Like a game of snakes and ladders, Sam Burns has slid back at the 15th, the second hardest hole at Oakmont today.

His par putt stays aloft - and he'll drop to two under par.

A hat-trick of pars on the 14th and it's as you were as trio head to the longest par-four on the course, the 523-yard 15th.

Tellingly mind, Scottie slammed a club into a divot on the fairway with his spin control letting him down again!

"Sit. Sit. Sit sit sit sit sit sit sit sit sit sit sit." It can only be Jordan Spieth, talking to his ball, as always, on the par-three sixth. His ball does indeed sit. On the green but way left of the flag.

"Oh I did not mean to hit that there," says Jon Rahm after leaking his tee shot a fraction left. "Get over the bunker," he instructs his ball. It obeys. "That was lucky," he recognises as his ball comes to rest at the back of the green.

Dustin Johnson, winner here in 2016, is coming off successive birdies and his effort is closest. He'll have a five-footer for a hat-trick.

America's Cameron Young has quietly climbed the leaderboard with two straight birdies at the second and third holes (his 11th and 12th).

He's leapt into the top 10 at two under par, and closing in on the leader.

Up on the fifth green and Jordan Spieth is rolling in a birdie to get back into the red.

Over to you Jon Rahm... it's a tentative prod by the Spaniard and he implores his ball to break left but it continues on a straight line and stays on the green. He looks genuinely baffled as to how that didn't go in the hole.

A well retrieved par from Brooks Koepka after muscling his tee shot out of some heavy duty fescue wide right of the 15th.

Three holes to go for the two-time champ.

Is Im Sung-jae going to escape with the scruffiest par of the day?

From off the back of the green, uphill lie from the cabbage, and the South Korean stabs his ball onto the green and it pulls up four feet short.

No. Pulled it. Shot gone for Im.

Socttie Scheffler is currently tied for 38th.

He has never come back from outside the top 30 at the end of the first round to win aa PGA Tour event.

The world number one has work to do.

Jon Rahm suddenly looks in the mood here. The Spaniard follows his eagle on the fourth with a solid drive and wedge combo to nine feet on the fifth.

Huge birdie putt coming up.

Viktor Hovland looks pretty perplexed. There's no break left as he putts for par from seven feet and having failed to birdie the 12th, he now bogeys the 13th.

Scottie Scheffler is the next within the trio to show signs that Oakmont is starting to beat them up.

The world number one is not remotely close to the pin from off the tee on the par-three 13th and leaves his long birdie putt seven feet short.

There's almost a look of disbelief as he fails to drain the par-saving attempt that follows and just to round things off Collin Morikawa nudgesa short one past to card successive bogeys.

Im Sung-jae is making a bit of a meal of the long fourth hole. His drive trundled into the first cut of rough but he doesn't take advantage and ploughs his second into a fairway bunker. From there, he almost airmails the green, his ball taking one hop into the thick stuff off the back. He needs to get down in two from there to avoid another drop.

All we seem to see of Sam Burns is him hunched over a putter contemplating a birdie opportunity from distance.

Over at the 14th, he's just buried the last chance and sails up to three under par, one off the lead.

Jon Rahm leaps up the leaderboard with an eagle-three on the 621-yard par-five fourth hole.

Two hefty blows have left him with a 10-footer to get into the red and the Spaniard gobbles up the chance.

It's nice that. Tyrrell Hatton zips into seven feet with his second on the par-four fourth and clinically converts his birdie chance to get back to one over.

The Englishman has regularly been on the cusp of challenging in the US Open over the last few years but has just not quite been able to hold it all together over four days.

Brooks Koepka is inches from a birdie at the 14th and he flexes his knees as a distance putt lips out and trundles away.

His frustration is compounded when he misses the par putt coming back from five feet.

Viktor Hovland is putting for eagle but that is staying right and sliding past.

The Norwegian should be nailed on for a birdie here but there's way too much gas on that and his ball lips out and leaves a three footer, which he rolls in. He strides off with a bemused look on his face.

It could have been worse though, Collin Morikawa, who flies the green with his approach ends up with a bogey after a pretty sloppy couple of shots are punished.

Back to Im Sung-jae on the third green. He gives his putt a good rattle across the green and he's judged the pace supremely well, the ball coming to rest a couple of feet from the hole.

He's done well to avoid a double.

Can Sam Burns claw back another?

Usually he's one of the best putters on the PGA Tour but the flatstick has let him down so far today and that birdie putt scoots by.

He'll stay at two under par.

Viktor Hovland fnds the first cut but gets relief and is able to drop in the fairway because his stance would mean he's standing on a sprinkler cover.

What a stroke of good fortune for the Norwegian, who cashes in on it with a pure strike that finds the front of the green. He'll be putting for an eagle.

Meanwhile, Scottie Scheffler is playing out of rough and maintains his line along the right to find the thicker stuff again. An up and down from here would get him back to level par but his ball squirts out of the rough and across and off the green.

It'll be a case of saving par, if possible for the American. How things can change so quickly around this property.