There may be a new best putter in the world emerging after his brilliant round two at the US Open

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The US Open is now well underway at Oakmont Country Club, with J.J. Spaun having emerged as the early leader.

Spaun entered the US Open second round as the solo leader, having carded an opening round four-under 66.

Scottie Scheffler has been backed to contend at the US Open despite an uncharacteristically poor opening round of 73.

The world number one followed that up with a second round 71, but it was his good friend Sam Burns who impressed more than most among the early starters.

After his first round 72, Burns carded a five-under 65 in round two to leave him T2 on three-under, one shot behind late starter Spaun.

Sam Burns may have emerged as the world’s best putter after his US Open second round

And there was one area of Burns’ game that particularly impressed Dan Rapaport during the second round, which represents the lowest of the week so far at Oakmont.

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He wrote on X: “Sam Burns is creeping up on Denny McCarthy for the (very cool) title of Best Putter On The Planet. Denny’s held it for the better part of a decade and held it well. But Burns is hooping.”

Where does Sam Burns rank among the best putters on the PGA Tour in 2025?

Finding fairways has been key to success at Oakmont so far, with the rough truly unforgiving at the Pennsylvania course.

Even the world’s best have struggled to recover when hitting their balls wayward, with many needing a few attempts to get back onto the fairway.

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Putting is, therefore, an area where big recoveries can be made, and Burns certainly proved that with his efforts on the green on Friday.

But that was perhaps no surprise given his putting statistics heading into the third major championship of the season.

Burns has certainly not had the most memorable season on the PGA Tour, although he has hit good form at the perfect time.

The American had three top 10 finishes from his 16 starts before this week, which includes a play-off defeat to Ryan Fox at last week’s Canadian Open.

He has three missed cuts to his name, but sits at the very top of the pile for Strokes Gained: Putting on the PGA Tour in 2025.

His 1.056 average is well ahead of the rest of the tour, with Rapaport’s other favourite McCarthy seventh in the list with a figure of 0.619.