OAKMONT, Pa. — So now the real fun begins at the 2025 U.S. Open—at least if you’re watching the action from outside the ropes (the competitors themselves might have a different way of describing things at Oakmont). With a 36-hole cut in place after the second round finally wrapped up Saturday morning, 66 professionals and one amateur (hat tip to Justin Hastings) at seven-over 147 and lower earning their chance to try to concur this brute of a course two more times, the focus shifts from playing your way to the weekend to now trying to see if you can pull out a victory and cement your place in golf lore.
That’s certainly the case for midway leader Sam Burns (three-under 137), who vaulted up the leaderboard on Friday with a second-round 65 that statistically rivaled Johnny Miller’s fabled final-round 63 at Oakmont in 1973. Burns, 28, earned a spot in the final pairing on Saturday a week after falling in a playoff to Ryan Fox at the PGA Tour’s RBC Canadian Open.
Joining Burns will be J.J. Spaun, the Day 1 leader who followed up a bogey-free 66 with a respectable two-over 72 on Friday. The 36-year-old journeyman is playing in just his second U.S. Open (MC in 2021 at Torrey Pines) and ninth major overall, having never finished better than T-35 in his previous starts.
More Golf Digest U.S. Open coverage 
U.S. Open 7 things to watch this weekend at Oakmont 
Instant Classic Sam Burns’ 65 gives him the U.S. Open lead and gives Johnny Miller a rival for Oakmont’s best round ever 
Last dance? If this was Phil Mickelson’s final U.S. Open, it ended with more heartbreak
While predicting a Burns/Spaun final twosome might have been a long shot before the tournament, you also would have been betting against the odds that some of the top ranked players in the World Ranking would be missing from Saturday’s tee sheet. Among the notables: Ludvig Aberg, Wyndham Clark, Cam Smith, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Cantlay, Tommy Fleetwood, Dustin Johnson, Joaquin Niemann, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas and Justin Rose.
The other big storyline on Saturday will be the weather. Off and on rain is predicted to fall all day after the course got another inch of rain overnight from storms. More ominously the potential for thunderstorms lingers, providing yet another potential distraction for everyone involved.
NBC’s coverage window for the third round ends at 8 p.m., which explains the tee times running from roughly 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Here’s the complete list of third-round tee times:
9:12 a.m. Philip Barbaree, Jr., +7
9:34 a.m. Andrew Novak, +7 Matt Fitzpatrick, +7
9:45 a.m. Hideki Matsuyama, +7 Harris English, +7
9:56 a.m. Laurie Canter, +7 James Nicholas, +7
10:07 a.m. Patrick Reed, +7 Ryan McCormick, +7
10:18 a.m. Niklas Norgaard, +6 Ryan Gerard, +6
10:34 a.m. Xander Schauffele, +6 Rory McIlroy, +6
10:45 a.m. Justin Hastings (a), +6 Jordan Smith, +6
10:56 a.m. Marc Leishman, +6 Tony Finau, +6
11:07 a.m. Corey Conners, +6 Michael Kim, +6
11:18 a.m. Matt Wallace, +6 J.T. Poston, +6
11:29 a.m. Johnny Keefer, +5 Chris Gotterup, +5
11:40 a.m. Tom Kim, +5 Maverick McNealy, +5
11:56 a.m. Matthieu Pavon, +5 Mackenzie Hughes, +5
12:07 p.m. Jordan Spieth, +5 Sungjae Im, +5
12:18 p.m. Robert MacIntyre, +4 Ryan Fox, +5
12:29 p.m . Trevor Cone, +4 Taylor Pendrith, +4
12:40 p.m. Aaron Rai, +4 Rasmus Højgaard, +4
12:51 p.m. Jhonattan Vegas, +4 Daniel Berger, +4
1:02 p.m. Scottie Scheffler, +4 Cameron Young, +4
1:18 p.m. Denny McCarthy, +4 Collin Morikawa, +4
1:29 p.m. Nick Taylor, +4 Jon Rahm, +4
1:40 p.m. Keegan Bradley, +3 Sam Stevens, +3
1:51 p.m. Carlos Ortiz, +3 Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen, +3
2:02 p.m. Jason Day, +3 Chris Kirk, +3
2:13 p.m. Christiaan Bezuidenhout, +3 Tyrrell Hatton, +3
2:24 p.m. Max Greyserman, +3 Adam Schenk, +3
2:40 p.m. Thomas Detry, +2 Emiliano Grillo, +3
2:51 p.m. Brooks Koepka, +2 Si Woo Kim, +2
3:02 p.m. Thriston Lawrence, +1 Russell Henley, +2
3:13 p.m. Ben Griffin, E Victor Perez, +1
3:24 p.m. Viktor Hovland, -1 Adam Scott, E
3:35 p.m. Sam Burns, -3 J.J. Spaun, -2
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
