Archive June 15, 2025

US Open round three leaderboard

-4 Burns (US); -3 Spaun (US), Scott (Aus); -1 Hovland (Nor), Lawrence (SA); Level Ortiz (Mex); +1 Hatton (Eng); +2 Neergaard-Petersen (Den), +3 MacIntyre (Sco), Young (US)

Selected others: +4 Scheffler (US); +5 Wallace (Eng), Koepka (US); +6 Spieth (US); +7 Schauffele (US), Rahm (Spa); +8 Canter (Eng); +9 Fitzpatrick (Eng); +10 McIlroy

Tyrrell Hatton says there is “a lot to play for” besides contending for a maiden major title when he begins his final round at the US Open on Sunday.

Englishman Hatton shot a two-under 68 in his third round on Saturday, putting him joint sixth and five shots behind leader Sam Burns at Oakmont.

Hatton joined LIV Golf at the start of 2024, which limits the number of opportunities he has to collect world ranking points to majors and DP World Tour events, which in turn boost his chances of qualifying for Europe’s Ryder Cup team.

He was part of the victorious 2023 side in Rome and is currently in one of the six automatic qualification places for September’s biennial match against the United States which this year is being held at Bethpage Black in New York.

“I knew at the start of the year and certainly last year when I signed with LIV that the majors were going to be very important for me,” said the 33-year-old, who is ranked 24th in the world.

“I’d love to finish off a strong week for world ranking points, Ryder Cup points, Race to Dubai points. There’s a lot to play for.

Hatton’s Ryder Cup team-mate Robert MacIntyre also put himself in contention for a first major title with a fine round on Saturday.

The Scot is seven shots off Burns’ lead in a tie for ninth position after a one-under-par 69 left him at three over.

“I’ve put three solid rounds together,” he said. “I’ll just give it my best, don’t try to focus too much on trying to win, just go out there and hit the shots, and then come 15, 16, see where I’m sitting and whether I’m in the race or not.

“I’m just delighted to be in it. If I shoot the number I know I can shoot, then why not me?”

US Open round three leaderboard

-4 Burns (US); -3 Spaun (US), Scott (Aus); -1 Hovland (Nor), Lawrence (SA); Level Ortiz (Mex); +1 Hatton (Eng); +2 Neergaard-Petersen (Den), +3 MacIntyre (Sco), Young (US)

Selected others: +4 Scheffler (US); +5 Wallace (Eng), Koepka (US); +6 Spieth (US); +7 Schauffele (US), Rahm (Spa); +8 Canter (Eng); +9 Fitzpatrick (Eng); +10 McIlroy

America’s Sam Burns will take a one-shot lead into Sunday’s final round of the US Open after a terrific finish to the third round at Oakmont.

The 28-year-old world number 22 carded three birdies and two bogeys in his one-under 69 as he maintained his overnight lead and moved to four under par.

Playing partner JJ Spaun was level with Burns for much of the round but bogeyed the final hole to end the day as he started it, one shot back.

Alongside Spaun at three under par, 2013 Masters champion Adam Scott made a decisive move on the back nine to stake his claim for a second major title at 44 years old.

The only player in the top 10 to have previously won one of golf’s biggest four tournaments, the Australian birdied the 13th and 14th holes before draining a 15-foot birdie putt on the 17th to briefly tie the lead.

His round of three-under 67 was joint best in the field – alongside Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz who improved to level par – and earned him a spot in the final group on Sunday.

Norway’s Viktor Hovland remains a threat. He hit two trees and a flagstick on his way to a level-par 70 and produced a wondrous shot out of the rough on 17 to find a bonus birdie.

England’s Tyrrell Hatton and Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre both impressed in their search for a first major title and are at one over and three over par respectively.

Soggy conditions changed the dynamic of the course but not the difficulty as Burns and Spaun traded blows in the final group.

Both are winners on the PGA Tour but they also share play-off defeats this season – Spaun at The Players Championship by Rory McIlroy in March and Burns only last week on the fourth play-off hole as Ryan Fox won the Canadian Open.

The two briefly swapped places at the beginning of the round but were level for the majority of Saturday and both picked up birdies on the 17th to move clear of Scott on four under.

But Spaun, who still boasts the only bogey-free round of the week on Thursday, hit an erratic tee shot at the 18th. That led to a bogey and cost him a place in Sunday’s final group.

That spot alongside Burns will be filled by Scott, who is making his 96th consecutive appearance at a major championship.

His second shot at the 14th was sublime, landing a foot from the pin, and his fist-pump celebration to raucous cheers after making birdie on 17 showed his heart – and popularity – remain undimmed.

On Friday, Scott said a second major title would “go a long way” in fulfilling himself. He is well placed to make that happen on Sunday.

And do not discount Hovland, who came within inches of hitting his opening drive out of bounds, but retained his composure to produce a typically swashbuckling round that featured three birdies and three bogeys.

Hatton has often demonstrated the skills required to win a major, and yet he has only one top-five finish in 40 appearances.

An excellent round of 68 on Saturday left him seventh, five shots behind Burns, and it could have been even better had a monster eagle putt not drifted inches past the 17th hole.

He dismissed suggestions not having previously won a major will affect the contenders.

“It’s another golf tournament, and you’re playing against a lot of the guys week in, week out,” he said. “You have to trust that you can compete and beat anyone.”

European Ryder Cup team-mate MacIntyre retains that belief after carding four birdies and three bogeys in his round of 69.

“I’m just delighted to be in it,” he said. “If I shoot the number I know I can shoot, then why not me?”

One further back, Scheffler remains a presence but is yet to find his best form this week, summed up by an ugly missed par putt from two feet at the eighth.

At least he remains somewhat in touch.

The 2021 US Open champion Jon Rahm’s challenge came unstuck after playing the back nine in four over. At seven over par he is surely too far away to threaten. Alongside the Spaniard is world number three Xander Schauffele, who has finished inside the top 15 in all eight of his previous US Open appearances.

As for Masters champion McIlroy, a bogey at the 18th capped another testing day and left him “waiting for my week to end”.

Canadian Grand Prix

Venue: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal Date: 15 June Race start: 19:00 BST on Sunday

Max Verstappen said Formula 1 was “annoying” and that questions about him racing under the threat of a race ban were “childish”.

The Red Bull driver, who qualified second for Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, will be contesting the lead at the start of the race with Mercedes’ George Russell, who took pole position.

Verstappen deliberately drove into the Briton at the last race in Spain and a resulting penalty has left him one licence point short of a race ban.

Asked about this at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Saturday, the Dutchman said: “I don’t need to hear it again. You were speaking about it on Thursday.

Russell’s pole was his first of the season and he referenced Verstappen’s predicament in the context of their prospective battle for the lead in the race.

“We’re mates so it’s all good,” Russell said with a smile on his face. “I have a few more points on my licence to play with, so let’s see.”

Verstappen, who has said the incident in Spain was “not right and shouldn’t have happened”, said in his news conference on Thursday that the threat of a ban would not change the way he raced.

“I cannot just back out of everything,” he said. “I’m just going to race like I always do. I trust myself.”

The incident in Spain was not the first moment of tension between Verstappen and Russell.

They had a public row at the end of last season, in which Verstappen was unhappy with what he perceived as Russell trying to get him a penalty at the Qatar Grand Prix. Russell was offended by Verstappen’s comments in a conversation afterwards.

They exchanged criticisms of each other in public, including Russell calling Verstappen a bully and Verstappen saying Russell was a backstabber.

Russell said his pole lap was “probably one of the most exhilarating laps of my life” and that it had given him “goosebumps”.

The Briton let a victory slip through his fingers after taking pole in Canada last year and said he wanted to make amends for that.

“Last year was a poor race for me,” he said, “and I felt it could’ve gone differently. So obviously I’ll be doing my best to make up for last year’s losses.

“But it’s totally different this year. We don’t know how the race is going to pan out because the hard tyre is the one that we’re all going to use at some point in the race, and no one knows if that would do the distance to give you a one-stop or not. So, there’s that curveball in there.”

Mercedes’ improved performance is down to the combination of relatively cool temperatures at just over 20C and a low-abrasion track that enables their car to keep its tyre temperatures down.

But Russell said he was wary of how the car might perform in Sunday’s race.

“We had good race pace on Friday, but it depends on the temperature,” he said. “In practice, it was 5C cooler than it was today, and the car was easily in its sweet spot.

The track characteristics have the opposite effect on championship leaders McLaren, whose car is the best in the field at managing tyre temperatures.

As a consequence, McLaren have been struggling to make it operate at its best in Montreal.

Championship leader Oscar Piastri is third on the grid behind Russell and Verstappen but his team-mate and title rival Lando Norris could manage only seventh, admitting that he had made two mistakes in the final session of qualifying.

Norris said: “I think we can go forwards anyway, but not a lot. You know, it’s not like we’re easy one-two, like we have been on other tracks.

“It’s just very low grip, first of all is one of the bigger things. And therefore the car balance just never comes together as much as what it does in other tracks.

“Probably just low grip and some of the kerb-riding and bumps, which just hurts us, it seems, more than some others.”

Norris was using a revised front suspension layout that was designed to increase the feel from the front axle of the car, the lack of which the Briton believes is important in the flip in form between himself and Piastri between last year and this.

Norris said it was “tough to say” whether this had improved the feeling coming from the car.

“This track, everything just feels different,” he said. “So I think it’s something we’ll have to wait and see on the next few races through Austria and Silverstone and so forth to understand and maybe back-to-back tests between them both.

“It’s nothing that I’ve felt just yet. But it’s more that when you go to a new track, it’s hard to remember everything perfectly relative to other tracks. So we just need a bit more time to understand if it’s any better or not.”

Piastri stuck with the old layout, saying: “It’s not an upgrade. It’s a different part. It changes some things, some things are better, some things are worse. I have been happy with how the car has been this year.”

Team principal Andrea Stella said: “From Lando’s point of view, there were no downsides. If anything, despite the result that we had in Q3 with Lando, pretty much right away, Lando has actually been competitive, especially compared to Oscar throughout the weekend.

Canadian Grand Prix

Venue: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal Date: 15 June Race start: 19:00 BST on Sunday

Mercedes’ George Russell snatched pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Russell beat Verstappen by 0.160 seconds to grab the fastest time just seconds after the Dutchman himself had taken it away from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

The Australian’s team-mate and title rival Lando Norris could manage only seventh place, behind Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and a superb performance from Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin.

The grid sets up a battle into the first corner between Briton Russell and Verstappen in Montreal, just a race after their controversial conflict at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Russell had felt on arriving at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Saturday morning that he had a good chance of setting pole, and his confidence was well placed.

Like Verstappen using the medium tyre for his final lap, Russell said it was “one of the most exhilarating laps of my life”.

He added: “I swear, every corner I was looking at my lap-time delta on my steering wheel and I was going 0.1secs quicker, 0.1secs quicker. I got to the last corner and I was 0.6secs up and I thought: ‘This lap’s mighty.’ It felt like the car was on rails. I am so pleased with pole.”

Russell said he “had goosebumps” after crossing the line. “I don’t think I’ve ever had that before,” he said.

Verstappen said: “I felt quite good all weekend. The car was in a good window. This track is quite cool. It feels like a big go-kart on the kerbs.

“You need to be quite efficient on the straights, which I think we are. The tough choice was the tyres and I think we chose the right ones. We will see what we can do tomorrow. I am already happy to be on the front row and I hope we can have a solid race.”

The grid gives the Australian a good chance to extend his championship lead over Norris, who had a tricky session.

He missed the final chicane on his first lap of the top 10 shootout and had to be reminded not to push too much in the braking zones.

His second attempt was slower than Alonso’s first and Norris failed to improve on his final run, and was bumped further down by Russell, Antonelli and Hamilton.

Norris said: “Just a couple of big mistakes. One, hitting the wall on the last lap in the exit of (Turn) Seven and first lap, I think, last corner. So, yeah, just two mistakes that cost me, I guess.

“We’ve clearly not been as quick as normal. I think that’s just because of the layout of the track. I think the cars have been performing relatively well and I was happy through all of qualifying. Maybe not the car to take pole today, but good enough to be up there and fighting for top three.”

Team principal Andrea Stella said: “Lando just tried too hard. I think he felt that the speed was there, but on this track if you try too hard then you may have quite a bit of price to pay.”

Alonso’s sixth place was Aston Martin’s best grid position of the season and confirms the progress the team have made since introducing an upgrade at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

“We maximised for sure the potential of the car,” Alonso said. “I feel happier with the car since Imola, since the upgrade.

“At the beginning of the year, it was a challenge to understand what the car needed and what kind of direction in the set-up I needed to go, but since Imola I am more comfortable and I can be more precise on the feedback and make the changes that I know will make the car faster and sometimes you succeed on that.

“Last four races, four Q3 (places). It makes the whole team a little more relaxed.”

Rounding out the top 10 behind Leclerc were Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar and Williams’ Alex Albon.

However, Hadjar was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Williams’ Carlos Sainz at the end of the first session, preventing the Spaniard from progressing. Alpine’s Franco Colapinto will now start 10th.

Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, who qualified 11th, will start at the back because of a 10-place penalty for overtaking Piastri’s damaged McLaren after a red flag during final practice.