U.S. Open 2016: Leaderboard, results, live coverage and more from Sunday’s final round at Oakmont

The USGA said on Monday that the organization regretted the “distraction caused” by its decision to delay ruling on whether Dustin Johnson’s ball moved toward the start of Sunday’s U.S. Open final round at Oakmont.

The association’s kinda, sorta included an apology for the confusion that ensued after officials told Johnson on the 12th tee that he may have incurred the penalty, despite being cleared by a rules authority on the spot of the breach on the fifth green. It remained adamant, however, that the penalty was correct.

Tiger Woods is an occasional contributor to Twitter but the rules ruckus that the USGA caused by calling a late penalty on U.S. Open winner Dustin Johnson riled even the Big Cat.

Woods -- watching the major from somewhere off-site as he continues to rehab his surgically repaired back -- responded to the situation in which the chair of the USGA rules committee absolved DJ of causing his ball to move on the fifth green, only to have someone overrule his decision later. The situation moved into the Twilight Zone when a rules czar approached Johnson on the 12th tee and informed him that he may (or may not) have actually accrued the penalty after all and would be informed of the decision after the round.

Dustin Johnson had overtaken Shane Lowry for the lead during Sunday’s final round of the US Open when rules officials approached him on the 12th tee. The reason: to tell him that a penalty that had not been assessed when his ball moved on the green on the fifth tee might actually be assessed once the round was over.

Say, what?!

On the fifth hole of his final round at the US Open, Dustin Johnson stood over a par putt and slid his putter behind his stationary golf ball, a few feet away from the hole.

Johnson moved his club away from the ball, and the ball appeared to move very slightly, though Johnson wasn’t penalized for it at the time and it wasn’t clear that Johnson had addressed his ball or done anything worthy of a stroke being added to his score. Johnson made the putt and proceeded about the golf course.

OAKMONT, Penn. -- The top contenders at this year’s US Open are scrambling toward the finish, with several competitors in striking distance at the top of the leaderboard. This is par for the course at Oakmont Country Club, where the last five US Opens dating back to 1962 have been decided either via a playoff or a single stroke.

If there’s a tie at the top of the leaderboard at the end of 72 holes, the USGA mandates the tied players meet in an 18-hole, stroke-play playoff the next day.

The entire field at the US Open is in search of birdies. Just not the kind Sergio Garcia found during his final round.

Garcia found a bird, picked it up and gave it to someone working the event. The bird proceeded to fly away, as birds do, so Garcia picked it back up and handed it to someone else.

Shane Lowry began the final round of the 2016 US Open four strokes clear of the field. It seemed like it would take either a historical charge or a significant collapse if he was going to let the rest of the field into the race. Instead, it’s been a little bit of both and now Lowry has just a one-shot lead.

Lowry ran into some early trouble with two bogeys on his first six holes. The bigger challenge has been a lack of birdies. Lowry has been forced to scramble to save pars. Instead of adding distance between himself and the field, he’s come back to the field. Maybe more troubling for Lowry, is he’s had a ton of success this week on the front nine. He played the opening nine holes at 2-under during the first three rounds, including seven birdies.

Bubba Watson was all over the property early into Sunday’s final round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont, when the two-time Masters champ made triple-bogey on the par-4 third hole after playing his way into the green from the fourth fairway.

Watson, who began the day at 7-over -- 14 shots behind frontrunner Shane Lowry -- started out par-birdie. But he went into full “I’m outta here” mode when he slammed his ball too far left of his apparently intended target.

The final round of the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club will feature some outstanding and warm weather. There will be plenty of sunshine throughout the day and temperatures will be warming into the upper 80s.

Winds will be light out of the southwest during the day. Winds will be between 3 and 8 mph. Weather will not be an issue for golfers during the final round of the 2016 U.S. Open.

OAKMONT, Pa. – When the U.S. Open comes to Oakmont Country Club, it’s tight.

In 2007, Angel Cabrera beat Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk by one stroke apiece. In 1994, Ernie Els beat Colin Montgomerie and Loren Roberts in a playoff. In 1983, Larry Nelson beat Tom Watson by one stroke. In 1973, Johnny Miller beat John Schlee by one stroke. In 1962, Jack Nicklaus beat Arnold Palmer in a playoff.

OAKMONT, Pa. – The U.S. Open rolls toward the end on Sunday, with the conclusion of the third round and then an anticipated full final round at Oakmont Country Club.

The tournament has been behind schedule all weekend. Rain delayed play twice and then postponed it on Thursday, so the first and second rounds didn’t end until around lunchtime on Friday and Saturday, respectively. The USGA managed to cram the vast majority of third-round play onto the schedule for Saturday afternoon and evening, but there are still some loose ends to tie up on that score before final rounds get underway on Sunday.

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.

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.