U.S. Open: How J.J. Spaun stayed steady and created one of the greatest U.S. Open moments ever

OAKMONT, Pa.—With one beautiful, curling, glorious putt, J.J. Spaun won the U.S. Open. He redeemed what had been an ugly mudfight of a tournament. He gave the battered sport of golf an unequivocal story of inspiration that it desperately needed. And he created an indelible, transcendent memory that will live on in replays as long as they play this game.

It was a hell of a putt, is what we’re saying.

This was the right stroke, in the right tournament, at the right time, for the right player. This was one of those why-we-watch moments, a triumph in the evening fog, a victory for the little guy in a sport increasingly tilted against the little guys. This wasn’t a storybook finish — storybooks only wish they could be this good.

Spaun, who up until Sunday had a grand total of one (1) PGA Tour victory to his credit, won the U.S. Open on talent, yes. But he won it on tenacity, too, and bend-but-don’t-break mental toughness. He won it because he hung around long enough to make exactly the right move at exactly the right moment.

And he won it despite not getting a full night’s sleep. The U.S. Open champ spent the morning of his trophy-winning Sunday at a local CVS, getting medicine for his daughter, who’d been up all night with an upset stomach. Come on, how much more relatable can this guy be?

“You keep putting yourself in these positions, like eventually you're going to tick one off,” he said after the round, still wet from the rain, still glowing with victory, the U.S. Open trophy at his side. “I don't put myself in this position often, or at all, for a major, that's for sure. This is only my second U.S. Open. But all the close calls that I've had on the PGA Tour this year has just been really good experience to just never, never give up.”

Before Friday, Spaun had never made the cut in a U.S. Open. He’s never even played in the Open Championship. As recently as last summer, Spaun was considering giving up the game of golf entirely.

But he stuck around, keeping himself in position, waiting for the right opportunity. He seemed to have it all in front of him three months ago at the Players Championship, facing first a 30-foot birdie putt to win the tournament on Sunday and then a three-hole playoff on Monday. But he flew the Island Green on the second hole, losing to Rory McIlroy. Another frustration in a career full of them.

And then came this year’s U.S. Open, only the second one Spaun had ever played. He streaked out to an opening-round 66, posting one of only two bogey-free rounds in the entire 156-man field. That in itself was good news for him but not much concern to the rest of the field; the majors’ record books are littered with the names of Day 1 leaders who quickly faded into the pack.

Only … Spaun didn’t fade. Sure, Sam Burns put on a fiery putting exhibition and took the outright lead, but Spaun was just a single stroke back on both Friday and Saturday nights. Keep in the hunt, keep moving, keep close.

Spaun’s charmed Oakmont seemed to run out early on Sunday, when he posted five straight 5s and as +5 on the day after just six holes. He went out in 40, an atrocious first nine by any measure. 

Normally, a scorecard like that would have been the end of his hopes. But this wasn’t a normal tournament. This was a tournament that ground down ambitions, dreams, souls. This was a tournament that rewarded tenacity. This was a tournament that rained down a providential downpour exactly when Spaun needed it most.

The 96-minute rain delay hit right when Spaun was preparing to hit on the 9th tee. And he used it as an opportunity to reset his entire mindset.

“I thought it was a good thing having the delay,” he said. “My whole team, my coach, my caddie, they were like, Oh, dude, this is exactly what we need. And it was … I changed my outfit. I'm like, I'm done wearing those clothes. I just needed to reset everything, kind of like start the whole routine over.”

Spaun realized two facts: first, he hadn’t been playing all that badly. He’d gotten some phenomenally bad breaks on that front nine, hitting the flagstick on his approach to No. 2, and hitting a rake on No. 3. 

He also knew that the ragged conditions meant the leaders would slide back toward him. And sure enough, roughly an hour after the rain delay ended, the universe aligned.

“It felt like, as bad as things were going, I just still tried to just commit to every shot. I tried to just continue to dig deep. I've been doing it my whole life,” he said. “Fortunately, I dug very deep on the back nine, and things went my way, and here we are with the trophy.”

Burns bogeyed his 12th hole, dropping to +1 … where Adam Scott, Tyrrell Hatton, Carlos Ortiz and Spaun also stood. Just like that, Spaun had gone from being four strokes out to tied for the lead. And this time around, he made the most of the second (third? fifth?) chance he’d been given.

But nothing’s ever easy in a U.S. Open. Even as Burns and Scott were leaking oil behind him, Robert MacIntyre caught fire ahead of Spaun. MacIntyre birdied the 17th and parred the 18th, getting into the house at +1 and setting a clubhouse mark that looked like it might just hold up.

Spaun’s tee shot on 17 won’t make the highlight reels, but it set up the miracle putt. He drove the par-4 green, ending up 18 feet from the pin. 

Two strokes later, he was in with a birdie and a one-stroke lead over MacIntyre. All he had to do then was par the 18th.

Naturally, that was when the skies opened up again. Cold twilight rain fell as Spaun lashed his tee shot on the 18th 308 yards to the fairway, then punched up onto the green. You know what happened next.

Spaun’s 64-foot, 5-inch putt was the longest of any player on any hole this week, and it put him in select company: Spaun is now the fifth player to birdie the final two holes of the U.S. Open to win, joining Ben Hogan (1953), Jack Nicklaus (1980), Tom Watson (1982) and Jon Rahm (2021). That’s pretty rare air.

After officially clinching, Spaun embraced his wife and daughters, and laughingly ordered the members of his team to kiss the trophy. Later, reflecting on his journey to this point, he got contemplative.

“I wasn't really groomed to be a professional golfer. I didn't get put through academies. I didn't play the (American Junior Golf Association). I played local stuff,” he said. “I just kept going, like one foot in front of the other. Junior golf, college golf, turning pro, and now here I am with the U.S. Open trophy.”

More than that, he created one of golf’s instant, enduring highlights.

“Just to finish it off like that is just a dream. You watch other people do it. You see the Tiger chip (at Augusta in 2006), you see Nick Taylor's putt (an eagle to win the 2023 RBC Canadian Open), you see crazy moments,” he said. “To have my own moment like that at this championship, I'll never forget this moment for the rest of my life.”