US Open: Like Oakmont devotes hope, four questions for Saturday

Oakmont, Pennsylvania – now This This is why we watch the United States open: carnage, high scores, bubbling players. We look at the biggest hacking in the world on a course, lacking fairways, lacking green vegetables, missing putts, throwing ugly figures on the board, and we think: “Now you know what we feel.”

We spend 51 weeks per year to watch the pros beat the brakes of bad courses without defense, setting up scores of -15, -20, -25. So see the best humiliated like that? Oh yeah, give us all this blood, baby. We want to see Players cursed auditablyWe want to see Players who strike clubsWe want to see Players caught in a mixerWe want to see beaten players so bad that they forget the basic rules of golf:

We are half at home in this 125th US Open, but even now, we have no reading on who will win this tournament. You could plead for night leaders such as Sam Burns (-3) and JJ Spaun (-2), or you could assert a case for Scottie Scheffler (+4) which is white and hanging its fourth major. (This would be a much more difficult case to do.)

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The biggest names in the game are lost in the Oakmont Rough. The chance of a star performance is currently. Who will intensify? Let’s start with man with the burning putter …

Can Sam Burns make his way to a US Open title?

Sam Burns is, statistically speaking, the largest putter of the PGA Tour, leading the whole tour in blows won on the green. He mounted this hot putter to the top of the ranking on Friday, displaying a 5 -day tour of the day that resists sunset. Burns and Viktor Hovland (-1) both carded 11 birdies or better in the first two days of the tournament. Dustin Johnson had 11 birdies or better for all of his 2016 US 2016 Open 2016, and he won this one. As long as Burns continues to put the cup is the size of a hot tub, the championship is well within reach.

Can Scottie Scheffler understand things?

Even after all the madness of Friday, Scottie Scheffler – N ° 1 in the world, guy who is halfway through the Grand Slam career – is barely seven advances in +4. Given how Oakmont can devour a player in a few holes – See: Dechambeau, Bryson – It is not outside the field of the possibility that our leaders can fall back into the pressed peloton. Of course, this would force Scheffler to bring together his act, and so far, he has not proven that he had the capacity to do so; He even seemed exasperated on the training range after his round. This is a major where he may just have to wait until next year. He will understand it one day, right? (Do not see: Mickelson, Phil.))

Will Brooks Koepka rediscover its major form?

For a minute there, it certainly seemed that Brooks Koepka was just going to take this tournament near the throat and run away as it did. He sorted up two of his first three holes and reached -3, a stroke of his head. And then he started to flee oil, finally by bogging his last two holes of the day to Boign at +2. It is still close – and because of the wreckage of the day, it is T8 – so can it keep it together for a full tour on Saturday? If he does it, it will be difficult to beat, given only one of the 11 players around or in front of him – Adam Scott even – has a major victory. Keep an eye on Brooksie.

Do rains soften the Oakmont bite?

After threatening most of Friday, the sky opened at the end of the afternoon and threw what looked like a whole rain of a large lake on the route. This will soften the grass and will remove a large part of the main defense of the route – its ultra -sklica greens. On the other hand, a rain of pelting – which could be in the mixture this weekend – will have its own negative impacts on the head areas and players games.

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Well, most of them. Ben Griffin, at least, takes this in the right spirit: “What is the projection? What does the rain look like tomorrow?” He said after his round on Friday. “Standard all day? Bring it. I don’t care. I’m on the ground for anything.”

Yes of course. We have a wet and fun weekend in Soakmont.