US Open golf 2025: big names toiling at Oakmont during second round – live | US Open
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Ben Griffin sends his tee shot at 6 to 15 feet and clatters the putt into the centre of the cup. The birdie takes the 29-year-old from Chapel Hill, North Carolina into a tie for second at -3. Griffin had no record to speak of either on the PGA Tour or in the majors until three months ago, when he won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Andrew Novak. He’s since won his first solo Tour title, the Charles Schwab Challenge, and finished tied for eighth at last month’s PGA Championship. Additionally he was runner-up to Scottie Scheffler at the Memorial a fortnight ago. There are few players in better form … just in time for major season!
-4: Spaun (7), Lawrence (2*)
-3: Burns (F), B Griffin (6)
-1: Hovland (F)
JJ Spaun leaves his third into 7 well short of the flag. He nearly drains the 30-footer that remains, but it’s a bogey that always looked on the cards when his tee shot found the second cut. Meanwhile a second bogey of the day for Kim Si-woo, this time at 4, and he drops to level par. Just five players under par now. Given three of those have a combined 41 holes to play between them, and the course is getting ever firmer, there’s a fair chance there will just be two by the end of the day.
-4: Spaun (7), Lawrence (2*)
-3: Burns (F)
-2: B Griffin (5)
-1: Hovland (F)
E: Kim (4), Detry (2*), Stevens (2*)
+1: Perez (F), Scott (6), Schauffele (5*), MacIntyre (4*), Harman (3), L Griffin (2*)
A backward step for Bryson DeChambeau at the short par-four 14th. He gets a bit too cheeky with his wedge in from 70 yards, taking on a pin tucked behind a bunker and watching in horror as his ball lands one yard shy, disappearing into the lush rough draped across the bunker’s shoulder. He can’t get up and down and that’s his second bogey of the day, following the one he made at 10. They neatly sandwich that birdie at 12, but he’s in arrears for his day’s work so far. He’s +4.
Thriston Lawrence curls in a 25-foot right-to-left swinger on 11. He moves to -4 and could soon be tied for the lead, because JJ Spaun is in a spot of trouble at 7, having found the thick stuff from the tee and been forced to chip out sideways. Meanwhile up on 12, Robert MacIntyre chips in from the back of the green to repair half of this afternoon’s damage. He’s back to +1 and his unfazed expression speaks of a man ready for the challenge. There’s a famous Scottish football manager who had a name for that.
Rory McIlroy can’t get particularly close with his splash out of the bunker at 4. He does well enough to scramble his par, but that’s a disappointment on a hole that has so far given up the joint-highest number of birdies this week (63, just like the 17th). He remains at +8, one outside the projected cut-line.
Another birdie for the leader! JJ Spaun gets his reward for a lovely tee shot at the par-three 6th, a gentle draw to six feet. In goes the putt, and the Players runner-up now has a cushion at the top. Just the five players under par now.
-5: Spaun (6)
-3: Burns (F), Lawrence (1*)
-2: B Griffin (4)
-1: Hovland (F), S Kim (3)
E: Schauffele (4*), Detry (2*), Stevens (2*)
We might as well gorge on Rory McIlroy action while we still can. Because the way he’s going, he’ll not be around Oakmont too much longer. From the centre of the 4th fairway, he pulls his second into a greenside bunker on the left. He could do with a decent lie, because he’s short-sided, the pin’s tucked up in that corner of the green and there’s very little room to play with. He’s just fortunate that the ball didn’t snag in the thick rough, dropping into the trap instead. Then he’d be in real bother. Time for a bit of Rory magic. He needs some of it.
It’s not been the best start for Robert MacIntyre. Scotland’s best hope of ending the old country’s 26-year major-championship drought – Paul Lawrie their last winner at the 1999 Open – bogeys 10 and 11 to slip back to +2.
… but the 2011 champ can’t get up and down from the back of 3. Rory McIlroy, the latest member of the career-slam club, has opened 6-4-6. He’s +8 overall now, and with much work to do if he’s to hang around for the weekend. Oakmont Country Club, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, everyone!
Bryson DeChambeau is on the apron in front of the par-five 12th green. He could chip, but elects to putt instead. He’s 123 feet away, and the putt has 30 or 40 feet of left-to-right break. He judges it almost to perfection, the ball swinging around on a glorious arc to three-and-a-half feet. What judgement, because these greens are getting harder and faster by the minute. That’s one of the putts of the week. He tidies up for a brilliant birdie. The defending champ is back to +3.
It could be a long day for Rory McIlroy. A double-bogey at 1. A birdie chance passed up at 2. Now he drives into a fairway bunker at 3, then smacks his second into its face, and in gouging out from the rough he’s left himself in, sends his third scampering hysterically through the green and into more cabbage at the back. Bogey will be a good result here now. He’s currently trending towards the weekend off.
Having just dropped his first stroke of the day, JJ Spaun responds by reclaiming the shot – and with it sole ownership of the lead – at the par-five 4th. Meanwhile a birdie-birdie start for Xander Schauffele at 10 and 11; birdie for Ben Griffin at 2; but an awful double-bogey start for Thomas Detry, who zig-zags his way down 10 and drops to +1 quicksmart. Throw in birdie for Adam Scott at 1, and bogey for Kim Si-woo at 2, and it’s time for a wee update.
-4: Spaun (4)
-3: Burns (F), Lawrence
-2: B Griffin (3)
-1: Hovland (F), Scott (3), S Kim (2)
E: Schauffele (2*)
Rory McIlroy has the chance to repair some of that opening-hole double-bogey damage. But his birdie putt from the fringe at 2 is always swinging off to the right. He leaves himself a tricky five-footer coming back, but makes it to at least stem the bleeding. He’s +6.
We’ve already had one hole-in-one today, courtesy of Victor Perez at 13. That was only the second US Open ace in Oakmont history – Scott Simpson made the first on 16 back in 1983 – but in true London-buses fashion, we wait all that time and another nearly comes along in short order. Justin Hicks fires an iron straight at the very same flag. It’s rolling in, surely, but turns to the left at the very last moment. So close to a little bit of history. Hicks doesn’t have much else to shout about this week, having shot 84 yesterday and already made a bogey and double today. But that’s a birdie, a nearly moment, and he’s +16.
Thanks Matt. Now then, Justin Rose. He’s currently right on the projected cut line of +7. He’s opened with a par, but he’s in all sorts of bother on 2, having flayed his tee shot into the trees down the right. Forced to take a drop, he then smacks his third off the trunk of another tree, going for a gap that clearly wasn’t big enough for him. The ball comically rolls back down a cart path, with punters jumping out of the way of it. It eventually comes to rest under the tyre of a mobility scooter that couldn’t shift into gear in time. A slow-motion, slapstick version of this …
… and so he’s eventually wedging through a larger gap into the green. But he’s nowhere near the pin. Two putts later, and that’s a double-bogey fiasco. Rose has come second in two of the last three majors; he’ll not be getting anywhere near that this time. In fact he’ll now do very well to make the weekend. He’s +9.
Time for me to hand back to Scott. What’s to come for the afternoon starters? The suspicion is that the greens will get faster and scoring get a little tough.
-3: Burns (F*), Spaun (3), Lawrence
-2: B Griffin (2), S Kim (1)
-1: Hovland (F*), Scott (2), Detry
The leader JJ Spaun drops his first shot of the week. He found the green at 1 in regulation, two-putted for par. He missed the green at 2, got up-and-down for par. At 3 he missed the green and couldn’t save par. A few nerves? He slips back to sit alongside Burns on -3.
A tricky start for Bryson DeChambeau (bogey at 10) but he looks set to bounce back. He’s got 8 feet for birdie at 11.
Rory McIlroy opens with a double bogey-6 after hacking out his chip and two-putting. “He’s waited all morning,” laments Laura Davies. “And then that …” Oh well, it’s Royal Portrush in a month … (Prove me wrong, Rory!)
Rory McIlroy’s opening hole is turning nasty. After his drive found sand, his second blow found thick rough. He shoveled the ball forward knowing that the land would sweep it to the green. But it never stops. It was like trying to stop a ball on a downhill stretch of motorway. He’ll be chipping for par from yet more lush rough.
Jon Rahm didn’t pull any punches after his 75 saying: “Honestly, I’m too annoyed and too mad right now to think about any perspective. Very frustrated. Very few rounds of golf I’ve played in my life where I think I hit good putts and they didn’t sniff the hole, so it’s frustrating. I didn’t make a putt, that was the main difference. I didn’t play bad.”
A 75 for Jordan Spieth today. A disappointment after his opening 70. He’s an honest fellow, though. “If I look back at all my history, the idea of winning the US Open would be the most difficult task for me and I somehow snuck it out on a course that’s not a normal US Open golf course.” He was talking of Chambers Bay in 2015 and his record since then backs up his thoughts – he’s yet to add another top 10.
“One the tee, Rory McIlroy.” In an ideal world, he’d find the 1st fairway and ride the wave from his starting point of +4. Roryland (as a new biography terms it) is not currently ideal, however. He’s playing the tougher front nine first and he’s found sand with his opening drive.
Scottie Scheffler is fighting for par at 9 (his 18th). He found deep rough from the tee, had to hack the ball out, and his approach leaves him 16-feet for a par-4, a par-70 and a fine recovery from a scrappy journey around the turn. The backdrop at 9 is quite cutesy with its clapboard clubhouse. Like a Dawson’s Creek location. Alas, Joey Potter sighs as Scottie’s par putt slips by. He’s shot 73-71 for +4. He’ll play the weekend but he’s seven back of his good friend Sam Burns. With him, Viktor Hovland hits halfway on -1 (71-68), currently good for a share of fifth.
Justin Thomas will miss the cut after two rounds of 76. He currently ranks T134th so there’s a good chance he’ll be outside the top 100 at the end of play. A missed cut is a missed cut, you might say. But it’s a third missed cut in a row at the US Open and he was outside the top 100 in the previous two as well. That’s poor for a golfer of his quality – and it will hurt him more than anyone else, of course.
Sam Burns shoots 65 to set a 36-hole clubhouse target of -3
A potentially awkward finish for Sam Burns is transformed by a good putt. His drive finds the left rough at the 465-yard par-4 9th. He has to take a penalty drop and then bunts his approach into the heart of the green. He has 22-feet for par and makes it! A wonderful round of -5 and a good chance he’ll head into the weekend as the championship leader.
A quietly useful finish for Russell Henley who made five unanswered bogeys in his first 14 holes but closes with three birdies in four holes to add a 72 to yesterday’s 70. He was seventh in this championship at Pinehurst last year. He was also seventh with 18 holes to play at Erin Hills in 2017 (when T27), the first round co-leader at Shinnecock Hills in 2018, and the co-leader through 54 holes at Torrey Pines in 2021. Sneaky good, then. He’s +2 for the week and T17th on the leaderboard.
Here goes the leader. JJ Spaun was bogey-free in the first round and now he steps up to the 1st tee in a slightly gaudy shirt. A touch of 1970s curtains about it. Thursday’s effort was his seventh PGA Tour first round lead. He’s yet to win from such a position but he’s heading in the right direction: 34-27-47-42-5-2. The latter was this year’s Players Championship when Rory McIlroy bettered him in extra holes.
More frustration for Jon Rahm. He did, indeed, set up a makeable birdie putt at 17 (from inside 7 feet) but it catches no more than the edge of the hole. He dips his knees, looks askance, wafts his hand at Dame Fortune, looks to the skies, and mutters darkly. As absolute treasure trove of golfing torment.
At the par-3 8th (his 17th) Sam Burns hits his tee shot fully 301 yards. Yes, you did read that correctly. The 299-yard hole is a bit of a monster. The sort of thing to make course traditionalists tear out their hair like Viktor Hovland taking aim at a shot settled deep into this week’s rough. Burns shrugs and sets up a 13-foot birdie look which will see him join JJ Spaun in top spot … but it slips past.
Daniel Berger played the back nine in a bogey-free -3. But we know the front nine is much more difficult and he’s sort of proved it by writing 5-3-8-6-3 on the card (bogey-birdie-quadruple bogey-bogey-birdie). “Pop a one on the end of that,” says David Howell on commentary, “and you’ve got my telephone number.” Most endearing was the way even he realised it was a naff joke and ended it in a bit of a mumble.
An anguished cry from Jon Rahm at the short par-4 17th. His ball veers to the right and finds sand. He’s short-sided himself but could still make birdie. The cry, and the furious swipe of the club that accompanies it, feel more like modern-day Rahm frustration rather than the fuel in the belly anger that we saw when he won this championship in 2021. He’s +3 for the week so far from out of this.
Among the big names labouring to make the weekend are: Joaquin Niemann (+7), Dustin Johnson (+9), Justin Thomas and Sepp Straka (+10) – all of them currently out on the course.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the leaderboard it looks like this:
-4: Spaun
-3: Burns (15*), Lawrence
-2: Hovland (15*), S Kim
-1: Neergaard-Petersen (11*), B Griffin, Detry
Want to see Victor Perez’s ace?!? Wait no more! “Major league chest bump,” cries the announcer.
A 6-foot par putt at 9 for backmarker George Duangmanee. He needs it for a first par of the day. He’s 12-over through the 8th after yesterday’s 86. Come on, George, make the turn in style! The Virginian earned his spot through Final Qualifying so he’s no mug. He’s very inexperienced at this level, however (just his second start on the PGA Tour). He makes it! Push on George!
Dustin Johnson appeared on screen just now, more for nostalgic reasons than anything to do with his scores. He carded 74-73 at the Masters and 78-76 in the PGA Championship. He opened with a 75 this week and is +2 for today through 14, in a fight to make the weekend.
So is Scottie Scheffler but on +4 he’s more likely to play post-cut (he’s currently T40th).
“What’s happened to Daniel Berger?!” emails Sam Henson. He’s become a bit of a smashed Berger is the corny answer, Sam. He was -1 for the week through 11 holes today but has just scratched an 8 at the par-4 3rd. He criss-crossed the green so often the graphic on the official scoring looks like someone has made an etch-a-sketch with their eyes closed.
For a long while Sam Burns struggled to turn his winning PGA Tour form into anything substantial in the majors. He went 16 of them without recording a top 10 but was then ninth 12 months ago at Pinehurst in this championship. He got a bit lucky at Royal Troon, carding a third round 65 in nice conditions before watching the leaders tackle the back nine in filthy weather while he warmed his toes in the clubhouse. He ended Saturday in second but made a mess of the final round (an 80 for T31st). He was also T19th in the PGA Championship last month. He makes par at 5 to remain the pacesetter out on the course.
Birdie for Sam Burns at the par-5 4th. As Scott mentioned earlier this week, he was defeated in a play-off on Sunday in the Canadian Open so is in good form. The man who defeated him, Ryan Fox, had a nice way of describing the slightly underwhelming extra holes. “We had a bit of a pillow fight there,” he admitted. Burns is looking good today.
-4: Spaun
-3: Burns (13*), Lawrence
-2: S Kim
-1: Hovland (12*), Berger (11*), Neergaard-Petersen (9*), B Griffin, Detry
Hole-in-one for Victor Perez!
Oh-la-la from the Frenchman. Two or three bounces and then it scuttled down the hole like a hamster that had spotted a cat. A 192-yard blow and he now has a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and an 8 on his card today. He’s level-par for the day, +1 for the week, and currently T13th.
Very un-Koepka-like US Open golf from Brooks Koepka at 4. It started well with a 322 yard drive to the fairway. But he found the right rough with his approach and, four shots later, he’s made a bogey-6 which is a fourth dropped shot in his last five holes. From contention to frustration in an hour. He’s +3 for the round and +1 for the week so far from out of it.
Justin Thomas really struggles with keeping a big score off his card in the majors. Ahead of this week, he’d carded one round of 75+ in eight of his last 10 starts in them. It just puts him snug behind the 8-ball time and time again. Even when that didn’t happen in last month’s PGA Championship, he still missed the cut. The other exception in those last 10 majors was, however, a potent reminder of his quality: he won the 2022 PGA Championship. What did he score yesterday? You guessed it: a 76. Unfortunately, he’s on track for a repeat today at +4 through 12.
Good info here. Note that the only four players on the course and under-par for the tournament have just, or are about to, hit the front nine.
Oakmont’s front nine is currently playing more than three shots harder (!!) than the back nine today (+3.8 vs +0.7), so the real-time leaderboard is misleading — nobody inside the top 20 has already played the front today. Absolute gauntlet, especially 8 (+0.7) and 9 (+0.6)
— Dylan Dethier (@dylan_dethier) June 13, 2025
“Gosh, dang it!” cries Scottie Scheffler after he drags his tee shot at 3 into the church pews. It’s not quite Tyrrell Hatton levels of profanity, but on the Scheffler scale it counts as a potty mouth. A sign that he’s feeling the pressure? Maybe he’s human, after all. He can only lay up from Oakmont’s famous sand trap.
How bad can it get around Oakmont? Ask (or maybe don’t, not at least until tomorrow morning) George Duangmanee. He carded a first round 86 and is currently +7 through four holes. Ouch.
Meanwhile, the World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler has made birdie at the 2nd. He’s back to +4 for the week. Playing partner Hovland’s woes at the same hole end with a double bogey. Another ouch.
No cut problems for Viktor Hovland and Sam Burns. They’ve both completed bounce back birdies in the last few minutes and are -4 for their rounds and sitting inside the top five on the leaderboard. At the 2nd, however, Hovland found rough from the tee and can only hack his second shot forward into more trouble in sand. An enormous divot flew almost as far as his ball. It gets worse – he can only hack his ball backwards so is staring a double bogey in the face.
Scottie Scheffler holds the follow through after thrashing his ball down the second fairway. The TV commentators are worried that he’s flirting with the cut. He’s +2 for the day, +5 for the week and the stats suggest he’ll need to be +6 at the worst to play the weekend. Of course, he wants to contend, not merely play the final 36 holes. So he needs something very special between now and signing his card.
Did you see this putt in practice?! Scottie Scheffler’s first putt at 1 was not much shorter after his 135-yard approach came up 84-feet short. He three stabs from there. Sky Sports commentators putting the blame on the approach on Scheffler’s caddie Ted Scott and a bad yardage.
Yikes. Having made bogey at 18 and 1 (he started the round on 10), Brooks Koepka found rough from the tee with an iron on the 359-yard 2nd, sand with his approach, and could only stop his ball 36 feet from the flag with his third. A two-putt makes it three bogeys in a row. No double bogey, though, which is one of the two-time US Open champion’s mantras.
Thanks Scott. Significant moves from Viktor Hovland and Sam Burns today (they are -3 and -4 for their rounds). As fearsome as Oakmont is – and it is, of course, very fearsome – it has also witnessed two very famous hot streaks. Johnny Miller carded a final round 63 to win the 1973 US Open and Larry Nelson closed 65-67 to win 10 years later (his 132 was a championship low for the final 36 holes). And in-between John Mahaffey recovered from an opening 75 to record 67-68-66 to land the 1978 PGA Championship.
Viktor Hovland can’t make his 20-foot par putt on 18. But he got close. It’s a dimple or two shy of dropping. Scottie Scheffler tidies up for his par, though; that’s a great scramble after the errant tee shot. Such a lovely wedge in. Meanwhile there are a few players currently under par for their round and threatening to break into red figures for the tournament: Emiliano Grillo with birdies at 17 and 3, Daniel Berger picking up shots at 11 and 12, the aforementioned Corey Conners with his birdies at 11 and 14. So here’s how things are looking now …
-4: Spaun
-3: Lawrence
-2: Burns (9*), Hovland (9*), S Kim
-1: Koepka (10*), B Griffin, Detry
E: Grillo (12*), Morikawa (9*), Conners (8*), Berger (7*), Neergaard-Petersen (5*), Scott, MacIntyre
… and with that, I’ll hand you over to Matt Cooper, who’ll treat you real good for the next few hours. See you a bit later!
Brooks Koepka pays for a couple of mistakes on 1. His tee shot finds a fairway bunker, then after chipping out, his approach finds the green but stops well short of the flag. He can’t make the 33-foot putt to save his par, and drops back to -1 overall. Meanwhile back-to-back bogeys for Jon Rahm, at 8 and 9, and he’s out in 38, three-over for his round. He’s +2 overall, and teetering on the edge of tanty. The first wisps of smoke coming out of the lugs, for sure.
Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland take their medicine on 18. After hacking out, Hovland sends his 9-iron from 150 yards pin high. He’ll have a 20-foot look at saving par. Scheffler then lobs gloriously from 138 yards to four feet, utilising the ridge running behind the flag as backstop. He’ll fancy his chances of saving par from there. And what a par save it’d be, following his flat-stick shenanigans on the previous green.
