The ifs, buts and maybes accompanied many players on departing Oakmont Country Club, where the 125th US Open – won by JJ Spaun, the only player to post a sub-par total for the championship – lived up to its reputation as the toughest and most challenging of all the Majors, even if it left a question mark of bordering on being unfair.
Spaun’s impressive win, in which he showed great fortitude in recovering from a nightmare start to navigate a route to finishing in dreamland was, indeed fantastical. As he put it himself, “it’s definitely like a storybook, fairytale ending, kind of underdog fighting back, not giving up, never quitting.”
As is the way with professional golf, one week merges into another, and Spaun’s celebratory time will be limited in moving on to The Travelers at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut – one of the PGA Tour’s $20 million purse signature events – for an altogether different kind of challenge. Where Oakmont was a battle from start to finish, River Highlands will likely be a birdie fest. When Scottie Scheffler won there last year, his winning total was 22-under-par.
The two Irish players who left Oakmont also headed on to Connecticut, even if Shane Lowry – who suffered a missed cut in a disappointing performance – had the weekend off to contemplate how the weeks will be ahead of returning to Royal Portrush for the 153rd Open next month.
“I’ve been doing well this year and felt great coming in. That’s what this game does to you. It’s been a strange sort of year. I have been having some great results but very rarely feeling satisfied with myself. It’s back to the drawing board,” said Lowry who, you suspect, is looking forward to the few weeks at home in Ireland with his family to recharge and recalibrate.
As he reminded us: “I haven’t been home since Christmas.”
For a homebird like Lowry, that’s too long.
For Rory McIlroy, whose final round 67 lifted him to a tied-19th finish, there was also a sense after his round that, some two months on from his Masters win where he completed the career Grand Slam, he had finally found clarity in moving on and setting new challenges. His remarks about having climbed his Everest were, in their own way, a sign that he was ready to get climbing again in setting new golfing ambitions.
That may or may not come as soon as The Travelers this week, but more likely when he returns to Northern Ireland for the Open at Portrush where there remains some unfinished business after the disappointment of a missed cut in 2019.
“I didn’t realise how emotional I was going to be at Portrush. I think that was a thing I was unprepared for more than anything else [in 2019]. I remember I hit a shot into 12 or 13 on Friday night, obviously trying to make the cut. I remember the roar I got when the ball hit the green, and I felt like I was about to burst into tears. Just that support and that love from your own people. So I was unprepared for that. I need to just get myself in the right frame of mind to feel those feelings again,” acknowledged McIlroy.
McIlroy’s post-Travelers and pre-Open days and weeks will involve finally seeing the finished article at the family’s new house near Wentworth in Virginia Water in England, a visit to Wimbledon and competing in the Scottish Open.
The US Open’s results also saw some significant movement in the Europe Ryder Cup table. McIlroy, of course, remains firmly at the top of the standings but Tyrrell Hatton’s tied-fourth place finish saw the Englishman move up three places to second with Lowry dropping one place to third. Scotland’s Bob MacIntyre’s runner-up finish to Spaun saw him jump from 11th to fourth.
Spaun, for his part, moved from 13th to third in the United States team rankings and would appear set to make his Ryder Cup debut at Bethpage.
“I just felt like you keep putting yourself in these positions, like eventually you’re going to tick one off. I don’t put myself in this position often, or at all, for a Major, that’s for sure. This is only my second US 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,” recalled Spaun – who’d three top-5s, including a runner-up finish to McIlroy at The Players – of persevering to finally lay claim to the biggest win of his career, which moved him to seventh in the world rankings.
