On a fast-rolling course like the one at the Oakmont Country Club, the last thing a golfer would want is more obstructions. But that is what the players on the field of the 2025 U.S. Open might be up for. In the middle of the action in the last round, the USGA had to stop play because of the surprising weather conditions. Chaos erupted on X as NUCLR GOLF reported that the region where the golf course was located was on high alert for flash floods. That led to the suspension of play just as things were heating up. Fortunately, the weather wasn’t as bad as first reported.

With Sam Burns still standing tall at the top of the table, the round was restarted not long after. The only difference was that it was pouring cats and dogs in Pennsylvania when things resumed. Not really, though, but it was getting quite challenging to play under the precipitation, as was evident through the live broadcast. After what they had seen at ANGC, fans and players alike were concerned about one deterrent that might spoil the excitement of the tournament: mud balls.

As the chairman of the Official World Golf Rankings, Trevor Immelman tweeted, “Mud on the ball is going to play a huge part in the remainder of this championship.” He, like many others, assumed that rain would automatically mean that the golfers would have thick, wet soil to worry about every time they hit the ball into the fairway or roughs. Something similar happened during the Masters Tournament this year as well. So the nightmares of the conditions were still fresh in everyone’s minds. But pro-turned-analyst Kevin Kisner ended up being the beacon of light as he shared his expertise from the commentary box. The veteran’s message resonated through Billy Horschel.

In response to Immelman’s tweet, quoted, “Kiz just explained it beautifully why there won’t be mud balls. Usually it’s a day or two later, after it’s dried a bit, when mud is collected.” To everyone’s sigh of relief, the lead analyst at NBC has been in a sticky situation enough times to understand how it occurs. The events occurring at Oakmont at the moment won’t lead to mud balls, as it’s still pouring out there. Chances of the play getting postponed beyond two days are as good as none. So that is one obstruction Sam Burns, Viktor Hovland & Co. will not need to worry about at the moment.

However, it did become a topic of discussion over the last couple of months. Some of the golfers had even spoken up about it during the Masters Tournament. Let’s see what they had to say.

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The unspoken rule gets discussed with the media

Mudball was a real issue at Augusta National earlier this year, and Jordan Spieth was facing the worst of it. At the end of play on Friday, he was quoted as saying, “My iron play killed me the last two days, and to be brutally honest with you, it was primarily mud balls. It’s just so frustrating because you can’t talk about them here. You’re not supposed to talk about them. Mud balls can affect this tournament significantly, especially when you get them a lot on 11 and 13. They’re just daggers on those two holes.”

Spieth was trailing the top of the leaderboard by 8 strokes. We can assume that a couple of holes wouldn’t have changed the result for him much. But it had the same effect on everyone else in the course as him. Wonder how the table would have looked if mudball didn’t wreak havoc at Augusta National. What do you think?