OAKMONT, Pa. — During a less-than-fruitful 2024 season, J.J. Spaun wondered if he should call it a career if he failed to keep his PGA Tour card.
He could have called it a week Sunday when he bogeyed five of his first six holes at the U.S. Open, dropping behind several more accomplished golfers on the leaderboard before a 96-minute weather delay. In both cases, Spaun rejected the idea of quitting.
Then, amid a Pittsburgh summer storm, came the lightning strike.
Spaun sank an improbable 64 1/2-foot birdie putt at the 18th hole to cap his stunning first major victory, emerging from the pack in the wild, waterlogged final round of the U.S. Open on Sunday at Oakmont Country Club.
He finished the round birdie-birdie to card a 2-over 72 and finish the week 1-under-par 279, two shots better than Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre (final-round 68).
“I just felt like you keep putting yourself in these positions, like eventually you’re going to tick one off,” Spaun said. “… 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.”
Spaun, 34, had just one prior victory on the PGA Tour and never finished inside the top 20 at a major. His closest brush with glory came when he lost a playoff to Rory McIlroy at The Players Championship this past March.
Spaun shot 66 Thursday to take the early lead, hung around through Friday and Saturday and then won a war of attrition in horrid weather conditions. At one point down the final stretch, five players were tied for the lead at 1 over, and that group didn’t even include eventual runner-up MacIntyre.
At the 314-yard, par-4 17th hole, Spaun pumped a drive uphill that settled on the well-guarded green. He two-putted for birdie to take the outright lead.
Needing par at No. 18 to beat MacIntyre, Spaun landed his second shot on the far side of the green and got a read from playing partner Viktor Hovland of Norway, who putted first. Spaun drained the birdie and let the waterworks flow as the heavens poured on him.
“We kind of got a good line, a good read on the speed” from Hovland, Spaun said. “I was more focused on how hard he was hitting it. I kind of knew the line already, but it looked like he gave it a pretty good whack because it started raining there for the last 10, 15 minutes. …
“About eight feet out, I kind of went up to the high side to see if it had a chance of going in, and it was like going right in. I was just in shock, disbelief that it went in and it was over.”
Hovland (73) placed third at 2 over. Cameron Young (70), England’s Tyrrell Hatton (72) and Mexico’s Carlos Ortiz (73) tied for fourth at 3 over.
Sam Burns led Spaun and Australia’s Adam Scott by one stroke after 54 holes, but Burns and Scott came undone in the rain. Burns shot 40 on the back nine of an 8-over 78 to drop to 4 over, tied with Scottie Scheffler (70) and Spain’s Jon Rahm (67); Scott (79) posted 6 over.
Even before the adverse conditions set in Sunday afternoon, there was carnage throughout the final few pairings. The worst seemed to be reserved for Spaun, who bogeyed five of his first six holes and got an especially bad break at No. 2.
Spaun’s wedge shot into the green took one hop and bounced off the flagstick. The backspin kicked in and the ball rolled 40 yards down the front of the green as Spaun stared, bewildered.
“All I heard (from the crowd) is like a really loud like, ‘Oh!’ It wasn’t, like, a good one,” Spaun said. “… During the delay I went and watched (the replay) and it was just really unlucky. It was pretty much a two-shot swing. I was thinking that would have been pretty close, maybe inside of five feet, if it didn’t hit the flag.”
The rain gear had come out well before play was postponed at 4:01 p.m. And while Oakmont was devilishly difficult throughout the week, heavy rain made the back nine borderline unfair. The sloped fairway at No. 11 repelled most drives, and the rough, already 5 inches long, was even harder to escape.
Those elements combined to stymie Burns and Scott when they arrived at the 11th in first and second place, respectively. Scott needed two hacks to get out of the greenside rough, while it took four strokes for Burns to get his ball to stay on the green.
Scott chased in a long bogey putt with a triumphant fist pump before Burns tapped in for double. Then Burns’ par putt at No. 12 lipped out, creating a five-way tie at 1 over: Burns, Scott, Spaun, Ortiz and Hatton.
One by one, their names dropped down the board. Scott went bogey-bogey-double at Nos. 14-16, Ortiz doubled No. 15 and Burns had another implosion at the same hole.
Burns argued unsuccessfully for a free drop out of a water-filled divot in the fairway, hit a poor second shot from there into the rough and wound up making double bogey.
“When I walked into it, clearly you could see water coming up,” Burns said. “Took practice swings and it’s just water splashing every single time. Called a rules official over, they disagreed. I looked at it again. I thought maybe I should get a second opinion. That rules official also disagreed. At the end of the day, it’s not up to me, it’s up to the rules official.”
MacIntyre, meanwhile, got an 8-foot putt to fall at No. 14 to creep up to 2 over and then chipped his second shot at No. 17 to 4 feet for his final birdie. He two-putted for par at the last to get in the clubhouse at 1-over 281.
“My previous rain delay comebacks haven’t been strong. Today was a day that I said to myself, ‘Why not? Why not it be me today?’” MacIntyre said before heading off to watch the conclusion of the round.
NBC’s cameras caught MacIntyre in the clubhouse watching Spaun’s final putt on TV and applauding his competitor.
Hovland, the 2023 FedEx Cup champion, fell off the pace with four front-nine bogeys but managed to play the back nine even par. He finished top-five at a major for the fourth year in a row, but he still seeks his first victory.
“After (Spaun’s) start, it just looked like he was out of it immediately,” Hovland said. “Everyone came back to the pack. I wasn’t expecting that, really. I thought I had to shoot maybe 3 under par today to have a good chance, but obviously the conditions got really, really tough, and this golf course is just a beast.”
Hovland added that Spaun’s putt at No. 18 was “just absolutely filthy.” Spaun had to agree.
“You watch other people do it,” Spaun said. “You see the Tiger chip, you see Nick Taylor’s putt (at the 2023 Canadian Open), you see crazy moments. To have my own moment like that at this championship, I’ll never forget this moment for the rest of my life.”
–Adam Zielonka, Field Level Media
