The second round of the 2025 U.S. Open did not offer players a reprieve from the difficulties that Oakmont Country Club forces one to face as the average score of the morning wave was once again more than 4 over par. One man refused to let Oakmont keep him down, however, as Sam Burns had everything working in his second round, posting a 65 to take the clubhouse lead as play continued Friday.
Burns’ 65 was the third-lowest score during a round in an U.S. Open at Oakmont and the fouth-lowest score to par across the 10 playings of the national championship at the Western Pennsylvania site.
Much like Thursday when J.J. Spaun put together a sensational bogey-free 66 to tame Oakmont, Burns had everything working in his second round, doing ost of the damage with his irons and putter, gaining 3.08 strokes on approach and 2.95 strokes putting.
Burns got rolling early with a birdie on No. 11 (his second hole) and backed it up with another on the 13th, rattling the flagstick with his tee shot to set it up.
He closed the inward nine with birdies on the 17th and 18th, the latter being particularly impressive on one of the toughest holes on the course.
While a number of players who started on the back nine were under par as they made the turn, most of them came back to the field on the more difficult front side. Burns looked like he might do the same after a bogey on No. 1, but he bounced back quickly with birdies on Nos. 2 and 4 to keep his momentum rolling with more terrific ball-striking and putting.
From there, Burns followed a similar script to Spaun on Thursday; he played incredibly solid golf on the way in and didn’t try to force the issue, happily accepting pars on the tougher side. He actually missed a great look at birdie on the 6th and hit one of the best tee shots of the day on the long 8th to set up a simple two-putt par, keeping it on the tracks as he arrived at his final hole of the day.
It looked like his heater would come to an end after he tugged his tee shot on the 9th into the hazard left. Burns opted to take a drop rather than trying to hack out of the thick fescue, which turned out to be the wise and correct choice. He was able to drop on the edge of the fairway and found the green 23 feet away from the pin with his third. From there, he could lean on his putter one more time to save him, pouring in a sweeping left to right putt to post 65 and set the Friday clubhouse lead at 3 under.
With that par, Burns set quite the marker for the rest of the field. He is one of two players, along with Viktor Hovland (-1), to get into the clubhouse after their second round in red figures for the week. He can now sit back and watch the rest of the leaderboard battle with Oakmont on Friday afternoon.
Given how challenging Oakmont is playing in the second round, there’s an excellent chance that by the time play has ended this evening, Burns will be in the lead by himself.