I’m back from vacation and ready to dive into the proverbial US Open recap. The US Open at Oakmont offered a brutal test that not only challenged players games, it challenged their stamina, patience and mental fortitude. It takes professional golfers to places they rarely experience. And Oakmont is the template for the ultimate challenge a US Open should offer.
A lot of things occurred during this US Open. Scottie Scheffler arrived as the favorite. Rory McIlroy started to briefly speak to the media again. Windham Clark threw and epic temper tantrum. Clubs were tossed, thrown and slammed by a multitude of players. Scheffler appeared visibly frustrated on the range as he worked with his longtime coach.
And one man persevered through all of the challenges, bad breaks and weather to emerge as champion. JJ Spaun is a US Open champion. If anyone placed a bet on him to win, they are loving life nearly as much as JJ is right now.
Scheffler arrived as the favorite. The best player in the world just won the PGA Championship. He finished T-7 at 4 over par. A balky putter, the one big weakness in his game, cost him a shot at the championship. Too many missed putts over the four days cost him. And too many missed short putts on Sunday prevented him from making a charge up the leaderboard to put pressure on the contenders.
Rory started speaking to the media…briefly. He informed them his recent unwillingness to speak with them is because of…them. He was unhappy about the leak of his driver failing testing. Perhaps he should be more upset with whoever leaked it to the press.
He did say something interesting though. He spoke about everyone has an Everest they need to climb. When he won The Masters, he climbed his Everest. He’s come down off the mountain now and needs to find a new mountain to climb. He felt it is The Open Championship at Royal Portrush. Time will tell.
Wyndham Clark is becoming the bad boy of golf. He recently threw a club through a sponsor sign nearly hitting a volunteer. He threw and slammed clubs at Oakmont, although he wasn’t alone. Rory smashed a tee marked to pieces. Terrell Hatton slammed clubs into the ground as usual. But Clark went beyond well beyond.
The damage pictured above to lockers in the Oakmont locker room are attributed to Clark. This is unacceptable. If true, he needs to face serious consequences for his conduct.
What can I say about JJ Spaun? He is the ultimate grinder. Lightly recruited at the collegiate level, Spaun played at San Diego State as a walk-on and earned 3rd team All-American status in 2011, and 2nd team All-American status in 2012.
Following graduation, Spaun turned professional and joined the PGA Tour Canada for three years. In 2014, he missed six of seven cuts and lost his card. After regaining his card through Q-school, he set a record for season earnings on the PGA Tour Canada and won the Order of Merit which graduated him to the Web.com Tour (Korn Ferry Tour).
With a win in 2016 on the Web.com Tour, Spaun earned his PGA Tour card. He lost his card in the 2020-2021 season after finishing 174th in the FedEx Cup and dropping outside the top 500 in the world rankings but regained his card with a victory on the Korn Ferry Tour at the ‘21 Albertsons Boise Open.
In ‘22, Spaun won his only PGA Tour event with a victory at the Valero Texas Open.
By the time the ‘24 season was well underway, Spaun was struggling with his game and in danger of losing his card. He was playing so poorly, he contemplated quitting if he lost his card.
Spaun managed to keep his card, recommitted himself and is now a US Open champion. An amazing story of perseverance and grit. Congratulations, JJ. You earned it.
As always, be grateful when you play. Be thankful for the privilege and opportunity to play this amazing game. Now, go golf!
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Go Golf to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.