JJ Spaun never stopped believing. Not when he started the final round of this 125th US Open here at Oakmont Country Club as if going out of his way to trip himself up, dropping five shots in his opening six holes; nor when others seemed out of reach.
No, when it mattered, Spaun – securing a breakthrough Major win – did so in sensational fashion with his unorthodox putter working as if like a magic wand, finishing with a 65-feet birdie putt on the 18th green for a closing 72 for one-under-par 279 that gave him a two strokes winning margin over Scotland’s Bob MacIntrye.
This was a miserable old day, with a weather front arriving to make the gnarly rough wetter and even tougher from which to extricate recovery shots, but Spaun – who’d appeared to have lost his way with a disastrous start that went bogey-bogey-bogey-par-bogey-bogey for his opening six holes – somehow recovered from a front nine of 40 strokes to come home in 32 to claim the $4.3 million winner’s cheque and the biggest win of his career.
In a war of attrition, on a golf course sodden, Spaun, the world number 25, was the last man standing and deservedly so. He was the only player in the field to finish under par.
Others will rue what might have been.
In fairness to MacIntyre, he could hardly have done much more. A third round 69 on Saturday as followed by a closing 68 for 281 to claim the clubhouse lead and he sat in the score recorder’s watching and waiting, sportingly applauding Spaun’s final putt which brought a mighty roar from all assembled around the 18th green and tears to the winner’s eyes.
But Tyrrell Hatton, Adam Scott and Sam Burns will reflect and rue. Burns, especially. He carried the 54 holes lead into the final round but suffered a nightmarish homeward run which included two double-bogeys – at the 11th and again at the 15th, where he was denied casual water relief on the fairway – as he closed with a 78 for 284, in tied-seventh alongside Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler.
“When I walked into it, clearly you could see water coming up. 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. That’s kind of that,” said Burns.
Scott, the main challenger to Burns at the start of the final round, came home in 41 for a 79 for 286 to fall down to tied-12th and cut a figure as miserable as the weather on finishing his round.
The winning and the losing of the title came on a homeward run, with those main contenders affected by the more than an hour and a half weather delay – which required the course, fairways and greens, to be squeegeed – and, while many struggled on their return, Spaun and MacIntyre proved the exceptions.
Spaun’s putter, though, proved his mighty weapon.
On the 12th, he rolled in a 40 footer for birdie. On the 14th, he rattled in a 22 footer. And, on the 18th, most audaciously of all, Spaun – whose only previous win on the PGA Tour came in the 2022 Valero Texas Open – emerged from under the umbrella held by his caddie to roll in a 65 footer to seal the deal. His unorthodox looking L.A.B. DF3 putter proved priceless.
The win for Spaun, a 34-year-old Californian of Mexican and Filipino heritage, was emotional, the tears freely flowing before Viktor Hovland – who’d given him a great read on his final putt – rolled in his par putt for a 73 for 282 that gave the Norwegian solo third.
“That was unbelievable. After his start, it just looked like he was out of it immediately. Everyone came back to the pack. I wasn’t expecting that really. But obviously the conditions got really, really tough, and this golf course is just a beast,” said Hovland, adding:
“Yeah, to watch (Spaun) hole the putt on 12 down the hill there was unreal; and then he makes another one on 14 that was straight down the hill, and then the one on 18, it’s just absolutely filthy there.”
