OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler arrived at Oakmont with his swing in a good place.
Wherever that place was, it's gone. Temporarily, at least.
While world's top-ranked player put together his best round of the week at the U.S. Open on Saturday by firing an even-par 70 to remain at 4 over, he knows tracking down good friend and third-round leader Sam Burns eight shots ahead might require the kind of crisp, clean golf Scheffler has struggled to produce over 54 holes.
“Am I in the position I had hoped to be after three days? Obviously not,” Scheffler said. “But for the way I’ve swung it and played the last few days, I feel like I could be a lot worse.”
Such is the level that the 28-year-old star finds himself at that, during feels like an “off week," he will head to the course on Sunday on the front page of the leaderboard, albeit at the bottom.
“For me to be sitting where I am this week, not having really my best stuff, I think is pretty good,” Scheffler said.
It's not like Scheffler hasn't been searching for it.
He hit the practice range shortly after a 71 on Friday, then proceeded to have an animated session with longtime coach Randy Smith. Scheffler waved his arms at times, clearly frustrated by the results.
Asked about it, Scheffler shrugged and called the whole thing “pretty regular," and it should be pointed out that the practice range at most tournaments doesn't sit next to the media center as it does at Oakmont. Scheffler admitted the session ended without much progress, though Smith shared some thoughts that “definitely helped.”
Still, the “silly mistakes” that have dogged him this week prevented him from making a legitimate move. He missed a 2-footer for par on the par-3 eighth. He hit it into the native area along the left side of the ninth fairway, forcing him to take a drop.
He bounced back on the back nine. Stuffing a wedge to 10 inches on the par-5 12th for birdie. A drive into the fairway bunker on the par-4 14th led to a bogey, but he responded by birdieing the short par-4 17th. When he tapped in for par on 18, he'd inched up the leaderboard on a day he knew he needed to leap up it.
On Sunday, Scheffler might need to go full Johnny Miller in 1973 to track down Burns. Considering the way Scheffler has played this season, maybe there's reason for optimism, even when things aren't coming as easily as he's made it look.
“I’ve had three days where I haven’t really had my swing, and I’ve been battling out there and still have a chance, albeit an outside chance,” he said. “But still a chance.”
Charging Carlos
Carlos Ortiz was in danger of missing the cut when he began the second round by shooting a 5-over 40 on the front nine.
Twenty-seven holes and 30-ish hours later, the 34-year-old from Guadalajara, Mexico, will go out in one of the final groups after firing a 3-under 67 in the third round. Heady territory for a player who came to Oakmont having made the cut just twice in nine major appearances.
Ortiz, who won the Houston Open in 2020 before joining LIV Golf in 2022, had a nearly flawless card slightly more gettable — by Oakmont standards anyway — course thanks to overnight rain that softened things up a bit.
Ortiz birdied both the par-5s and added birdies on the par-3 sixth and the par-4 14th. His bid for a bogey-free round ended when he failed to get up-and-down from a greenside bunker following an errant drive.
He shrugged it off afterward, pointing to all the positives instead. He'll wake up Sunday in contention at the U.S. Open. During the tournament's last trip to Oakmont nine years ago, he shot back-to-back 76s to miss the weekend by six.
Not this time.
“Different player, same course,” Ortiz said, then added for emphasis, “same course.”
A big putt
Philip Barbaree Jr. had a sleepless night for all the right reasons. He had to return to Oakmont on Saturday morning to finish his second round, knowing he had to make a par to make the cut for the first time in the U.S. Open.
His final hole was No. 9, the hardest one on perhaps golf's toughest course.
“Probably a lot of pent-up emotion and stress from sleeping last night — or not sleeping last night — just knowing that I pretty much had to come out and make par on one of the hardest holes on the course,” he said.
He found the fairway. He hit his approach to 25 feet. He left the uphill putt 5 feet short. And he made it for a 71 to finish at 7-over 147.
An hour later, he teed off in the third round with Oakmont’s head pro, Devin Gee, as his non-scoring marker. Barbaree had a pair of double bogeys and an eagle in his round of 75.
But that par is what mattered. The celebration looked like someone who won the tournament, especially the strong hug with his caddie — wife, Chloe.
“To be able to pull off a shot like that when it matters, and then with her on the bag, it’s special,” Barbaree said.
His wife knows next to nothing about golf, but Barbaree asked her to caddie for him last year. He immediately started playing better and asked her to stick around. He’s on the PGA Tour Americas, a third-tier circuit that splits time between Latin America and Canada.
The cut at least exempts Barbaree from having to go through the first stage of Q-school later this year. Barbaree also gets to skip the first stage of U.S. Open qualifying next spring.
Big putt, indeed.
Not a fan
Tyrrell Hatton is rarely one to keep his emotions in check. Yet the fiery Englishman managed to do just that during one particularly difficult moment to keep a round that became a 2-under 68 and thrust him into contention at 1-over on track.
Hatton was at 3 under for the day and even for the tournament when his approach to the par-4 15th landed in the grass on a side slope abutting a greenside bunker. Standing awkwardly, he choked down on a lob wedge and was “delighted” when the ball managed to stay on the putting surface, though that didn't stop him from gesturing angrily in the direction of the bunker after he three-putted for a double bogey.
While Hatton would prefer not to have so much thick rough around the bunkers, he knows it's pointless to complain about the setup.
“It doesn’t matter if I don’t agree with it or every player in the field doesn’t agree with it,” he said. “Everyone has to deal with it. It’s just how it is.”
Hatton recovered by birdieing the par-4 17th and saving par on the 18th after his drive found a bunker to put him in the mix for his first major.
___
AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson contrubuted to this report.
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Will Graves, The Associated Press
