June 14, 2025 • 12 mins
Play has officially been suspended for the day at the US golf Open major, due to dangerous weather and darkness.
Thirteen players did not complete their second rounds, among them currently sixth-placed South African Thriston Lawrence, who's on his last hole.
Sam Burns leads by one shot on three-under-par after firing the low round of the championship, a brilliant five-under 65.
Our golf correspondent Graeme Agars joined Piney to recap all the carnage that's occurred over the first two days.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And play has officially been suspended for the day at
the US Golf Open due to dangerous weather and darkness.
Thirteen players haven't quite completed their second rounds. Among them
is the currently sixth placed South African Thriston Lawrence, who's
on the final hole. Sam Burns leads by one shot.
He's three under par after firing the low round of
(00:32):
the Championship a brilliant five under sixty five. Ryan Fox,
of course, beat Sam Burns in a playoff at the
Canadian Open last week. The key we is set to
make the cut. Ryan Fox is five overpass so the
cut is projected to be seven over. Rory McElroy going
to be there as well, but he's six over. Scottish
Sheffler four over, so that gives you an indication of
(00:53):
the course. Someone who won't be there, veteran Phil Mickelson.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Just mess It would have been his twenty seventh nade
cut at the US Open, tying in with Sam Snee
and Hale Irwin for the second most.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
But as it stands right now, Nicholson is on the
outside looking in and will that be his last trip
around as a competitor at a US Open.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
What a career for Phil Nicholson. Truly, the only thing
missing on his resume is the United States Open. He
has done so much in this sport, and you are
looking at a man who's most likely walking off the
course at a US Open for the last time in
his career.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yes, a bit a swite for Phil Mickelson, as the
old wise is grime, I guys has been watching on
with interest and analyzing things. He joins US now grime.
Just three players in the rid numbers. Could this tournament
be one with an overpass score?
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Well, it was back in two thousand and seven Jayson
Wynn Anghel Cabra won the US Open with a score
of five over pars, so that wouldn't be surprising at all.
I think the only thing that might actually change that is,
as you mentioned, torrential rain late in the day, storms overnight,
so there will be more rain, but we don't know
(02:23):
how much that will soften the course up, how to
continue to get firmer and faster. I think the odds
on were it even par or worse, would win. But
now I think this opens the door for a few
more guys to hold some fairways. And if you can
hold the fairways, you can hit good shots into the greens.
(02:43):
They will definitely be softer and a bit slower. So
I wouldn't mind betting Bilby a couple of low scores
out there tomorrow that will really stir things up heading
into the final round, and possibly Scotty Cheffler or John
Rahm or Brooks kept Ger or Jordan Steif. Maybe the
guys that post low numbers that come from behind.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Give alluded to it there. But what does make this
course so tough?
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Well, first of all, it slopes the fairways off and
slope left to right to left. You're not hitting at
a flat target. The greens are incredibly firm and fast
run at speeds even when amateurs are playing club events
at eighteen Would you believe they've actually run them when
(03:32):
you consider that we put on greens that are about
ten and the PGA two are puts on greens about
twelve and Augusta maybe thirteen, so they are severe. And
then you toss in the bunkering, which is very penal,
and put five and a half inch rough on the
golf course. So it's a nightmare. If you miss the
(03:53):
fairway or you miss the green, you're in rough up
to your ankles just trying to hack it out to
get into the bunkers. Often you're impeded from going forward
as much as you want to. So every single shot
on this golf course is a challenge and it just
wears it people, grinds them down. You've seen even Scottie
(04:14):
Scheffler lose his temper and pound his club down after
hitting an indifferent shot. Rory McElroy smashed one of the
team markers, so there's all sorts of weird things going on.
Even Shane Lowry picked up his ball on the green
to clean it and forgot to market because he was
so frazzled in his head. So it just gets to you.
(04:35):
And it is recognized as America's hardest golf course. The
members are proud of that, and there's a very good
argument that it might be the hardest in the world
day in, day out.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
And isn't that what I guess many of us would
like to see Graham, the world's best golfers challenged by
the world's toughest golf course.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Well, there's two schools of thought. One is that why
would you embarrass these players who are the elite golfers
in the world, turning them into, you know, looking like
club golfers. And the USGA says, we're not trying to
punish good players, We're just trying to identify them. So
you can take the argument either way you want. But
(05:20):
if you turn up at the US Open, particularly some
of the harder courses, this one in particular, you can
expect a grinding experience. There's nobody that bounces out of
here full of energy. Let me tell you that.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I guess another way of asking the question, if this
wasn't a major, how many of these guys would front
up for this tournament.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Well, there are some guys who like a challenge, so
you would find that you get a pretty decent fuddle.
But there'd be other people that just couldn't be boved
because you know, they know, they just don't have the
game to deal with it. But the US Open is,
you know, it is the mental grind of the year.
The Masters is spring time in America, the launch of
(06:08):
the official golf season, best presented golf course in the
world every year. The PGA is a very fair championship.
I would say as a major. The British Open is
still raw and blustery and played on the Lynx courses
on the ocean, and the weather can be a big factor,
and the US Open is just sheer hell and it's
(06:29):
four days of grinding.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Ryan Fox is there, of course, and he's saving a
wonderful time of things, as we all know, with a
couple of wins in the last month or so. Five over,
he's probably a bit far back to contend. What would
be a good result for him in rounds three and four.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
Well, I don't think he is too far back to contend.
I think with this rain and if they get more overnight,
I mean it was torrential belting down that is definitely
going to soften up the course, which is going to
make it play differently from the first two days. Now,
if you hit it in the rough, it's going to
be bad or worse because the ruff's going to be
(07:06):
high and even more juicy. But if you can keep
it in play in a softer fair way helps you
do that. You know, it wouldn't surprise me if we
see a couple of sixty five or sixty six is
there and really turn this thing on its head and
I would say any player from plus five on going
into tomorrow's round if conditions hold up the way I
(07:28):
just describe is not without a chance because the players
that are under par at the moment, Burns, JJ Spawn
and Victor Holin, none of those are one major championships
perform This is new territory for them. Holin has performed
well in the past and has won big events on
the PGA too, but his game is very much a
(07:48):
daily consideration. He's very erratic at this stage of his career,
so there's not a lot of experience on top of
the leaderboard. So you can bet the guys like chef
For at plus four, John Ramm at plus four and
others like kept Her at plus two are going in
with a lot of high hopes into that third round.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
It makes Sam Burn's second round astonishing, doesn't it. Sixty five?
You mentioned they might be sixty five once the weather
plays apart, but to shoot sixty five today, that's some round,
isn't it.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
I like Sam Burns a lot. His best friends with
Scottish Scheffler, and you know, gets over shattered in that
relation relationship. Although he has beaten Chefler in a PGA
Tour event before. He is the number one putter on
the US Tour this year. That's why he's where he is.
If he can keep the ball in play, he's one
of the guys that I won't say he's comfortable, but
(08:44):
he's one of the guys that can deal with the
speed and undulation of these grants, which he showed with
that sixty five today. Now it'll be hard to follow
that up for him tomorrow. As I said, the pressure
is going to really be on. But he deserves to
be where he is, there's no question about that.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And Phil Michol said, we heard some audio there before
of him missing the cut. This will be it for him.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
Well fifty five on Sunday here, which is Father's Day
in the United States. His exemptions have run out. His
last exemption for this event was when he won THEA
the PGA Championship, what was it five years ago, just
before he went to Live. So he's facing either a
(09:29):
special invite from the USCA, and they'd been asked about
that and they said, well, we prefer him to try
and qualify, So that's his other path because winning on
the Live Tour doesn't get you in the US Open,
but he can go to Open qualifying and try and
get him that way, or he might just say, look,
I've played what is it, thirty one of them or
(09:49):
something or other, been runner up six times. It's not
in my destiny. That'll be it. So it'll be his decision.
But it's not going to be easy for him to
get him now, because he's either going to have to
get lucky or work all the way through qualifying events.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
All right, Graham, always appreciate your analysis and your insight.
That's great. Magas joining us to run an eye over
the first couple of rounds of the US Open at
the very very challenging Oakmont Course in Pennsylvania. Play officially
suspended for the day due to dangerous weather and darkness.
Sam Burns, we just talked about their leeds by one shot,
(10:26):
three under. He shot a sixty five in a second rounder.
Here is his philosophy on on taming the savage set
up at Oakmont.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
You know, for this golf course, you really just have
to free it up. It's too hard to try to
guide it around here, and you're gonna hit some of
the rough, You're gonna hit someone in some bad spots,
you know, you might as well do it authority. Yeah,
it's a a fun weekend.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, and fun is one way of describing it. He
knows he's not safe, Sam Burns at this legendarily tough course.
Speaker 6 (10:55):
I mean, there's no just kind of give me hale.
There's no haul where you can just kind of get
up there and just hit. It acquires a lot of
focus on every shot. Every shot is difficult, you know,
it's just pretty taxing.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
That is Sam Burns. Who Ryan Fox beating that playoff
last weekend at the Canadian Open. So Ryan Fox will
make the cut. It is projected to be seven over.
He is five over the card after his first two rounds.
He shot a seventy two yesterday. That's two over seventy
three today. Just have a quick look at his round
today and see how it played out. So he had
(11:28):
bogie's on one, two and six, Ryan Fox, but then
birdie ten, another bogie at eleven, birdie at thirteen, bogie
at fourteen, birdie at fifteen, and the bogie at the last.
So very much a tailor of the tape as far
as the as far as this golf course is concerned.
(11:50):
But as Graham said, maybe he's not too far back
to contend anybody within seven or eight shots. With the
weather coming and maybe things softening up a bit, who knows,
So look forward to seeing how Ryan Fox goes. He's
playing the weekend at a major It's a pretty good
sekend in the box, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
For more from Weekends Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talks it B Weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from Newstalks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
And play has officially been suspended for the day at
the US Golf Open due to dangerous weather and darkness.
Thirteen players haven't quite completed their second rounds. Among them
is the currently sixth placed South African Thriston Lawrence, who's
on the final hole. Sam Burns leads by one shot.
He's three under par after firing the low round of
(00:32):
the Championship a brilliant five under sixty five. Ryan Fox,
of course, beat Sam Burns in a playoff at the
Canadian Open last week. The key we is set to
make the cut. Ryan Fox is five overpass so the
cut is projected to be seven over. Rory McElroy going
to be there as well, but he's six over. Scottish
Sheffler four over, so that gives you an indication of
(00:53):
the course. Someone who won't be there, veteran Phil Mickelson.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Just mess It would have been his twenty seventh nade
cut at the US Open, tying in with Sam Snee
and Hale Irwin for the second most.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
But as it stands right now, Nicholson is on the
outside looking in and will that be his last trip
around as a competitor at a US Open.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
What a career for Phil Nicholson. Truly, the only thing
missing on his resume is the United States Open. He
has done so much in this sport, and you are
looking at a man who's most likely walking off the
course at a US Open for the last time in
his career.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Yes, a bit a swite for Phil Mickelson, as the
old wise is grime, I guys has been watching on
with interest and analyzing things. He joins US now grime.
Just three players in the rid numbers. Could this tournament
be one with an overpass score?
Speaker 5 (02:01):
Well, it was back in two thousand and seven Jayson
Wynn Anghel Cabra won the US Open with a score
of five over pars, so that wouldn't be surprising at all.
I think the only thing that might actually change that is,
as you mentioned, torrential rain late in the day, storms overnight,
so there will be more rain, but we don't know
(02:23):
how much that will soften the course up, how to
continue to get firmer and faster. I think the odds
on were it even par or worse, would win. But
now I think this opens the door for a few
more guys to hold some fairways. And if you can
hold the fairways, you can hit good shots into the greens.
(02:43):
They will definitely be softer and a bit slower. So
I wouldn't mind betting Bilby a couple of low scores
out there tomorrow that will really stir things up heading
into the final round, and possibly Scotty Cheffler or John
Rahm or Brooks kept Ger or Jordan Steif. Maybe the
guys that post low numbers that come from behind.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Give alluded to it there. But what does make this
course so tough?
Speaker 5 (03:10):
Well, first of all, it slopes the fairways off and
slope left to right to left. You're not hitting at
a flat target. The greens are incredibly firm and fast
run at speeds even when amateurs are playing club events
at eighteen Would you believe they've actually run them when
(03:32):
you consider that we put on greens that are about
ten and the PGA two are puts on greens about
twelve and Augusta maybe thirteen, so they are severe. And
then you toss in the bunkering, which is very penal,
and put five and a half inch rough on the
golf course. So it's a nightmare. If you miss the
(03:53):
fairway or you miss the green, you're in rough up
to your ankles just trying to hack it out to
get into the bunkers. Often you're impeded from going forward
as much as you want to. So every single shot
on this golf course is a challenge and it just
wears it people, grinds them down. You've seen even Scottie
(04:14):
Scheffler lose his temper and pound his club down after
hitting an indifferent shot. Rory McElroy smashed one of the
team markers, so there's all sorts of weird things going on.
Even Shane Lowry picked up his ball on the green
to clean it and forgot to market because he was
so frazzled in his head. So it just gets to you.
(04:35):
And it is recognized as America's hardest golf course. The
members are proud of that, and there's a very good
argument that it might be the hardest in the world
day in, day out.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
And isn't that what I guess many of us would
like to see Graham, the world's best golfers challenged by
the world's toughest golf course.
Speaker 5 (04:58):
Well, there's two schools of thought. One is that why
would you embarrass these players who are the elite golfers
in the world, turning them into, you know, looking like
club golfers. And the USGA says, we're not trying to
punish good players, We're just trying to identify them. So
you can take the argument either way you want. But
(05:20):
if you turn up at the US Open, particularly some
of the harder courses, this one in particular, you can
expect a grinding experience. There's nobody that bounces out of
here full of energy. Let me tell you that.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I guess another way of asking the question, if this
wasn't a major, how many of these guys would front
up for this tournament.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Well, there are some guys who like a challenge, so
you would find that you get a pretty decent fuddle.
But there'd be other people that just couldn't be boved
because you know, they know, they just don't have the
game to deal with it. But the US Open is,
you know, it is the mental grind of the year.
The Masters is spring time in America, the launch of
(06:08):
the official golf season, best presented golf course in the
world every year. The PGA is a very fair championship.
I would say as a major. The British Open is
still raw and blustery and played on the Lynx courses
on the ocean, and the weather can be a big factor,
and the US Open is just sheer hell and it's
(06:29):
four days of grinding.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Ryan Fox is there, of course, and he's saving a
wonderful time of things, as we all know, with a
couple of wins in the last month or so. Five over,
he's probably a bit far back to contend. What would
be a good result for him in rounds three and four.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
Well, I don't think he is too far back to contend.
I think with this rain and if they get more overnight,
I mean it was torrential belting down that is definitely
going to soften up the course, which is going to
make it play differently from the first two days. Now,
if you hit it in the rough, it's going to
be bad or worse because the ruff's going to be
(07:06):
high and even more juicy. But if you can keep
it in play in a softer fair way helps you
do that. You know, it wouldn't surprise me if we
see a couple of sixty five or sixty six is
there and really turn this thing on its head and
I would say any player from plus five on going
into tomorrow's round if conditions hold up the way I
(07:28):
just describe is not without a chance because the players
that are under par at the moment, Burns, JJ Spawn
and Victor Holin, none of those are one major championships
perform This is new territory for them. Holin has performed
well in the past and has won big events on
the PGA too, but his game is very much a
(07:48):
daily consideration. He's very erratic at this stage of his career,
so there's not a lot of experience on top of
the leaderboard. So you can bet the guys like chef
For at plus four, John Ramm at plus four and
others like kept Her at plus two are going in
with a lot of high hopes into that third round.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
It makes Sam Burn's second round astonishing, doesn't it. Sixty five?
You mentioned they might be sixty five once the weather
plays apart, but to shoot sixty five today, that's some round,
isn't it.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
I like Sam Burns a lot. His best friends with
Scottish Scheffler, and you know, gets over shattered in that
relation relationship. Although he has beaten Chefler in a PGA
Tour event before. He is the number one putter on
the US Tour this year. That's why he's where he is.
If he can keep the ball in play, he's one
of the guys that I won't say he's comfortable, but
(08:44):
he's one of the guys that can deal with the
speed and undulation of these grants, which he showed with
that sixty five today. Now it'll be hard to follow
that up for him tomorrow. As I said, the pressure
is going to really be on. But he deserves to
be where he is, there's no question about that.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
And Phil Michol said, we heard some audio there before
of him missing the cut. This will be it for him.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
Well fifty five on Sunday here, which is Father's Day
in the United States. His exemptions have run out. His
last exemption for this event was when he won THEA
the PGA Championship, what was it five years ago, just
before he went to Live. So he's facing either a
(09:29):
special invite from the USCA, and they'd been asked about
that and they said, well, we prefer him to try
and qualify, So that's his other path because winning on
the Live Tour doesn't get you in the US Open,
but he can go to Open qualifying and try and
get him that way, or he might just say, look,
I've played what is it, thirty one of them or
(09:49):
something or other, been runner up six times. It's not
in my destiny. That'll be it. So it'll be his decision.
But it's not going to be easy for him to
get him now, because he's either going to have to
get lucky or work all the way through qualifying events.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
All right, Graham, always appreciate your analysis and your insight.
That's great. Magas joining us to run an eye over
the first couple of rounds of the US Open at
the very very challenging Oakmont Course in Pennsylvania. Play officially
suspended for the day due to dangerous weather and darkness.
Sam Burns, we just talked about their leeds by one shot,
(10:26):
three under. He shot a sixty five in a second rounder.
Here is his philosophy on on taming the savage set
up at Oakmont.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
You know, for this golf course, you really just have
to free it up. It's too hard to try to
guide it around here, and you're gonna hit some of
the rough, You're gonna hit someone in some bad spots,
you know, you might as well do it authority. Yeah,
it's a a fun weekend.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah, and fun is one way of describing it. He
knows he's not safe, Sam Burns at this legendarily tough course.
Speaker 6 (10:55):
I mean, there's no just kind of give me hale.
There's no haul where you can just kind of get
up there and just hit. It acquires a lot of
focus on every shot. Every shot is difficult, you know,
it's just pretty taxing.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
That is Sam Burns. Who Ryan Fox beating that playoff
last weekend at the Canadian Open. So Ryan Fox will
make the cut. It is projected to be seven over.
He is five over the card after his first two rounds.
He shot a seventy two yesterday. That's two over seventy
three today. Just have a quick look at his round
today and see how it played out. So he had
(11:28):
bogie's on one, two and six, Ryan Fox, but then
birdie ten, another bogie at eleven, birdie at thirteen, bogie
at fourteen, birdie at fifteen, and the bogie at the last.
So very much a tailor of the tape as far
as the as far as this golf course is concerned.
(11:50):
But as Graham said, maybe he's not too far back
to contend anybody within seven or eight shots. With the
weather coming and maybe things softening up a bit, who knows,
So look forward to seeing how Ryan Fox goes. He's
playing the weekend at a major It's a pretty good
sekend in the box, isn't it.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
For more from Weekends Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talks it B Weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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