Probably shouldn’t have made such a big thing of Jordan Spieth’s street-fighting smarts. A scrambled par on 1, but having dropped a stroke back there at 2, he’s gotten wild off the tee again on 3, leading to another bogey. You can’t keep making mid-range par savers. He’s +2 and suddenly looks a little pensive.
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US Open golf 2025: players face another testing day in second round – live | US Open Key events … so with that Brooks birdie, let’s update the leaderboard for the first time today. Im Sung-jae heads the other way, having come a cropper on the false front of the 2nd green, his ball toppling back down the fairway. -4: Spaun Brooks Koepka finds the par-five 12th in two big bloots, then nearly makes the eagle putt from 26 feet. Not quite, but that’s back-to-back birdies for Brooks, a fine response to that opening bogey. He closes in on the lead at -3. But not such good news for his playing partner Justin Thomas, who three-putts from three feet and chalks up a double bogey. JT shot 76 yesterday, and surviving the cut is already looking like a pipe dream. He’s +9. Jordan Spieth can’t make his par putt on 2. He slips back to +1. Also heading in the wrong direction is his playing partner, the 2021 champion Jon Rahm. The 30-year-old Spaniard is busy rediscovering his major-championship form after some mixed experiences of late, and opened with a fine 69 yesterday. But his first shot this morning found a fairway bunker and led to bogey. He’s level par now, and has just hit another wild tee shot, this time so far left at 3 that he clears the Church Pew bunker and ends up on the 4th fairway. No real harm done there. Sheer brilliance from Scottie Scheffler on 11. His tee shot bounds towards a bunker down the left of the track, but sticks in the rough to its side. Standing in the trap with the ball way above his feet, he’s forced to take his medicine, clipping back onto the fairway. But then the cream rises. He sends his approach scampering past the hole, the ball screeching to a halt and spinning back, nearly dropping into the cup. Another 11 inches and it’d have been an outrageous birdie. It’s still a pretty amazing par. Kids, be like Scottie, keep calm and take your medicine. That stuff’s good for you. A bounce-back birdie for Brooks Koepka at the short par-four 11th. He’s -2 again. But back on 2, real trouble for Jordan Spieth, who takes a shy at the green from the thick rough down the right, but only manages to advance his ball a yard or so. The grass murderously throttling the hosel there. His second attempt is much more successful, and he finds the green, though he’ll need to sink a 25-footer if he’s to escape with par again. … and ah yes, there’s Spieth flaying his tee shot at 2 into deep trouble down the right. Oh Jordan. Good luck with that. Elsewhere, a couple of big early birdies. Viktor Hovland rakes one in from the fringe at 10, a huge swinging right-to-left 52-footer that earns a huge roar from the gallery. The popular Norwegian moves back to level par. And he’s going round with Scottie Scheffler, who makes birdie too, but in more traditional style, finding the centre of the green before steering in an uphill 20-footer. He’s +2 and here he comes! If anyone has the mix of street-fighting savvy and short-game magic to hold Oakmont at arm’s length, it’s surely Jordan Spieth. The 2015 champ has been showing signs of emerging from his recent slump, and shot 70 yesterday, a most acceptable start to his hunt for a second US Open. He’s started today in trademark style: a loose tee shot that ends up in the thick stuff, necessitating the taking of medicine. Once he chips out, he spins his approach from 100 yards to five feet, and tickles in the putt to save his par. If he can get the driver behaving – admittedly a big if for the Seve-esque wild man – he’ll be in with a shout this week. Conditions are very similar to yesterday. Warm but not oppressive; a little bit of moisture in the air to keep the course responsive; not much in the way of wind. On Sky Sports, David Howell suggests today’s scoring will be very similar too. So don’t expect too many of the lads ripping it up: only one player was bogey-free yesterday, the leader JJ Spaun, and his round was only the second bogey-free card in the last 1,037 US Open rounds at Oakmont. Scottie Scheffler was uncharacteristically sloppy yesterday. But then Oakmont can do that to a golfer, even the world’s very best. He’s far from out of contention after yesterday’s three-over 73, but he can’t afford the same again. His first shot of the day is a driving iron that splits the 10th fairway. Big couple of hours coming up for the world number one. The 2017 and 2018 champion Brooks Koepka finished strongly last night with birdies at 17 and 18. He’s not started so well this morning, however. His opening tee shot at 10 drifts into rough down the right. He can’t reach the green with his second, and though he gives himself a chance of redemption by wedging to ten feet, the putt’s missed, and the errant drive has cost him an opening bogey. He’s -1. PreambleDay one wasn’t exactly carnage – the course was relatively soft and receptive after rain earlier in the week, while there was little wind – but unless storms come at the weekend, something not yet certain, it’s not going to get any easier. And despite it all, there were only ten players in a field of 156 who finished the first round under par. -4: JJ Spaun However there are very few big-name players not on that list who have played themselves out of it. Not Scottie and Bryson at +3, nor Rory and 54-year-old Phil the Thrill at +4. But the margins for error are smaller now. Should make for a great Moving-into-Moving-Day Day! Actually, let’s not make that a thing. Here are the tee times (USA unless stated, all times BST, (a) denotes amateur). It’s on! Starting at hole 1 Starting at hole 10 Source link Posted: 2025-06-13 13:35:48 |
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