PGA Tour player Sam Burns took the sole lead today in the 125th U.S. Open golf tournament by one stroke at the famed Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He shot rounds of 72, 65, and 69 for a total of 206, four under par. His nearest rivals to win this coveted, major championship are Adam Scott and J. J. Spaun, tied at three under par, and Viktor Hoviland at one under par.
Only one of these players has won one of the four major golf championships: Masters, PGA Championship, U.S. Open, and The (British) Open. Adam Scott of Australia won the 2013 Masters. Earlier this year, rather unknown Spaun was leading the Players Championship, which is sort of considered by the pros as the fifth major in golf. He then tied Rory McIlroy and lost in a playoff.
Scheffler and McIlroy Are the Two Best Golfers This Year
Scheffler and McIlroy have been the two hottest pro golfers in the world this year. McIlroy won the Masters to achieve a major accomplishment that few have held in the history of this greatest game on grass. It gave him a “career grand slam,” meaning winning all four majors over the course of his career. No one has ever won all four during one year. Tiger Woods came closest to it with four wins in succession over two years.
Scottie Scheffler, the #1 golfer in the world for the past two+ years, has struggled with his game this week, with a four over par total 2014. Defending champion Bryson DeChambeau was way off his A-game, as was Rory McIlroy who he beat last year by one stroke. DeChambeau missed the 36-hole cut, sending him packing. McIlroy barely made it. That thick spinach they call “rough” at Oakmont this week got the best of them. It looks brutal. But that was nearly always the main feature of U.S. Opens: narrow fairways and thick rough.
Bombers off the tee, like DeChambeau and McIroy, have practically been reducing PGA Tour golf courses to “pitch and putt” courses. But they couldn’t get away with that this week like they did at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst last year, where they finished first and second. And, oh, those so-called “church pews” in long sand bunkers at Oakmont’s 3rd and 4th holes, how picturesque is that?
Pro Golf Rivalry Began 1962: Arnold Palmer V. Jack Nicklaus
The U.S. Open has been held at Oakmont C. C. way more than at any other venue: ten times. It is truly a magnificent test of golf. I first visited the course in 1962 as a junior in college to watch the U.S. Open there. It was one of the most historic ever. Arnold Palmer, sort of the hometown favorite being from Latrobe, Pennsylvania, was the best pro golfer in the world at the time. Young, burly Jack Nicklaus from next door in Ohio was in his second year on the Tour. They both tied for first place. Jack won in an 18-hole playoff the next day, on Monday. That was his first win on the PGA Tour. Especially being a major, it signaled that this young, whipper-snapper, who hit the ball a country mile, was vying to steal Arnie’s Army away from him.
Some of my fondest memories from my career as a pro golfer on the PGA Tour and Senior/Champions Tour has been from being with pro friends on Tour and the humor that emerges from it. No one was funnier than Chi Chi Rodriguez, who later became my dear friend, who just passed away recently. At that 1962 U.S. Open, I saw Chi Chi for the second time. The greens at Oakmont were always renowned for being so slick and fast. I remember Chi Chi saying to the gallery that he marked his ball on the 10th green, which sloped severely and thus was very fast going down hill. He said he then turned around for an instant and his coin slid off the green. Of course, he was joking.
Playing the Majors Is the Main Highlight in Pro Golf
During my 18-year full time career on the regular PGA Tour, I participated in twelve U.S. Opens and made the 36-hole cut in eight of them. In the 1972 U.S. Open, I was leading the tournament the last round at Pebble Beach Golf Links in Monterey, California, with Jack Nicklaus one stroke behind me and twelve holes to play. I three-putted the next two holes from close range, made an 8 on the par five 14th hole from close to the green in two, and finished with a miserable 79 for 6th place.
The next year I played in the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont where Johnny Miller shot 63 the last round to win, which was the lowest last round ever shot in a major. I don’t recall how I did in the tournament. And in 1978, I participated in the PGA Championship held at Oakmont. I shot 67 the 3rd round to be in a tie for 7th, but I don’t recall what place I finished. My best in the PGA Championship was 5th in 1968 at San Antonio. Playing majors is always a highlight in professional golf.
Burns and Scheffler Are Close Christian Friends
Sam Burns, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, is best friends with Scottie Scheffler. Both live in Dallas, Texas. Both are prominent members of the PGA Tour Bible Study, which I co-founded and meets weekly on Tour. They say they often like to talk theology together. Both donate some of their time to a Christian ministry I helped start and that impacted them while attending college, called College Golf Fellowship. At their website, a video shows Scottie and Sam telling how every year they come out near where I live, in North Scottsdale, Arizona, and contribute some of their time to teaching these Christian college golfers at a College Golf Fellowship golf camp.
Incidentally, the 60th anniversary of the PGA Tour Bible Study will be this year on August 3rd. Look for my new book about the early formation of this group. It will publish then and be entitled Christ on the PGA Tour (1965-1982). Like all of my other ten books I’ve written, it will be available at amazon.com.
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