected, to say the least.
“It would be incredible,” Burns said of winning a major. “I think as a kid growing up, you dream about winning major championships, and that’s why we practice so hard and work so hard.”
As improbable as a Burns’ win would be, the guy who played alongside him Saturday may be a bigger shock to the golf system. Spaun is a career journeyman. At 34 years old, he only has a single PGA Tour win, and it happened three years ago at the Valero Texas Open. Earlier this year, he tried going toe-to-toe with Rory McIlroy at the Players Championship. In a Monday three-hole playoff, Spaun appeared to wilt under the pressure as McIlroy cruised to his second win at TPC Sawgrass.
Maybe some expected that would be the last we would see of Spaun on a big stage. But the Los Angeles native hasn’t stopped playing the best golf of his life and is now 3-under at Oakmont after three rounds, just one back of Burns. Only five players have been better ball strikers this year on Tour than him. This week, his approach play has been good (he ranks 21st in the field), but it’s his putter that has caught fire, gaining him nearly three strokes on the field.
“I’m not putting too much pressure [on myself],” Spaun said. Later, he added: “This is the best I’ve played in my career, for sure.”
Unlike Spaun or Burns, this is not the best Hovland has played in his career. Not even close.
Two years ago, Hovland finished inside the top 20 at every major, including a T-2 at the PGA Championship. That same year, he won the BMW Championship by shooting a course record 61 on Sunday. Then, in 2024, he missed four cuts, changed coaches twice and began opening up to the media about his never-ending quest for the perfect swing. Hovland shot 70 on Saturday, putting him at 1-under and just three shots behind Burns. On paper, he is the best player of the four. In reality, the former U.S. Amateur winner who has smelled his first major more than a handful of times, has made madness part of his method.
“Pretty pleased with how I battled out there,” Hovland said. “A little bitter about my driver. Just can’t seem to figure it out. It’s like a lingering problem all this year, so it’s kind of pissing me off.”
Sometimes, it seems like Hovland is more upset about a swing, a ball flight, than he is a score. It’s like his brain doesn’t think in scores or statistics but rather mental pictures and feelings.
“Sure, we would all like to win, that’s why we practice so hard,” Hovland said. “But there’s also like a deep passion in me that I want to hit the shots. Like I want to stand up on the tee and hit the shots that I’m envisioning. When the ball’s not doing that, it bothers me.
“I’m well aware that I’ve got a chance tomorrow, and if I shoot a low round of golf tomorrow then anything can happen. But there’s a lot of good players around me. Adam Scott played a brilliant round today, just didn’t really miss a shot. That forces me to play some really good golf tomorrow.”
While Hovland, Spaun and Burns look to reach that career mountaintop of a major for the first time, the other player they’ll have to outlast has played 96 of those majors consecutively.
Scott is the only one near the top of this leaderboard who wouldn’t create a legacy with a win Sunday but rather add to it. Twenty-two years ago, he won his first PGA Tour event. Twelve years ago, he secured his lone major: a thrilling playoff victory at Augusta National that gave him a coveted green jacket and etched his name into the history books.
On Sunday, perhaps more impressive history awaits: A win would make Scott, 44, the only player to ever go 12 years between major victories and the second oldest to win a U.S. Open.
After shooting a second consecutive round of even par 70 Friday, a smiling Scott quipped that he was playing “old-man par” out there. Saturday demanded something better than that, and he delivered, shooting a 3-under 67 that put him in the final group Sunday and displayed shades of his vintage ball striking.
“I’d be pretty proud of winning this thing on the weekend. Right now, that’s really what I’m here to do,” Scott said Friday. “I feel like there’s probably not been many signs to anyone else but me the last month or six weeks that my game is looking better. But I definitely feel more confident than I have been this year.”
Scott’s even-keeled nature can almost disguise his competitiveness, which is easy to forget about in part because he hasn’t contended at a major since 2019. He has only one top-10 finish in the past six years, but to hear him talk about it, he has never stopped searching for that elusive second major win.
“I really haven’t been in this position for five or six years — or feeling like I’m that player,” Scott said. “But that’s what I’m always working towards. 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 résumé.”
As Scott walked up Oakmont’s 18th fairway Saturday, there was a certain fervor with which the crowd cheered him on. There’s little doubt that he will be the favorite among the galleries Sunday. Scott, as always, appeared unfazed by it all. He went through a few media interviews and then exited the premises quietly.
Hovland, meanwhile, stayed. He beelined to the driving range and was beating balls into the Pittsburgh night with his driver, still searching for that swing that was in his brain. No one else joined him. Earlier, Spaun said he would go home and have dinner, maybe room service ordered by his wife, who is at the hotel with their two daughters.
It was another reminder how much every one of these four players vying for a coveted U.S. Open differ. On Sunday, the battle of attrition that is a U.S. Open at Oakmont might present another worthy competitor, but for now all eyes are on the top four. Come the final 18 holes, they will all be on the same quest knowing well that no matter what the winning score is or how many players are under par, only one can emerge.
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