PITTSBURGH — Sam Burns was playing the round of his life. The kind golfers prefer not get interrupted — think of the Bishop in “Caddyshack” who was struck by lightning because he refused to pause his best day ever on the course.

So he could have been forgiven if he paid no attention to the commotion behind him on the eighth tee. After all, Hole 8 is one of the most demanding on the course, a 299-yard brute of a par 3.

But Burns was not the Bishop. He kept aware of his surroundings, not just the inconceivable 65 he shot during the second round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club.

When he noticed a person had collapsed and was receiving medical attention, he did what he could.

Burns, whose 5-under round was the lowest of the day through the late afternoon and catapulted him toward the top of the leaderboard, brought volunteers a cold, wet towel for the person who collapsed.

Then he hit a perfect 301-yard wood to within 13 feet of the hole.

Burns didn’t make that putt, but he drained a curling 22-foot par save on No. 9 (his last hole of the day) to get in the clubhouse at 3-under for the tournament and among the leaders.

The person suffering the medical issue behind No. 8 seemed to be OK minutes after Burns delivered the towel. He was sitting up and was responsive.

Bouncing back

Burns’ ability to offer help then immediately snap back into focus makes sense. He has a 1-year-old son, Bear.

Despite a crushing finish to his round Thursday when he dropped five shots in his last four holes — all but erasing the excellent golf he’d played to that point — he happily embraced his son after bogeying No. 18.

They walked off together, and Burns resolved to think about the 14 great holes he played rather than the four that undid him.

“There was too much good to focus on the little bit of bad,” he said after his round Friday.

He birdied holes 17 and 18 in the second round, making the turn in a scintillating 31. But several players who have started their rounds on the back nine have fallen apart on the more difficult front side, which is playing over a shot harder.

Burns looked to be headed in that direction after bogeying No. 1, but he bounced back with birdies at holes 2 and 4, then cruised to the clubhouse with five consecutive pars.

The five-time PGA Tour winner has just one career top-10 finish in a major, a tie for ninth at last year’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst.

He said in the past he’s tried to be “a little too perfect around major championship golf courses.”

Oakmont’s notorious difficulty has helped him overcome that.

“Honestly, it kind of forces you to take your medicine because a lot of times that's the only option you have,” Burns said. “You really just have to free it up. It's too hard to try to guide it around here. You're going to hit some in the rough, you're going to hit some in some bad spots. You might as well do it with authority.”

Last week, Burns was 6 feet away from his first victory since 2023. The best putter on the PGA Tour, he had a short birdie putt to win the RBC Canadian Open on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff against Ryan Fox.

But it slid by, and he eventually lost on the fourth playoff hole.

After an uncharacteristically poor putting performance in the first round of the U.S. Open on Thursday, Burns was among the best in the field on the greens Friday.

“He plays golf very freely, and he's got really good natural instincts when it comes to his putting, and a lot of it is just very reactionary,” said his good friend Scottie Scheffler, the top-ranked golfer in the world.

Not surprisingly, Burns attributed his putting skill to loads of practice. But his attitude on the greens reflects the mentality he hopes to carry in majors.

“If you try to be too perfect with putting, it can drive you crazy, so I just try to really read it, put a good roll on it, focus on the speed and hope for the best,” he said.

His best delivered him a round nearly 10 strokes better than the field average Friday — and perhaps a spot in the final pairing Saturday.

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