It’s Saturday at the U.S. Open but that doesn’t mean we’re close to the midpoint of the 116th edition of the national championship. Thursday’s relentless storms threw off the schedule for multiple days, but if all goes well on Saturday then we could be back on track with everyone through 54 holes heading into Sunday.
U.S. Open tee times 2016: Pairings and start time for Saturday’s round
Even after the miserable start, we might be back on track by Saturday night thanks to a full day of sun-up to sun-down golf at Oakmont.
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It’s an aggressive schedule that the USGA has set, but it was really the only way they could possibly sneak in an on-time Sunday finish after the massive delays of the opening round. Less than half the field has finished their first 36 holes, which is a suboptimal spot to be in on Saturday morning. So the plan for Saturday is another sun-up to sun-down sprint that will include the first wave of Round 2 tidying up and finishing early in the morning, the start of the second wave of tee times in Round 2, the cut, and then a third round that will have players grouped in threesomes and going off split tees.
That’s the only hope for getting the field cut down and then having the remainder of who’s left finish 54 by Saturday night. Even if they don’t fit all of it in, these are the longest days of the year so they should play until almost 9 p.m. ET and have just a few holes to clean up on Sunday before the USGA can begin the final round. This is, of course, barring more weather delays, and fortunately the forecast looks just about perfect for the entire weekend.
The planned schedule is:
- Send the half of the field that started their second round but did not finish before dark back out at 7:15 a.m. The last group from this half of the draw is through 13 holes, so they should be done in about an hour.
- Of course, there is a whole other half of the field that has to just start their second round. They will go promptly at 7 a.m. on Saturday.
- The driving range will open at 6 a.m. so this is going to be an interminable march yet again.
Things mostly went to plan during the morning on Saturday. The field was able to get through the second round shortly after 2 p.m. ET. The maintenance crew managed a quick turnaround on the course and players were paired back with the third round set to start at 3 p.m.
There will be 22 groups of three in the third round, with the field going off split tees. The final group -- headlined by Dustin Johnson -- will tee off at 5:01 p.m. With enough daylight to play until nearly 9 p.m., it’s unlikely the field will make it through the third round, but there should only be a few holes left to complete on Sunday prior to the final round.
Here is a full look at the third round tee times.
| Hole | Tee Time | Players |
| 1 | 3:00 p.m. | Kevin Kisner, Brooks Koepka, Emiliano Grillo |
| 10 | 3:00 p.m. | Andrew Johnston, Rob Oppenheim, Charl Schwartzel |
| 1 | 3:11 p.m. | Matt Fitzpatrick, Matt Kuchar, Kevin Streelman |
| 10 | 3:11 p.m. | Byeong Hun An, Rafa Cabrera Bello, James Hahn |
| 1 | 3:22 p.m. | Ethan Tracy, Kevin Na, Branden Grace |
| 10 | 3:22 p.m. | Spencer Levin, Jordan Spieth, Jason Dufner |
| 1 | 3:33 p.m. | Graeme McDowell, Daniel Berger, Yusaku Miyazato |
| 10 | 3:33 p.m. | Jason Day, Chris Wood, Bill Haas |
| 1 | 3:44 p.m. | Sung Kang, Derek Fathauer, Justin Thomas |
| 10 | 3:44 p.m. | Patrick Rodgers, Brandon Harkins, Matt Marshall |
| 1 | 3:55 p.m. | Brendan Steele, Bryson DeChambeau, Harris English |
| 10 | 3:55 p.m. | Bubba Watson, Jon Rahm (a), Justin Hicks |
| 1 | 4:06 p.m. | Russell Knox, David Lingmerth, Jason Kokrak |
| 10 | 4:06 p.m. | Tim Wilkinson, Chase Parker, Danny Willett |
| 1 | 4:17 p.m. | Zach Johnson, Marc Leishman, Adam Scott |
| 10 | 4:17 p.m. | Charley Hoffman, Ryan Moore, Cameron Smith |
| 1 | 4:28 p.m. | Louis Oosthuizen, Lee Slattery, Lee Westwood |
| 10 | 4:28 p.m. | Hideto Tanihara, Angel Cabrera, Billy Horschel |
| 1 | 4:39 p.m. | Jim Furyk, Andy Sullivan, Daniel Summerhays |
| 10 | 4:39 p.m. | Matteo Manassero, Romain Wattel |
| 1 | 4:50 p.m. | Shane Lowry, Gregory Bourdy, Sergio Garcia |
| 10 | 4:50 p.m. | Danny Lee, Martin Kaymer |
| 1 | 5:01 p.m. | Scott Piercy, Andrew Landry, Dustin Johnson |
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