If you’re reading our live coverage of the 2025 U.S. Open today then I am going to assume you’ve already either read or heard about the story of the second green at Oakmont.
Legend has it that W.C. Fownes Jr, who founded and designed Oakmont Country Club, would drop a ball at the back of this green every morning. And if it didn’t roll off the front, he would go and tell his presumably irate greenskeepers to cut the greens again.
And you thought your boss was bad.
Well, Fownes Jr. must be looking down at his golf club in disgust because Brooks Koepka’s chip from the sand at the back of the green just clung onto the front for dear life — but only just.
Not that you could call that outcome kind. Koepka landed his chip just a few feet in front of him but on and on it trundled, coming to rest some 22ft in front of the hole. Yikes.
It’s another impressive lag putt from the past champ but, unfortunately, it’s a third successive bogey. He’s moving in the wrong direction. Only a few minutes ago he was in the mix at -1. Now he’s +2.
