OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA | If it’s true that beauty is in the eye of the beholder – even at a place as intentionally beastly as Oakmont – good friends Sam Burns and Scottie Scheffler found their own bits of treasure on a grinding Friday at the U.S. Open.
In Burns’ case, it was the beauty of a 5-under-par 65 at a place that hands out low scores with Scrooge-like scarcity, thrusting himself toward the front of an ever-evolving leaderboard.
Scheffler, meanwhile, found flecks of self-satisfaction in his unwillingness to surrender despite not having his best stuff for a second straight day on a layout that is harder to beat than a polygraph.
Shooting 73-71 isn’t what made Scheffler the best player in the world by a wide margin, but holding his second round together when the thought of giving up intruded on his hyper-competitive spirit was a small victory at a place that revels in breaking wills.
Two exceedingly long days in, this U.S. Open is proving to be everything it intends to be – an exhaustive examination of mind, body and the ability to hole 6-foot comebackers.
That is why some victories – such as Burns’ low round – shine like floodlights at an old-school movie premiere and others are more privately reassuring.
“Look, it’s a 72-hole golf tournament, and if you can get a round under par out here, no matter if it’s 1-under, you’ll take it,” said Burns, a five-time PGA Tour winner whose recent form suggests he will be a formidable figure over the final 36 holes.
The Masters is famous for, among many other things, the roars it generates. It is built to elicit excitement.
Except for the random moments such as Victor Perez’s ace on the sixth hole Friday, the Oakmont soundtrack is more subdued, structured on oohs, ahhs and the distant hum of the Pennsylvania Turnpike more than explosions of noise.
“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.” – Sam Burns
Burns did earn a proper ovation after saving par at the uphill ninth to finish off his 65, a relatively stress-free demonstration of what is possible at Oakmont.
“Honestly, I didn’t really think of much of a score. 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,” Burns said.
There is something to the “one shot at a time” cliché, never more so than at Oakmont. Daniel Berger was rolling along at 3-under par through 11 holes Friday and within two of the lead before a quadruple bogey at the third hole undid more than 27 holes of good work.
Perez had a triple bogey on his card before he made his ace, similar to the albatross Patrick Reed had on Thursday before finishing his first round with a triple.
A plot twist is always one shaky stroke away. The secret sauce, at least for Burns through 36 holes, is to avoid playing scared.
“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,” said Burns, who has one top-10 finish in 20 major championship starts.
More than anything, Burns has a putting stroke that is the envy of his peers. He leads the PGA Tour in strokes gained putting and that can be a bit like playing with house money on Oakmont’s ferocious greens.
“He’s got really good natural instincts when it comes to his putting, and a lot of it is just very reactionary. He’s got good fundamentals, good instinct, and he putts very reactionary. That’s really all there is to it, it’s as simple as that,” Scheffler said.
The overwhelming pre-tournament favorite, Scheffler has spent his first two rounds chasing the sharpness that produced three victories in his last four starts, including the PGA Championship.
“There was some times today where you feel like you could give up, just based on how difficult the golf course is, how my swing was feeling,” said Scheffler, who uncharacteristically slammed his driver into the ground after missing the third fairway.
He has hit fewer than half of the fairways (13 of 28) and he hit just seven greens on Friday, keeping himself here for the weekend by manufacturing pars and avoiding the big numbers.
“There was a lot of stuff going on out there that was not going in my favor necessarily, and I felt like [caddie] Teddy [Scott] and I did a great job of battling, especially coming down the stretch.” – Scottie Scheffler
“Any time you’re not hitting it the way [you want] or playing up to my expectations I think it’s frustrating,” Scheffler said.
“Mentally this was as tough as I’ve battled for the whole day. There was a lot of stuff going on out there that was not going in my favor necessarily, and I felt like [caddie] Teddy [Scott] and I did a great job of battling, especially coming down the stretch.”
Taking questions from the media after his round – something that has seemingly gone out of style with some of his peers – Scheffler didn’t push back at the questions nor his position in the championship.
He talked with some pride about fighting the temptation to attempt a hero shot from the thick rough on his final hole Friday. Instead, Scheffler pitched out and played the percentages, though he made a bogey.
“Really, it’s just one of those deals where when you get out of position I’m fighting hard at the end of the round, in my head I’m like, ‘oh, I can get this to the green,’ and the more we stood there I was like, ‘we probably shouldn’t to do this, something bad could happen,’” Scheffler explained.
“I’m not in the position I’d want to be after two days, but by no means am I out of the tournament.”