Scheffler hovered at U.S. Open and Rahm surged, but it wasn't enough

OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm fought to find their form at the U.S. Open. Neither managed to do so long enough to surge into contention on the weekend.

Neither, however, is complaining after taking different paths to a tie for seventh behind winner J.J. Spaun.

The top-ranked Scheffler made “silly mistakes” over the first two rounds but posted even-par 70s on both Saturday and Sunday. If not for another roll or two on a couple of putts or a poor tee shot on 18 Sunday that led to a closing bogey, Scheffler believes he might have inched a bit higher up the leaderboard.

“If I had four days like I did today, I think it would have been a different story,” Scheffler said. “I was playing kind of behind the 8-ball most of the week (by) hitting the ball in the rough. Overall, proud of how I battled, gave myself a chance, but ultimately didn’t have enough.”

There is little Scheffler hasn't accomplished during his three-year run atop the sport. Figuring the U.S. Open out is one of them. He hasn't broken par in each of his last nine rounds at the national championship, dating back to the final round at Los Angeles Country Club in 2023.

Rahm, who was near the top of the leaderboard on Thursday after opening with a 1-under 69 before following it up by going a combined 8-over on Friday and Saturday, closed with three straight birdies to close the final round. His 3-under 67 tied with Rory McIlroy for the best round of the day.

The 2021 U.S. Open champion also had the luxury of finishing before rain stopped play for more than 90 minutes. Rahm's 4-over total held up for quite a while. How long? He was still hanging around outside the locker room with his golf bag when Spaun finally seized the tournament some five-plus hours after Rahm had walked off 18.

“It’s crazy because it doesn’t feel like I played that different (than) every other round,” Rahm said.

___

AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson, AP National Writer Eddie Pells and AP Sports Writer Noah Trister contributed to this report.

___

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf