US Open golf 2025: Sam Burns keeps hold of lead at Oakmont – as it happened

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Moving Day took a while to get going, but once it did, it produced some exciting golf.Plenty of players are still in with a shout, so hopefully you’ll join us for the final round tomorrow.Thanks for reading this report!-4: Sam Burns -3: Adam Scott, JJ Spaun -1: Viktor Hovland E: Carlos Ortiz +1: Tyrrell Hatton, Thriston Lawrence +2: Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen +3: Robert MacIntyre, Cameron YoungThe final stroke of the day is made by Sam Burns.He makes his par putt, he remains one of just two players yet to three-putt this week – Ryan Fox is the other – and he’s got sole ownership of the lead going into the final round.A 69 for Burns, which is exactly what his playing partner JJ Spaun shot as well.

Burns – who has yet to make a three-putt this week, trumpets a timely NBC graphic – tickles his 60-foot downhill right-to-left swinger to four feet.Back over to Spaun, who faces a 21-foot right-to-left slider.It’s never getting there, but it’s good enough for bogey.Spaun whips out of the high-faced bunker.He can’t see the flag.

He misjudges the distance, leaving the ball halfway.That’ll be a long putt for his par.Spaun to go first.He takes a hard swipe at his ball and sends it into the bunker guarding the front right of the green.He’ll have a long shot to the flag out of that.

Over to Burns, who has to hammer hard as well.He finds the green, but he’ll have a tricky downhill putt from 40 feet to negotiate.Pars far from certain.JJ Spaun and Sam Burns both send their tee shots at 18 wide right.Spaun’s is wilder, but that’s to his benefit, as it hits a punter – no damage done, thankfully, and the young woman is delighted with the signed glove she receives – and lands on some trodden-down grass.

Burns is most certainly in the thicker stuff, though his ball hasn’t disappeared altogether,Viktor Hovland’s putt is always missing to the left,The tee shot at fault,A bogey to finish,But that’s a fine 70, and he’ll be in the penultimate group tomorrow, unless JJ Spaun and Sam Burns have some sort of collective breakdown.

Adam Scott then tidies up for his par, and that’s a wonderful round of 67.Back in 32.A fair chance they’ll both go round together again tomorrow.-4: Burns (17), Spaun (17) -3: Scott (F) -1: Hovland (F)Viktor Hovland takes his medicine out of the fairway bunker at 18, then screws a chip from 120 yards to 15 feet.A fine effort that had just a little too much backspin.

Meanwhile Adam Scott finds the centre of the green, albeit nowhere near the flag,He’s not far from draining the 53-foot putt that he’s left with, but it doesn’t drop,He’s got a three-footer coming back for his par,Back over to Viktor,It’s a miserable end to Ben Griffin’s miserable back nine.

A double-bogey six on 18,That’s three bogeys and a double in the last five holes,He signs for a 74 that promised so much more,He’s +4,Yes he can! JJ Spaun rattles in a 25-footer to match Sam Burns’s birdie.

Both players move one clear of Adam Scott again.-4: Burns (17), Spaun (17) -3: Scott (17) -2: Hovland (17) E: Ortiz (F)Sam Burns fires a low wedge into 17.It whistles nine-tenths of the way along its route, before gripping and rolling out serenely to tap-in distance.That’s a stunner.He’ll be moving back to -4 in the bounce-back style.

JJ Spaun meanwhile splashes out from the bunker in the underwhelming manner Adam Scott displayed moments earlier.Can Spaun make a big putt like Scott did?Adam Scott splits the 18th fairway.Viktor Hovland however slices into sand down the right.Meanwhile back on 17, JJ Spaun finds the bunker front right of the green, while Sam Burns lays up.Adam Scott meanwhile has found a bunker to the right of 17.

His splash out is uncharacteristically clumpish, landing like a wet flannel 15 feet short of the flag.No matter! He strokes in the birdie putt and joins the leaders at -3! Viktor Hovland then tidies up, and he’s hot on their tail at -2.Viktor Hovland carves his tee shot at 17 miles wide right of the green.He suggests it might be the worst shot he’s ever hit.His ball disappears into the thick stuff … but not totally, and he’s confident of getting it close.

He whips his lob wedge miles into the air, and lands his ball softly, three feet away from the hole.Seve would be proud of that! The crowd go wild.That’s outrageously good, from the preposterous to the sublime.Sam Burns and JJ Spaun both leave their long first putts on 16 six feet short.Spaun makes the one he leaves himself; Burns misreads his, though, missing it to the left.

All tied again! Meanwhile Thriston Lawrence nearly drains his long par putt, but settles for a tap-in for bogey and a round of 70.He’s +1.-3: Spaun (16), Burns (16) -2: Scott (16) -1: Hovland (16) E: Ortiz (F) +1: Hatton (F), Lawrence (F)Ben Griffin puts an end to his bogey run with birdie at 17.He’s +2 again and suddenly in better shape ahead of tomorrow.Up on 18, trouble for Thriston Lawrence, who lashes out of the thick rough with his 9-wood and is very fortunate to get his ball over the big bunker 60 yards in front of the green.

His ball ends 40 feet away, and in attempting to bump up onto the green, he chunks his wedge.He’s left with a 35-footer for his par.Sam Burns splashes out from the sand on 15 to kick-in distance.That’s a fine save.JJ Spaun’s birdie putt never looks like dropping.

He’s made next to nothing with the flat stick today.A shame, because much of his approach play has deserved more.Both men then get themselves onto the 16th green, but like Scott and Hovland before them, neither are close.Adam Scott and Viktor Hovland find the dancefloor of the par-three 16th, but neither are particularly close.Par apiece it is, then.

Meanwhile up on 18, Brooks Koepka finishes with bogey for a round of 73 that never, ever threatened to get going,Still a bit of work to do to get back to his pomp,He’s +5,Thriston Lawrence doesn’t connect with his tee shot at 17 properly at all,He screams for it to slow down, because he thinks it’s heading for thick rough.

In fact it stops in front of the green on the short stuff.He wedges from 44 yards to three feet and tidies up for a birdie that brings him back to level par.But he’s just dumped his drive at 18 into the cabbage down the right, from where he’ll have to lay up.Sam Burns goes for a high fade into the 15th green.He doesn’t get the shape he wants, and the ball settles in a bunker to the left.

JJ Spaun however lasers one straight at the flag,He’ll have a 25-foot uphill look for birdie,Meanwhile up on 16, Ben Griffin, running hot, his cheeks flush, opens the face of his putter and sends a six-footer wide left,That’s a third bogey in a row, and he’s unravelling in the wrong direction at speed,He’s +3.

Adam Scott slashes sensationally out of the deep bunker to the right of 15,He’s got no green to play with, so opens the club wide and swings hard,The ball loops high into the air and lands a couple of feet from the cup,What a par save that is,And that’s a sentence that also applies to Viktor Hovland, because, dear reader, I failed to tell you the entire story of his getting the ball to the fringe.

He’d found sand off the tee, you see, and had to chip out, so he’s there in three.No matter! He bumps his putt through the fringe and holes the right-to-left drifter for an outrageous save! The sort of moment that makes you believe it could be your year.-4: Burns (14) -3: Spaun (14) -2: Scott (15) -1: Hovland (15)Adam Scott compounds his error from the tee on 15 by carving his second shot into the big bunker to the right of the green.With the pin tucked over on that side, he’s got work to do from there.His playing partner Viktor Hovland sends his approach onto the fringe.

Back down the hole, the leading pair both find the fairway with their drives.JJ Spaun can’t make his birdie putt on 14.Sam Burns makes his par effort, though.Meanwhile Ben Griffin follows up his three-putt error on 14 by failing to get up and down from a greenside bunker on 15.Back-to-back bogeys at just the wrong time.

He’s +2.Adam Scott’s smile crumples into a grimace as he pushes his tee shot at 15 into rough down the right.Meanwhile back on 14, Sam Burns finds a fairway bunker and is forced to chip out, but gives himself a great chance of escaping with par by wedging his third pin high to ten feet.JJ Spaun will be putting from a similar distance, but he’s there in two.It’s back-to-back birdies for Adam Scott! The 2013 Masters champ sends his approach from 94 yards bounding past the flag, the ball gripping and spinning back, nearly into the cup, 14 inches away.

He taps in and walks off smiling widely.The 44-year-old Aussie is seriously in the hunt for his second major.-4: Burns (13) -3: Spuan (13) -2: Scott (14) -1: Hovland (14) E: Ortiz (F) +1: Hatton (F), Lawrence (15), Griffin (14)Tyrrell Hatton finds a bunker down the right of 18.He’s forced to lay up, but isn’t of a mind to give anything away on the final hole.He sends his second over the flag and screws it back to three feet, and tidies up for the par.

He’ll be happy with his response to that double on 15, and with his round of 68.He’s in the mix tomorrow all right!JJ Spaun gives his 25-foot birdie effort a good look at the hole.But it stops just short.Par.And that opens the door for Sam Burns, who doesn’t faff about before walking in his seven-footer
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