JJ Spaun battled through a challenging final round, overcoming a disastrous start and a 96-minute weather delay to secure his first major championship at the 125th U.S. Open.
The 34-year-old Los Angeles native turned pro 13 years ago and until yesterday had one PGA TOUR victory, and is probably best known for losing to Rory McIlroy in a Monday playoff at the Players Championship in March.
Spaun opened with a 4-under par 66 on Thursday, and then went two over Friday, one under Saturday, and finished two over on Sunday for the win.
“I kind of came out here with no prior history at Oakmont, not really knowing what to expect even U.S. Open-wise. This is only my second one. I don’t know if that freed me up in any aspect,” he said. “I’m just overly pleased with how I started the tournament.”
And his finish was masterful, considering that players had to contend with what might be best described as typically difficult U.S. Open conditions, including pouring rain, tough greens, and thick roughs.
Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania has hosted more U.S. Opens than anywhere else, and all nine have now proven to be a worthy adversary to the eventual winner and his closest pursuers.
With umbrellas in hand and six holes to go on payday, five players were tied for the lead: Sam Burns, Adam Scott, Tyrrell Hatton, Carlos Ortiz, and J.J. Spaun. Viktor Holland and Robert MacIntyre were just one shot back.
This was anyone’s tournament to win.
A pair of birdies on 14 and 17 got Scotland’s MacIntyre to minus one for the day and his par on 18 had him in the clubhouse anxiously waiting at one over par.
As the rest faltered, Spaun played incredibly poised and finished back-to-back birdies capped by draining a 64-footer on 18 to finish one under par for a two-shot victory.
“I never thought I would be here holding this trophy. I had aspirations, but like I said a few months ago, I never knew where my ceiling was,” Spaun said.
It was an amazing stroke of a putter that would change the trajectory of a career.
Spaun had a rough start with bogeys on five of his first six holes.
“I felt like I had a chance, a really good chance to win the U.S. Open at the start of the day,” Spaun said. “It just unravelled very fast.”
Still, he bounced back to shoot 3 under par over his final 12 holes.
When asked about the turnaround, Spaun shared some word-of-mouth advice from Tiger Woods.
“I was having lunch with Max Homa at home,” Spaun said. “He was telling a Tiger story where he was like, ‘As long as you are still there, you don’t have to do anything crazy, especially at a U.S. Open.’ He’s like, ‘Tiger said this would happen, and the wind will switch, but you’ve got to just stay there. Even if you’re four back, you’ve just got to stay there. You don’t have to do anything crazy.”
Great advice from the 15-time major winner who knows something about rallying himself to a U.S. Open victory.
“I kind of was thinking about that out there, where I was four back, maybe going back out after the delay, and then I made some good pars, nothing crazy,” Spaun said. “Then, next thing you know, I’m like tied for the lead, I think, and within four holes of the restart. That just kind of goes back to that, like you try to stay there. You don’t have to do anything crazy, especially at a U.S. Open. All those things came true.”
MacIntyre finished runner-up with a one-over-par performance while Viktor Hovland’s plus-two earned him a solo third.
