U.S. Open 2016: Leaderboard, live coverage, scores and more from Saturday’s rounds at Oakmont

OAKMONT, Pa. -- The three-putt on the 72nd green is the expedient way to illustrate Dustin Johnson’s failings at golf’s major championships. But it’s impossible and unfair to call that a choke. There’s a strong argument that he caught an extremely unlucky bounce on the unpredictable and poor Chambers Bay greens. The three-putt par was also the end to one of the best tee-to-green performances in the history of the U.S. Open. He was brilliant there.

The more concerning failure came just a month later at St. Andrews, a course that seemed almost too easy for DJ to pick apart and run away by five or six shots. The setup was perfect and Johnson was too talented to not contend. So there he was shooting back to the top of the leaderboard at the 36-hole mark with what should have been overwhelming odds to close it out. Then came the weekend and the final 36 holes in which Johnson inexplicably crumbled with back-to-back 75s, a totally inexcusable number given his talent and the course that was facing him. There was no one moment, no singular blow-up at the very end with Joe Buck yelling into a microphone, but it made it way harder to trust DJ going forward than anything he did at Chambers Bay.

Welcome to the 116th edition of the U.S. Open, which started Thursday morning at Oakmont Country Club just outside Pittsburgh. It’s one of the hardest golf courses in the world, and Oakmont’s predictably proving to be a stiff test.

This is Oakmont’s record ninth time hosting American golf’s national championship. The USGA, the national governing golf body, last brought it there in 2007, when Angel Cabrera won his first major by a stroke, at plus-5. Ernie Els won there in 1994, and he’s one of three players in the field to be making his third U.S. Open start at Oakmont. (The others are Phil Mickelson and Pittsburgh-area native Jim Furyk.) Jeff Maggert played there in 1994 but not 2007.

It was another long day at the 2016 U.S. Open and while the field didn’t quite get back on track, they came close. With some third round still to play, it is Shane Lowry ahead of the field heading into Sunday. Lowry sits at 5-under, two strokes clear of the field. He was able to post 3-under through 14 holes in the third round.

Lowry continued to play solid, steady golf. He carded five birdies in the third round and while there were a couple of slip ups, he always managed to limit the damage to bogeys, not doubles. The 29-year-old has never finished better than T9 in a major championship, but has looked the part of a major championship contender this week. Although he doesn’t have a major championship on his resume, Lowry did win the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in 2015, proving he can beat a top field over four days.

Andrew Landry burst onto the scene at the U.S. Open on Thursday, carding an opening round 66 to hold the first round lead. He hasn’t faded away since and once again finds himself in the lead, this time late on Saturday. Landry currently sits at 4-under and one stroke clear of the field.

Landry is playing in a major championship for the first time in his career, but doesn’t seem rattled by the moment. While many players have been very up and down on the round, Landry has been steady. He opened his round with six straight pars before recording a birdie on No. 7. He’s not nearly as well known or flashy as other players near the top of the leaderboard, but a steady, consistent game is proving to be very valuable this week.

Lee Westwood picked a very good time to start throwing darts at the pin. Birdies can be hard to come by at Oakmont with the greens very difficult to putt. Westwood saved himself the hassle and instead just made an eagle from the fairway.

That moved Westwood from 1-under to 3-under and it came just moments after Dustin Johnson made a double bogey to drop from 5-under to 3-under. Westwood is now one of three players tied for a lead. A few more hole outs and this might finally be his time to capture the first major of his career.

Dustin Johnson has had a really good U.S. Open, but he’ll want to forget what happened on Oakmont Country Club’s third hole during the third round of the championship.

Johnson was chipping from 20 yards on the par-4, 420-yard hole, which has played this week as one of the toughest holes on one of the toughest golf courses in the world. His chip did not go well.

Dustin Johnson caught a bad break on the second hole at Oakmont, but a fan really took the worst of it. Johnson hit an errant tee shot, leaking it out to the left. It wasn’t that off target, but ended up shooting way off the fairway and under a concession stand after it hit a fan in the head.

That is about as scary a situation as you’ll see on a golf course. That fan could have been very injured, but fortunately it appeared he was OK. Shortly after he was hit, he was laughing it off with a group of fans.

Rory McIlroy is one of the rare talents in golf that can grind away on the driving range past 7 p.m. in the middle of a major championship and then come out the next morning and look like he might match Johnny Miller’s Oakmont record on one nine and bomb below the cut line on the next nine.

The last Saturday at a major championship, Rory McIlroy spent a blustery afternoon at Augusta National just trying to hold on, while his contemporary, Jordan Spieth, galloped past him and into firm control of the lead. The two played in the final pairing at the top of the leaderboard in what was the dream scenario we all wanted.

Defending U.S. Open champion Jordan Spieth had a rough go during the first two rounds at Oakmont Country Club, but a birdie barrage to start the third round has him suddenly surging back into contention. Spieth birdied three of his first four holes and is now just five shots off the lead.

Spieth managed just five birdies during his first 36 holes. That left him at 4-over through two rounds and closer to the cut line than the lead. He’s made a quick run in the third round thanks to a hot putter. Spieth is among the best putters on Tour and when he gets rolling, there may not be anyone better. That’s been the case on Saturday where he’s drained a couple nice putts for red numbers. Like this birdie at No. 12, his third hole of the day.

Amateur Nick Hardy didn’t make the cut at the U.S. Open on Saturday, but he did come away with a moment he’ll probably remember for a while. Hardy’s dad subbed in as his son’s caddie for the final two holes of the round on Father’s Day weekend.

John Hardy did a solid job on the bag, too, with Nick finishing the round par-par. This has become a bit of a trend in recent years with Zac Blair’s dad swapping in as caddie on No. 18 at the U.S. Open two years ago.

Sport, when it is most compelling, is no different than theatre. Both require a conquering hero, the victor -- and another -- sometimes relatable, sometimes detestable -- that continually takes the most painful and heartbreaking of losses.

For the better part of the last 20 years, Tiger Woods has been and still is the game’s transcendent superstar -- a more than adequate hero. There’s a host of young stars, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Jordan Spieth, now gunning to replace him. There have been the complimentary stars -- the David Duvals, the Vijay Singhs, the Padraig Harringtons, the Phil Mickelsons -- guys with name recognition and sometimes-polarizing personas that grabbed a few majors between them, but could never sustain the dominance that the Big Cat was able to provide over the same era. If the trifecta of 20-somethings are collectively the New Tiger, Bubba Watson seems destined to fall into that group as time goes on, too.

Oakmont Country Club has proven to be a difficult challenge at the 2016 U.S. Open and some of the best players in the world were up to the task. That includes Rory McIlroy -- the No. 3 player in the world -- who finished the second round at 8-over, two shots off the cut of 6-over.

McIlroy’s U.S. Open got off to a rough start with a 7-over round of 77 in the first round. That put him in a huge hole not only to contend, but just to make the cut. Early on Saturday, it seemed McIlroy was going to be able to dig himself out of the hole and at least make the weekend, if not get back into contention. He birdied four of his first six holes to move to 3-over, well inside the cut line. That momentum quickly vanished on the back nine, starting with a double bogey on his 12th hole of the day. Following another bogey, McIlroy started No. 9 -- his 18th hole -- at 6-over and right on the cut line. His drive found a troublesome bunker. He went for the green in two, but didn’t get the ball out of the bunker. After being forced to chip out, McIlroy went on to make double bogey and fall off the cut.

OAKMONT, Pa. – Bubba Watson entered the back nine of his Saturday second round at this U.S. Open at 1-under and within striking distance of 4-under leader Dustin Johnson. But Watson fell hard between No. 2 and No. 5, dropping four strokes and falling from the top six of the leaderboard to a tie for 35th, eight shots off the lead.

Watson’s misery started on Oakmont Country Club’s par-4, 337-yard 2nd hole, which he bogeyed after a poor approach shot. He made par on the his next hole, and then Watson came to the 619-yard par-5 4th.

OAKMONT, Pa. – The U.S. Open hasn’t been good this year to big names Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler.

Mickelson has finished his second round at 7-over, carding a 74 and a 73 on the difficult terrain at Oakmont Country Club. In his 26th appearance at American golf’s national championship, he’ll miss a top-60 (plus ties) cut.

Henrik Stenson, who was 10-over through 16 holes of his second round and 9-over overall, blamed “minor neck and knee issues” for his withdrawal from Saturday morning’s completion of round two of the U.S. Open.

The 40-year-old Swede, who had just two holes to finish his second round, posted eight bogeys and a double in 16 holes on Friday.

OAKMONT, Pa. – As is always the case with Dustin Johnson, Friday’s march around Oakmont left you in awe at the power and ability to navigate the “toughest test in golf ”... and also wanting so much more for the weekend.

Because weather postponed his planned first round on Thursday, Johnson played the first 36 holes of his U.S. Open on Saturday. On the 16th of those holes, a 231-yard par-3 at Oakmont, Johnson stuck a decent tee shot on the left edge of the green. He had not made a bogey all day when he left his 67-foot birdie putt well short, still 10 feet away from his par at the bottom of a slope that ran hard away from him.

The weekend for the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club is here and the final two rounds should feature plenty of sunshine and warm temperatures. Saturday and Sunday will have temperatures reaching the middle to upper 80s in the afternoon and winds will generally be light and variable each day.

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The 2016 U.S. Open heads to the weekend, but it isn’t moving day just yet. Thanks to a derailed first round on Thursday due to the weather, the field is still playing catch up. The players made up a lot of ground on Friday with a long day of golf, but it will be another long day on Saturday if the tournament is going to be back on track by Sunday.

Roughly a quarter of the field is through 36 holes while half of the 156-player field has yet to even begin the second round. That will happen early Saturday morning with players teeing off in groups of three starting at 7 a.m. The hope is for a quick turnaround after the completion of the second round. The field will be cut to the top 60 players plus ties, then the third round will commence. The weather forecast calls for a clear and warm day which should allow for another long day. Players played until nearly 9 p.m. ET on Friday before darkness set in.

OAKMONT, Pa. – After rain forced three weather delays and postponed first-round play at the U.S. Open on Thursday, the USGA and its 156-player field of golfers got in a long day of play under clear skies on Friday. Dustin Johnson is the leader in the clubhouse after he posted a 1-under 69 in the second round to improve to 4-under overall.

The second round is now well underway, and the USGA plans to work through the third round of play on Saturday to set up a regularly scheduled Sunday final. Half the field began the second round but roughly just a quarter of the overall field made it through a full 36 holes before the horn blew.

Spencer Levin did not hit a very good shot prior to this moment, but it wasn’t terrible. Just don’t try to tell him that.

His approach to the green on No. 7 came up short and right and found a green side bunker. But his shot was out of the rough and the bunker was not a bad place to miss. For most golfers, that just fine. For Levin, well, he was not pleased. First there was the club slam, then some angry yelling. He even mixed in a couple taps on the head to remind him that he was angry about that bad shot.

The field at the 2016 U.S. Open is still in catch-up mode as they attempt to make up ground after three weather delays on Thursday. While there is a lot of golf still to be played, a host of big names could be in danger of early exits. As things currently stand, the cut line is 4-over and three of the top five players in the world are on the wrong side of it.

Jason Day, the No. 1 player in the world, is currently 5-over on the tournament and just one shot off the cut line. He is currently on the course playing his second round. Day struggled in the first round, finishing with a 6-over round of 76. He’s 1-under on his second round, but may still need to make up more ground.

The golf gods owe us something over the next two and a half days at the national championship. Almost 33 hours after it started on Thursday morning, the first round of the 116th U.S. Open has finally come to a close at Oakmont.

We were set up for a monster edition of the season’s second major. The best players in the world, in particular the Big Three, had won in the previous month coming into the event. Oakmont looked absolutely perfect -- brutal and punishing -- but so pretty. But Thursday ground those plans and hype to a halt with non-stop rain that left many players sitting around doing nothing and much of the Oakmont property a muddy mess. There’s still hope, of course, but we are sputtering out of the gate.