Victories do not get more dramatic than that. One shot away from the lead, JJ Spaun started his last round with 5 bogeys in six holes. This was after he was up at 3 AM, visiting the local CVS after his daughter Violet caught the stomach bug and was vomiting incessantly during the night. “Today I was running to CVS in downtown because my daughter had a stomach bug and was vomiting all night long. I was just like, okay, my wife was up at 3:00 a.m., and she’s like, Violet is vomiting all over. She can’t keep anything down.” Spaun explained what happened after his tumultuous 72 rounds of golf.
“It was kind of a rough start to the morning. I’m not blaming that on my start, but it kind of fit the mold of what was going on, the chaos.” Spaun further added. After the bogey-filled start, it was the weather that came to spoil his bid for a major title. He had to battle through a rainstorm and suspension of play at what was one of the toughest courses in the country. And then finally, he had to two-putt from 65 feet to clinch the coveted major title. He did it with one amazing putt that was just extraordinary. It careened at least a foot to the left before coming up and going inside the hole like it was meant to be. What a boss move!
Viktor Hovland helps out JJ Spaun
If there is anyone Spuan should thank for helping make the putt, it would be Viktor Hovland. “Viktor helped me a lot. It was a foot left of my line. It’s
pretty ironic, my first PGA TOUR win, almost the same thing happened at the Valero.” Spaun recalled post his victory at Oakmont. Hovland and Spaun were part of the same tee group to start day 4. The Norwegian was at one under par while Spaun was two strokes ahead at two. At the 18th hole, Hovland found the green at nearly 70ft from the hole, a spot similar to Spaun’s. He took the first shot, which followed a similar arc to Spaun’s but missed slightly to the right.
Spaun, to his credit, observed the shot carefully and made adjustments that were required from his side before walking coolly to his ball and hitting the winning putt. “Viktor, we kind of got a good line, a good read on the speed. 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. I just tried to pick my line and put a good stroke on it. I knew it was going to be a little slow.” Spaun explained how he went about his winning putt.
This angle of JJ Spaun’s U.S. Open winning putt.
SO SICK. pic.twitter.com/KnaXNh577L
— Fore Play (@ForePlayPod) June 16, 2025
This victory would come as deliverance for the American golfer, as he has had some really close calls this year on the PGA Tour.
Spaun’s 2025 PGA Tour rollercoaster
“I just felt like you keep putting yourself in these positions, like eventually you’re going to tick one off. This isn’t — 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.” The golfer explained.
His closest call this season came at the ‘fifth major’, the PLAYERS Championship. His fight for the title ended up with a playoff face-off with the Northern Irish phenom Rory McIlroy. Spaun could not handle the pressure of the three-hole playoff, leading to McIlroy taking home the bragging rights at TPC Sawgrass. This was after he finished T2 at the Cognizant Classic and T3 at the Sony Open in Hawaii. To his credit, Spaun did not let these close losses affect him in the slightest at the tight affair that was the U.S. Open.
What do you think of Spaun’s victory at the treacherous Oakmont Country Club against all possible odds?
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