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They’ve got the rollers out on the 13th green. They’re clearing the water that’s collected for now, but this surely can’t be feasible for too much longer … unless the rain stops, which it doesn’t look like doing any time soon.
If recent history is any guide, this US Open is Adam Scott’s to lose. Because here’s how some of the leaders have done on the back nine so far this week.
-6: Scott
-5: Hovland
-2: Burns, Spaun
-1: Hatton
Carlos Ortiz fires his second at 11 towards a tightly guarded flag on the right of the green. He gets his reward for taking on the bunkers. A seven-foot birdie chance that he grabs with both hands. His first of the day, and he’s back to +1. And it’s a similar story for Sam Burns at 10, the leader taking on a pin hiding behind some sand traps at the back-right. He’s left with a ten-foot swinger, right to left, and steers it in expertly. That’s his first birdie of the day, and he’s two clear again, because although Adam Scott nearly makes a 40-foot right-to-left curler for an outrageous birdie of his own, the ball stops one dimple short.
-2: Burns (10)
E: Scott (10)
+1: Ortiz (11)
+2: Hatton (11), Hovland (10), Spaun (10)
+3: MacIntyre (12)
The rain comes down again. There are already a lot of puddles on the fairways. Oakmont might not be able to take on too much more of this today. It’s beginning to look like a Monday finish.
A brilliant par scramble by Adam Scott. He chips delicately from the side of 9 to three feet, and tidies up. He’s now only one behind, because his playing partner Sam Burns sends a crisp chip to kick-in distance, but the damage has already been done. Bogey. The final two pairings have played the front nine in a combined +14.
-1: Burns (9)
E: Scott (9)
+2: Hatton (10), Ortiz (10), Hovland (9), Spaun (9)
+3: MacIntyre (11)
+4: Rahm (F), Scheffler (13), Young (11)
Everyone is going backwards. Tyrrell Hatton, hitting three into 10 after taking his penalty drop, sends his approach from 153 yards to 35 feet. Two putts and that’s a bogey. In the clubhouse, Jon Rahm considers a tumbler of malt to go with the cigar.
Adam Scott hasn’t been as lucky as I might have suggested. His ball’s on the sodden gallery walkway. He can’t hit it out of that puddle. So he’s got to take the nearest point of relief … and that’s in the thick rough to the right. He whips his second towards the green, but into more thick rough to the right of it. Sam Burns meanwhile can get a club to his ball, and whips back out from the tall grass into the centre of the fairway. But he gets way too much backspin with his approach, which zips into the fringe and nestles up against the second cut. Both players with a job on to save their par.
Ach, there are more dark clouds forming on the horizon. More troublesome weather cells moving in on the radar. Fingers crossed, even though that didn’t work earlier.
… and they’re not the only players going off piste. Tyrrell Hatton finds a penalty area down the right of 10 and is forced to take a drop. Viktor Hovland hacks his way up 9 and can’t get up and down from a greenside bunker. He turns in 38, three over for his round today, +2 overall. A grim look on his face. Jon Rahm, in the clubhouse lead at +4, may be considering the lighting of a big fat cigar.
Sam Burns sends his tee shot into a native area down the left of 9. That’s proper jungle. He’ll have the option to hit out of the hazard, but so much could go wrong in that knee-high nonsense, he’ll surely take the penalty. Adam Scott then slices his drive wildly in the other direction, but gets a huge break: he’s so wild he’s on the punters’ pathway.
Adam Scott leaves his long par putt on 8 short and high on the left. Bogey, and with Sam Burns chipping to three feet from the back and tidying up for his par, there’s now only one player in red figures for this week.
-2: Burns (8)
E: Scott (8)
+1: Hatton (9), Hovland (8)
Sam Burns takes driver at the 301-yard 8th. The hole breaks the US Open record for longest par-three by one yard, a mark previously set by this very hole in 2007. His ball arrows towards the flag, but nestles in the rough just behind the green. A fine shot but a tricky up and down to come. Adam Scott meanwhile finds deep rough to the right of the green, and can only whip out to 30 feet.
Tyrrell Hatton begins again by splashing out from a greenside bunker at 9 to six feet. He teases in the right-to-left curler that remains to scramble his par. He turns in 35, level par for the tournament and +1 overall.
Max Greyserman doesn’t hang about at the restart. He holes out from a bunker at 13. A huge cheer from a gallery who have been kicking their heels for the best part of two hours. The birdie takes him to +5. Also getting going again quickly: Scottie Scheffler, who reclaims the shot he carelessly dropped at 11 with birdie at 12. He’s back to +4.
The players are heading back to their positions, ready to get going again. Not a drop of rain in the sky, but the course is still pretty wet. The greens fine, but some puddles on the fairways, so there could be quite a few discussions with officials about relief. Other than that, we’re good to go. Hit the ball straight, and there shouldn’t be too many problems. Ah were golf that simple. “There was some pretty heavy rain here in Scotland yesterday,” begins Simon McMahon, “so hopefully what’s happening now in Pennsylvania will make Bob ‘Robert’ MacIntyre feel right at home and inspire him to play the last eight holes in six under and win by one, thus becoming the first Scot to win the US Open since Willie ‘William’ MacFarlane 100 years ago. Hey, dreams are free, right?”
We have an official restart time. Play will begin again at 5.40pm local time, 10.40pm in £sd. That will give the players about three hours, give or take, to get the job done tonight. Providing we don’t go to a play-off – and there hasn’t been one of those at a US Open since Tiger Woods saw off Rocco Mediate in 2008 – we might just get away with this. But let’s see.
-2: Burns (7)
-1: Scott (7)
+1: Hatton (8), Hovland (8)
+2: Ortiz (8), Spaun (8)
+3: MacIntyre (10)
+4: Rahm (F), Grillo (13), Young (10)
+5: Taylor (11), Scheffler (11), Lawrence (9)
That 45-minute estimate was a bit optimistic. Most of the standing water at Oakmont has been cleared now, but the USGA are waiting for a couple of nearby cells to pass by before restarting. That may take another 30 to 45 minutes, according to Rich Beem on Sky Sports. If that’s the case, it’ll be nip and tuck as to whether we finish tonight. Any play-off – a two-hole aggregate affair down 17 and 18 – would really be pushing it.
Sky Sports are reporting that play should restart in 45 minutes. Fingers: keep ‘em crossed.
-2: Burns (7)
-1: Scott (7)
+1: Hatton (8), Hovland (8)
+2: Ortiz (8), Spaun (8)
+3: MacIntyre (10)
+4: Rahm (F), Grillo (13), Young (10)
+5: Taylor (11), Scheffler (11), Lawrence (9)
The players aren’t being evacuated from the course. So that’s something. No worry about lightning at the moment, just surface water. And it’s only taken five to ten minutes’ worth of rain to flood a couple of the greens, so hopefully it won’t take too long for Oakmont’s drainage system to right that wrong when the clouds pass. There’s some bright sky in the distance, too. But for now we pause. When everyone comes back, the course will play differently; the greens will be more receptive, but the rough will be even more punitive. God speed, everyone!
Play suspended due to dangerous conditions
The weather’s finally decided what it wants to do. And what it wants to do is hose down. The 14th and 18th greens have taken on so much water there are puddles here and there, with the odd stream meandering its way across them. The hooter goes. We thought we might have a pause in play due to electrical activity; in fact it’s just good old rain that’s sent everyone scuttling for cover.
The rain’s battering down again. Viktor Hovland, perhaps discombobulated by weather that can’t make up its mind, pulls an awful par attempt wide left of the hole at 8. Bogey, and you have to wonder what Jon Rahm is thinking right now. He’s the clubhouse leader at +4, and while he won’t seriously be expecting all seven players above him on the leaderboard to mess this up … they are currently playing to a combined score today of +13. So … well … y’know.
-2: Burns (7)
-1: Scott (7)
+1: Hatton (8), Hovland (8)
+2: Ortiz (8), Spaun (8)
+3: MacIntyre (10)
+4: Rahm (F), Grillo (13), Young (10)
… so having said that, the taps suddenly turn on and the rain starts coming down strongly … Viktor Hovland scuttles under a brolly … then, having said that, the rain suddenly stops again. Welcome to Pennsylvania. Hovland, who had sent his tee shot into a bunker front-right of the monster par-three 8th, splashes out to ten feet. He’ll have a good chance to sace his par.
A few spots of rain in the air. Nothing necessitating the assembly of an umbrella. Yet. But the dark clouds have turned a little lighter, so fingers crossed that the worst of the weather is skirting Oakmont.
-2: Burns (6)
-1: Scott (6)
E: Hovland (7)
+1: Hatton (8)
+2: Ortiz (8), Spaun (7)
+3: MacIntyre (9)
+4: Rahm (F), Young (9), Neergaard-Petersen (8)
A third good birdie opportunity in a row passes Scottie Scheffler by, this time at 11. Then he misses a tiddler coming back. A three-putt bogey from 11 feet, and it really is all over this time for the world number one. He’s +5.
Bob MacIntyre makes birdie on 9 in a very unconventional manner. His tee shot sails so far right it ends up on the 10th fairway. From there, he sends his second from 168 yards to four feet. In goes the birdie putt, and that makes up for a shot dropped at 6. He turns in level-par 35, not out of this at all. He’s +3.
Adam Scott only just finds the front of the par-three 6th green. He then leaves his 37-foot putt eight feet short. It’s a careless mistake, and his attempt to save par is weak, dying on the low side. Bogey. Sam Burns has a look at birdie from 15 feet; it shaves the lip, but the tap-in is enough for sole ownership of the lead.
-2: Burns (6)
-1: Scott (6)
E: Hovland (6)
+1: Hatton (7)
Viktor Hovland is so close to making his birdie putt on 6. A left-to-right curler that looks like dropping. He raises a fist in order to punch the air … then as his ball kinks around the left lip and stubbornly stays up, Hovland styles it out, unclenching his hand and holding the nape of his neck in disbelief. Just a par … but that’s a lot better than poor JJ Spaun, whose 11-foot par attempt shaves the same side of the cup and that’s a fifth bogey in six holes. Meanwhile bogey for the leader Sam Burns back on 5, the result of finding a fairway bunker from the tee. We’re tied at the top!
(Two birdie lip-outs in a row for Scottie Scheffler, by the way, at 9 and 10. Which illustrate the narrow margins between success and failure in golf, because … well, look where he is now, and where he could be …)
-2: Scott (5), Burns (5)
E: Hovland (5)
+1: Hatton (6)
+2: Ortiz (6), Spaun (6)
+4: Rahm (F), Scheffler (10), Young (8), MacIntyre (8), Neergaard-Petersen (7), Lawrence (7)
JJ Spaun just can’t get going at all. His tee shot at the par-three 6th is never clearing the bunker at the front. It dumps into the sand, and he can only splash to 11 feet. Having made four bogeys in the first five holes, this is a big putt coming up. Meanwhile Viktor Hovland finds the centre of the green and will have a 30-foot look at birdie.
The clouds in the middle distance are dark. We’ll be very fortunate if they give Oakmont Country Club the bodyswerve.
JJ Spaun sends his third at 5 to ten feet, but he can’t make the par saver. That’s a 5-5-5-5 start for the 34-year-old Californian. He mopes away, dejected. He needs a reset – and he may have some luck coming his way, courtesy of Mother Nature, because there are some very grumbly dark clouds heaving into view. Meanwhile Viktor Hovland tidies up for his birdie, and he’s in a much better mood now, his early damage repaired. And bogey for Carlos Ortiz, who lands his tee shot at 6 onto a downslope in front of a bunker, then finds the bunker, and does well to limit the damage by getting up and down.
-3: Burns (4)
-2: Scott (4)
E: Hovland (5)
+1: Hatton (6), Spaun (5)
+2: Ortiz (6)
Back on 4, a big break for Adam Scott. His second finds rough to the right of the green. But there’s a sprinkler head messing with his stance, so he’s able to take relief. And instead of chipping out from thick stuff, he’s now able to use putter from the fringe. He nearly drains the 40-foot eagle putt, which would have been really pushing it, but it’s a tap-in for birdie. He’s -2. Par for Sam Burns, who remains one clear at -1.
JJ Spaun and Viktor Hovland do some ship-steadying at 4. Hovland makes a sandy par, splashing out to six feet, while JJ two-putts from 30 feet. Pars. Spaun remains at level par, Hovland at +1. Then on 5, mixed results after off-line tee shots. Spaun yanks his right, and can only gouge out. Hovland finds a fairway bunker, then swishes his second pin high to set up a very good birdie chance.
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