The 2025 U.S. Open (most likely) won’t have a super star winner,
OAKMONT, Pa.– We’re going to begin this wrapup of Saturday’s 3rd round at the U.S. Open with an unexpected figure: Caitlin Clark. No, the Indiana Fever star forward wasn’t in presence Saturday; she was too busy triumphantly returning from injury. However while Clark was out, rankings for Fever games suffered strongly. Stars draw eyeballs, whether it’s Clark, LeBron James or Tiger Woods.Golf is about to have a significant in which, barring an absolute barnstorm, a non-superstar will raise the trophy Sunday afternoon. This, in itself, is not all that uncommon– there are dozens of players who chose the perfect week to have an ideal week, and never once again won another major.Advertisement The only player in the top 10, within
7 strokes of the lead, who’s won a major? That would be Adam Scott(-3), who’s now more than 12 years eliminated from his 2013 victory at Augusta National. Consider the other challengers at even par or better: Sam Burns (leader, -4 ): Currently ranked 22nd on the planet. Burns has five PGA Tour wins however one lone top-10 in a major– a T9 at last year’s U.S. Open. A member of the U.S. Ryder Cup group in 2023, he’s very much on the rise.J.J. Spaun(-3 ): Currently ranked 25th in the world
. He has one PGA Trip win, and took Rory McIlroy to a playoff at the Players Championship this year before falling short. This is just his 2nd U.S. Open, and he’s never placed higher than T23 at any major.Advertisement Viktor Hovland (-1): Currently ranked 14th in the world.
If he were more constant, he ‘d currently be a super star, however he’s fluctuated from his 2023 Tour Championship-winning kind. Has four top-10 surfaces in majors, though none came in a U.S. Open.Carlos Ortiz(E): Currently ranked 246th in the world, but that’s due to the fact that he plays on the LIV tour. While he has a LIV win to his credit, he has had a hard time in the few majors he’s played, never finishing in the leading 50. Any of those winners would be a significant … let’s say variance from the champions of the 2020s. To be blunt, we have actually gotten spoiled
, anticipating big dogs to win every major … since they pretty much have. In the 21 majors held in the 2020s, all however five were won by multiple-major winners. The list of current significant winners is the list of the game’s best: Scheffler, McIlroy, DeChambeau, Koepka, Schauffele.Still, it deserves keeping in mind: every super star was once an unidentified. Almost none of golf’s present stars entered the game preceded by their track record. The last time that the U.S. Open came through
Oakmont back in 2016, for example, Scottie Scheffler was an amateur who missed out on the cut, Brooks Koepka revealed promise but still had not won a single significant, Bryson DeChambeau tied for 15th however was still 4 years from his very first major win, and Xander Schauffele was still on what was then called the Web.com Tour. J.J. Spaun (left)shakes hands with Sam Burns on the 18th green throughout the 3rd round of the 125th U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
(Warren Little via Getty Images)
(The reverse is also true. Dustin Johnson won that 2016 U.S. Open, and he’s fallen completely off the golf map. Indeed, only a handful of players within 6 strokes of Johnson’s lead back then– Shane Lowry, Sergio Garcia, Jason Day– are still dipping into a fairly high level, and Garcia didn’t even make the field at this year’s U.S. Open.)
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In each of the last 10 majors, the ultimate winner was ranked either very first or 2nd after 54 holes. Given the trickiness of Oakmont, that trend might end Sunday. In each of the last two U.S. Opens at Oakmont, according to Elias Sports, the winner– Johnson and Angel Cabrera– came from four strokes back. Back in 1973, Johnny Miller notoriously rode a final-round 63 to success from six strokes back. For 2025, only eight players are within 6 strokes of the lead– those above, plus Tyrrell Hatton, Thriston Lawrence and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen. Scheffler is the closest icon at +4, 8 strokes off the lead.The next time the U.S. Open go back to Oakmont in 2033, will Sam Burns have 5 majors? Will J.J. Spaun be among the very best players in the world? Or will Scheffler, Koepka and DeChambeau have retaken control of the game? It’s difficult to forecast, which’s what makes this game so fascinating.