OAKMONT, Pa. — Sam Burns played one of the finest rounds of golf in a U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in the early stages of Friday’s second round. Burns’ five-under 65, statistically speaking, came close to the best ever at Oakmont—the mythic final-round 63 Johnny Miller shot to win in 1973.
Rebounding from a disappointing finish to his opening round on Thursday, when he played his final four holes in five over par, Burns scorched a relatively benign Oakmont for six birdies. It was a performance that threatened to eclipse the mark for the lowest round in relation to the field scoring average.
When he guided in a 26-foot par save on the ninth hole, Burns tied the third best U.S. Open round at Oakmont and grabbed the 36-hole lead. By day's end, he had beaten the field average by 9.75 shots, not far off from the 10.77 strokes by which Miller whipped the field in that epic performance 52 years ago, the lowest final-round score by a winner. Beyond that, four-time champion Jack Nicklaus and fellow Ohioan Tom Weiskopf bettered the field by a mammoth 11.36 shots when each opened with 63 in 1980 at Baltusrol Golf Club.
“Honestly, I didn't really think much of a score,” said the 28-year-old Louisiana native, who completed 36 holes in three-under 137. “The golf course is really too difficult to try to figure out what's a good score and what's not. You're really just shot by shot and trying to play each hole the best you can.”
This was a good score. Trust us. And crazy to think it could have been better after hitting 14 greens in regulation. But one of the PGA Tour’s best putters brushed off the what-if exercise.
“I think that's being a little greedy,” said the five-time tour winner. “You have 15, 20 feet, which seems like a makeable putt, but a lot of times you're aiming four, five, six, seven feet of break.”
Nothing wrong with greedy. Oakmont has a way of clawing shots back. Another measure of Burns’ glittering play thus far is his collection of 11 birdies, the second most through two rounds here in the last five U.S. Opens, one fewer than Gordon Brand in 1994.
A laconic sort, Burns arrived at Oakmont fresh off a playoff loss to Ryan Fox in the RBC Canadian Open, where he three-putted the fourth playoff hole. Then he worked his way near the top of the leaderboard on Thursday only to surrender a series of strokes that might have been deflating. He didn’t look at it that way.
“I played a really nice round of golf, and I think you get out of position here, and the golf course will bite you,” he said. “It was unfortunate, but there was too much good to focus on the little bit of bad.”
Another factor in his overnight mental recovery was his welcome encounter with his 14-month-old son Bear immediately after signing his scorecard for a 72. Burns broke into a smile when he saw his boy, then scooped him up and planted several kisses on him. Anger assuaged.
“That was great seeing him there,” Burns agreed readily. “That helped a lot.”
You wouldn’t know it by how he carries himself and how little emotion he is inclined to show, but Burns, ranked 22nd in the world, harbors a competitive makeup not unlike world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler. Or so says Scheffler, one of his closest friends on tour.
“I think Sam is one of those guys, he's like me in a sense that he's a hyper-competitive person,” Scheffler, the reigning PGA champion, said after a 71 left him at four-over 144. “I think you always dream of having a chance to win these tournaments, and he's put himself in position a few times at majors, and he's in position again. I'm sure going into the weekend he's right where I would want to be on the leaderboard, so … it should be a fun experience for him.”
It will be a rather new experience. Burns’ lone top-10 finish in a major in 20 starts came in last year’s Open at Pinehurst, where he tied for ninth. His T-19 at last month’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte marked just his third in the top 25.
His learning curve has been a bit long, but he took away a few important pointers from Pinehurst.
“I think at times, trying to be a little too perfect around major championship golf courses, and I think especially around here, honestly it kind of forces you to take your medicine because a lot of times that's the only option you have,” he said. “I think for this golf course, you really just have to free it up. It's too hard to try to guide it around here. You're going to hit some in the rough, you're going to hit some in some bad spots, you might as well do it with authority.
“Yeah,” he added echoing his friend Scheffler, “it's going to be a fun weekend.”