How J.J. Spaun rescued the U.S. Open
Plus, a case for Viktor Hovland as your new favourite player
J.J. Spaun is the U.S. Open champion at Oakmont.
That… is not a sentence I expected to be writing this Monday. Yet here we are, with the guy who was ranked 164th one year ago claiming his first career major, almost out of nowhere.
We dive into Spaun and other storylines here:
The leading edge
By Myles
At one point late on Sunday afternoon, or perhaps early into the evening, the winner of the U.S. Open seemed likely to be a survivor.
Someone would find enough decent lies in the rough and make fewer bogeys than the rest en route to capturing the major championship.
It was starting to feel random — like whoever got the best bounces would emerge victorious at a course viewed as one of the hardest in golf.
At that point — maybe during the peak of the could Carlos Ortiz win? scare — I turned to Nate and said someone needs to hit a shot to win the U.S. Open.
It’s the type of analysis that, if you think too hard about, is extremely dumb. Like, no shit.
But amid a weak leaderboard, a momentum-killing weather delay and a flailing broadcast, this tournament needed its moment.
And then J.J. Spaun stepped to 17 tee and hit the best shot of the day, a drive right on the flagstick of the driveable par-4. Two putts later, he was your solo leader at even-par.
Finally this tournament had some juice — even if it felt like Manischewitz grape juice, it was something.
Then, the spotlight was on Spaun. We’d seen multiple players miss the 18th fairway and get punished with forced pitch-outs leading to bogey, a fate that had befallen Spaun the previous two days.
But he striped it down the middle. After a mediocre iron to 64 feet, he needed two putts to survive the U.S. Open and emerge victorious.
Instead, he went out and won it, authoring his Nick Taylor moment with a bomb of a putt to clinch his national open. Like Taylor, he sent his putter soaring into the night.
And just like that, we had our U.S. Open Champion. Capital C.
Spaun wasn’t the guy either of us was pulling for entering Sunday’s final round. My personal power rankings probably left him behind Adam Scott, Viktor Hovland and a handful of others.
But it was hard not to be happy for the guy when the putt went in and his daughters ran out to greet him.
You may remember Spaun from the Players Championship, when he had to return for a Monday playoff only to soak his ball on 17 and get trounced by Rory McIlroy.
You probably haven’t heard from him since — I certainly didn’t.
But Spaun kept plugging away, even changing his swing coach amid what had already been the best season of his career.
He is a relatable winner — one that was lowly touted, fought his way through locals and was up at 3 a.m. the night prior dealing with a sick child.
Oakmont, at least for me, did not provide the stern test we were promised. It was certainly hard — Spaun being the only player to break par proves that — but it just wasn’t all that interesting, nor did I feel it rewarded the best players.
It just all felt kinda fluky, with your lie in the rough determining your fate and your putting on those slippery greens sealing it.
But Spaun saved the championship on those last two holes. He didn’t just survive Oakmont — he won it.
The false front
By Nate
If you’re looking for someone to root for, Viktor Hovland is your guy. Hovland didn’t come out of thin air to compete at the U.S. Open, and you may already have an affinity to the baby-faced Norwegian, but I’m telling you, he’s a star in the making rising.
At the Valspar Championship in March, Hovland stumbled into a win while admitting to hitting “disgusting shots.” As in — hitting disgustingly terrible shots and still winning a PGA Tour event.
But comments like that are standard for Hovland, who frequently lets us into his deep, complex and weird thoughts — even if they are about UFOs. For all the same reasons we love(d) Rory for being vulnerable with the media and Spieth for effectively live-streaming his swing thoughts, Hovland creates the same magnetism.
Aside from some questionable J. Lindeberg fits, everything about Hovland feels innocent and natural. This became even more true after listening to his thoughts before playing in the penultimate group on Sunday.
“We would all like to win, that’s why we practice so hard… But there’s also like a deep passion in me that I want to hit the shots. Like I want to stand up on the tee and hit the shots that I’m envisioning.”
Maybe Hovland doesn’t just dream about adding more hardware to his already successful trophy case — he just wants to maximize his talent and see where it takes him.
While the stars didn’t align for a U.S. Open Viktory, I’m now all the way in on Hovland’s pure quest to find his game and stumble into more success.
You should be, too.
Links roundup
Not sure why it took so long, but it looks like PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, is going to be relieved of his duties as early as year-end
Remember that Full Swing episode about Wyndham Clark finding his peace? No? Well, he doesn’t either
The Sam Burns ruling on 15 was genuinely fascinating, and I truly can’t decide where I stand between it cost him the tournament and play better
Swing thoughts
By Nate
Stop going to the range.
Yaya, I get what everyone says… “you can’t expect to play well if you don’t practice.”
Well to that I say, BULLSHIT.
I hit the range 45 mins before my tee time on the weekend and found nothing outside of a new ability to hit skull-shanks over and over.
As the pros always say — a bad range session typically leads to a good round. So after feeling loose and limber, I took that thought to the first tee where I hooked one right into the trees and struggled to put together any form on the course.
Bad range session, bad round.
And then it got worse… I woke up the next day with pain in my abs and hips and was forced to buy a Theragun. I think I hit too many balls.
It’s clear: range sessions lead to bad golf and physical pain.
Ok, bye.