OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — By the time the rain-soaked U.S. Open had figured out its new champion and the chants of “J-J! J-J!” and “USA! USA!” had finally given way, there was still golf to be played — one nearly forgotten twosome left to make its way up the 18th fairway.
Talk about a slog.
Sam Burns and Adam Scott wrapped up the waterlogged action at Oakmont on Sunday as pure also-rans, victimized by bad breaks, bad shots and an inability to handle the rain the way J.J. Spaun did in the group ahead of them to win the title.
“It was just so sloppy the rest of the way,” Scott said of the conditions on the course after returning from a 1 hour, 37 minute delay that started with the then-frontrunners on the eighth tee box. “We must have looked horrible, both of us playing like that. But that’s what can happen in these things. If you get a little off, you’re just severely punished.”
They came into the day with Burns in first and Scott tied for second, one shot back.
Burns shot 8-over 78 to tie for seventh at 4 over. Scott had a 79 to tie for 12th, two shots behind Burns.
“I didn’t adapt to those conditions well enough,” said Scott, the 2013 Masters champion.
Scott, who made three birdies over the final six holes on Saturday to get in the final group, played those same holes in 5 over in the final round.
Burns, who followed a 65 on Friday — the best single round of the tournament — with a 69 on Saturday to take the lead, made two rain-induced double bogeys on the back nine Sunday to punctuate his freefall.
“Look, it’s part of it,” he said. “Everybody’s got to deal with it. I’m extremely proud of the way I fought out there today.”
Burns’ final gasp came when he made double bogey on the 15th hole after being denied relief from a waterlogged lie on the fairway. With water spraying up from the turf on his practice swing, he called one rules official, then another, asking for a drop from the waterlogged lie. No luck.
So, he swung away and the ball duck-hooked to the left. He barely advanced the next shot from the saturated rough. By the end of it, he was 3 over, two shots out of the lead, and the tournament was becoming a contest between Spaun and eventual runner-up Robert MacIntyre.
“I was 100% locked in on what I was trying to do,” Burns said about the fateful approach on 15. “Ultimately, it felt like the water just kind of got in the way, and I went left. It is what it is.”
Before that, on the 12th fairway, Burns took a yoga mat-sized pelt on his 122-yard approach shot. The ball sailed far to the left. He saved par there.
“I was in a divot on 11, as well,” Burns said of his first double bogey. “It’s part of it. It happens. You play enough golf, you hit it in divots, and everybody does.”
Besides Spaun and MacIntyre, nobody looked quite prepared to deal with what confronted them after they returned from a delay that made some of the greens and fairways unplayable. Conditions got even trickier when the rain started again.
After holing out on 18 in near silence, then signing his scorecard, Burns came out hugged his 14-month-old son, Bear — the sort of gift on Father’s Day that no trophy could replace for a 28-year-old who is ranked 22nd and figures to get more chances like these.
At 44, the future is less certain for Scott, whose 38 on the front nine had him in second place at the turn — still one behind Burns — but with lots more rain and pain to come.
“It just wasn’t easy out there,” Scott said. “All things being equal, it’s Sunday of the U.S. Open, one of the hardest setups, and the conditions were the hardest of the week. Thank God it wasn’t like this all week.”
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