There was a point during the second round of the US Open last night when you were probably tempted to get up from your armchair, walk over to your tele and give it a dunt on the side in an effort to get things moving. It was pretty slow going.
Thriston Lawrence, for instance, stood on the third tee for well over 20 minutes waiting to hit. The South African was hanging about for so long, he was just about covered in a light dusting of stoor by the time he shuffled into the address position.
The six-lane interstate that carves its way through Oakmont probably moved quicker in a gridlock.
With its relentless perils, pitfalls, menace and mischief, this storied expanse of golfing terrain was never going to be played at a brisk pace, was it?
Taming a beast like Oakmont can take a while. Sam Burns managed it, though.
In this brutal battle to survive, Burns thrived. His splendid five-under-par 65 had the Ryder Cup player setting the early clubhouse pace on three-under after the morning wave of starters.
The 28-year-old, who was runner-up in last week’s Canadian Open, negotiated his way around Oakmont obstacles with the kind of careful plotting you’d get with a cartographer running his finger over a map.
Two-over after Thursday’s opening round, Burns made the turn in four-under, having started on the 10th tee.
He spilled his only shot of the day on the 10th, but further birdies at the second and fourth added lustre to his card. A raking putt of some 20-feet on the last to save his par put the tin lid on a fine shift at this unyielding coalface.
“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,” said Burns, who finished ninth in last year’s US Open.
Putting on greens that can be as slick as a marble staircase is not for the faint-hearted. Holing one from 20 odd feet, like he did for that par on the last, must have felt like finding the holy grail.
“You have putts where, even from 15 or 20 feet, you're not really trying to make them,” he added. “You're just trying to get the speed right and hope that it snuggles up next to the hole. I even had a couple today that were 15 or 20 feet that I hit three or four feet by without even thinking about it.
“I’m looking forward to the weekend. It’s a 72-hole golf tournament, and if you can get an under-par round out here, no matter if it’s one under, you’ll take it.”
Burns was more than delighted with five-under. Others were not so chipper.
While Burns got to the grips with the greens, Jon Rahm, the US Open champion in 2021, endured a torrid time on the putting surfaces as the Spaniard slithered backwards with a five-over 75 which left him on a four-over aggregate.
Various putts that got away had the blood pressure rising and another one that failed to drop led to the delivery of an emphatic F-bomb that could’ve shattered the tarmac on that Pennsylvania Turnpike.
“Honestly, I’m too annoyed and too mad right now to think about any perspective,” Rahm said in a a brief and seething post-round analysis. “Very few rounds of golf I played in my life where I think I hit good putts and they didn’t sniff the hole, so it’s frustrating.”
For Norway’s Viktor Hovland, there was a feeling of what might have been. Hovland posted a fine 68 for a one-under total. There are always ‘buts’ in this game, of course.
“I'm very pleased with two-under par, but I also know that I was four-under at some point, and missed a short putt on six and three-putted eight,” said Hovland, who pitched in on the 17th for an eagle.
“I’m very pleased, but, man, that could have been a little bit lower as well.”
Oban’s Robert MacIntyre, who was handily placed after an opening 70, was among the later starters and was battling away at two-over through nine holes of his second round.
Rory McIlroy, meanwhile, was facing a right old scrap to make the cut.
Scottie Scheffler, the world No 1, had a 71 for four-over and is certainly not out of it at the halfway stage.
As for that pace of play? “It felt long to me,” said Scheffler. “But I’ve got too many concerns other than the pace it takes to get around this place.”
It could be a long, slow weekend.
