U.S. Open
U.S. Open 2025: Here's how the glacial pace of play actually helped Viktor Hovland on Friday
Patrick Smith
OAKMONT, Pa. — The pace of play over the first two rounds of the U.S. Open at Oakmont has been, in a word, glacial. It is unavoidable at this event on this golf course, which has proven to be one of the great wars of attrition in recent U.S. Open memory.
It's so slow on Friday that it took the supergroup of Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa 71 minutes to play the opening three holes. And no, that is not a typo. One hour and 11 minutes elapsed before they reached the fourth tee. The type of slog normally reserved for your local muni that has foursomes go off in eight-minute intervals.
That trio was the sixth group off No. 10 on Friday, and things came to a screeching halt at the par-5 12th, which has caused a number of backups this week. Understandable, as its one of just two par 5s at Oakmont, serving as a key birdie opportunity. The problem? It's not exactly a layup birdie, or even a layup par. The green slopes from front to back and if you miss it in two, getting up and down is no picnic. So the guys waiting to take it on with their second shot are often waiting quite awhile for guys to clean up around the green. This, of course, creates a logjam back at the tee, too.
The brutal pace didn't affect Hovland early in his round, though. After opening with a solid one-over 71, Hovland birdied No. 10 and then made birdie at No. 12 to climb into red figures. He eventually made the turn in three-under 32 to vault up the leader board, then made another birdie at No. 1, his 10th hole of the day, to reach three under for the week.
But disaster struck at the second, where the seven-time PGA Tour winner missed in the right rough with his tee shot and then hacked it out into a fairway bunker where he was forced to play sideways out of. His fourth shot came to rest 37 feet from the cup and he three-putted for double bogey.
Then, more waiting, which had to be frustrating coming off a six. But Hovland said afterward he actually used the delays between shots to his advantage. He had plenty of time to refocus.
"I'd say just personally, when I've had a couple bad holes back-to-back, I tend to rush," Hovland said. "I tend to really get quick. Out here when the rounds are so long, you can't really do that.
"You have to reset, and yeah, you might have had a bad hole on the last hole and then you're sitting on the tee box for 10, 20 minutes. At least it gives you a good opportunity to get that out of your system and reset and think about the next shot."
Smart strategy. Hovland was able to par the following hole and then birdied the fourth and fifth to get back to three under. Nothing like a 15-to-20-minute wait on a tee box to help you lock back in.
Unfortunately Hovland did play the final four holes in two over, but his two-under 68 is looking better and better by the minute. As early Friday afternoon, Hovland is inside the top five and might climb even higher by day's end. If the day ever does end, that is.