OAKMONT, Pa. — The closest Sam Burns has come to a major championship is sharing a house this weekend with a close friend who already has three of them.
Burns has been inspired the past few years by Scottie Scheffler, the top-ranked golfer in the world since 2023. The next step is to join him as the winner of one of golf’s biggest four tournaments.
Burns held steady after missing a short par putt late in Saturday’s second round of the U.S. Open, responding with a beautiful pitch for a tap-in birdie and two scary downhill putts from inside 60 feet to save par on the 18th hole at rain-soaked Oakmont Country Club for a 1-under 69.
That gave him a one-shot advantage over major-tested veteran Adam Scott of Australia and fellow American player J.J. Spaun, with Norway’s Viktor Hovland not far behind as the only four players to survive par through 54 holes.
Burns was at 4-under 206. He has five PGA Tour victories, the last one more than two years ago, and is coming off a playoff loss last weekend at the Canadian Open.
At stake for the 28-year-old from Louisiana is the chance to become the sixth American at 30 or younger to capture his first major title since 2020. Scheffler has won 19 times worldwide the past three years, including three majors, with the Texan’s win at last month’s PGA Championship joining his Masters titles from 2022 and 2024.
“Scottie’s obviously an incredible player. I don’t think I need to say that,” Burns said with a laugh. “We obviously spend a lot of time together, and being able to talk to him and just kind of learn from him and ask him questions, it’s been really cool.”
Scheffler has won his three majors in what turned out to be blowouts. Sunday at Oakmont was shaping up to be anything but that.
Scott, who only climbed back into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking less than a year ago and hasn’t seriously challenged in a major in nearly seven years, became only the third player at par or better for the opening three rounds in a U.S. Open at Oakmont.
He birdied three of his last six holes for a 67, getting into the final group when Spaun made a bogey from the bunker on the 18th hole to close out a 69. Scott is the only player among the top 10 who has won a major. That was 12 years ago at the Masters. No one has ever gone more than 11 years between their first and second major titles.
“Putting ourselves in these positions doesn’t just happen by fluke,” said Scott, who turns 45 next month. “I really haven’t been in this kind of position for five or six years, or feeling like I’m that player. But that’s what I’m always working towards. It’s not that easy to figure it all out.
“But 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 career.”
Spaun, who lost to Rory McIlroy in a playoff at The Players Championship in March, kept pace with Burns throughout the back nine until the end. He looked comfortable under the pressure, making only two bogeys while matching pars with Burns over seven straight holes.
“It seemed like we were kind of back and forth,” said Spaun, who had a one-shot lead over Thriston Lawrence after the first round, then trailed Burns by one shot after the second round. “He would take the lead, I would take the lead, I would fall back, whatever. But it was fun.
“You can’t really play against your opponent; you’ve got to play this course. There’s just so much on demand with every shot.”
The other survivor to par was Hovland, who has been smiling as much as anyone on a course that has been exasperating to so many all week. Hovland salvaged a bogey from an opening tee shot into the bushes and an exquisite shot off the muddied cart path.
He hit the pin on the uphill ninth hole for a birdie, then hit an amazing wedge shot from the cabbage left of the 17th green for a tap-in gain of another stroke. He closed with a bogey from the rain-soaked rough on the 18th for a 70 and was three behind.
“If I shoot a low round of golf tomorrow then anything can happen,” Hovland said. “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.”
Carlos Ortiz turned in one of the most remarkable performances by playing bogey-free golf for 30 consecutive holes. The streak ended on the 18th, but the Mexican player from the LIV Golf League still had a 67 and was very much in range at par 210 through 54 holes.
Missing from the mix was Scheffler, who had won three of his last four tournaments coming into the U.S. Open. For the third day in a row, he never found any momentum, with one critical stretch coming right before the turn.
After holing a 20-foot birdie putt on the sixth, Scheffler saved par after driving into the rough on No. 7 and hitting a wedge shot to three feet. Then what looked like a tap-in par on the long par-3 eighth turned into a shocking miss.
He wound up with a 70, moving him from a tie for 23rd to just outside the top 10, but he was eight shots behind Burns.
“I put myself in this position,” Scheffler said. “It’s not the position I want to be in, but I’ve done a good job of hanging in there and staying in the tournament.”
Baylor School graduate Harris English, after making the 7-under cut on the number, shot a third-round 77 and was 14 over, tied for 63rd among the 67 players who made it beyond 36 holes in the 125th U.S. Open and Oakmont’s record-extending 10th time hosting the event.
The best news for this U.S. Open was that it finished the third round without weather getting in the way. Oakmont received an inch of rain from when played ended Friday evening with 13 players still on the course who came back Saturday morning to get to 36 holes. The United States Golf Association offered to refund tickets to spectators who didn’t want to traipse through the muck.
Divots taken from the fairways looked like pelts, and the greens were noticeably softer and more receptive. There was one spell midway through the round when umbrellas were out and the sun was shining.
Burns picked up birdies with a wedge from the fairway to a back pin on No. 5 and a tee shot to seven feet on the accessible par-3 13th. Equally important were the three times he saved par from the fairway after getting out of position off the tee.
“I didn’t drive the ball as well as I would have liked to. 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,” he said. “I was able to convert some of those and kind of kept the momentum going.”
And then it was on to a night back at the house with Scheffler, where the conversation is more about kids than about golf.
“The conversation in the morning, we just hang out,” Scheffler said. “There will be two little kids running around. There’s nothing crazy, there’s not much to say. Sam’s been preparing for moments like this for a long time, and he’s put himself in position to win the golf tournament.”