As J.J. Spaun stood over his 64-foot putt to win the 125th U.S. Open, he admitted he wasn’t sure how many strokes that he needed to win.
The 34-year-old started the final round by bogeying five of the first six holes, and was all but written off from contention until an hour and 40-minute delay triggered mayhem at Oakmont Country Club.
The final pairing of Sam Burns and Adam Scott had fallen to the wrong side of par, and Spaun sat on the 17th tee needing to play his final holes 1-under.
After birdying the 17th, a par on the 72nd hole of the 125th U.S. Open would clinch his first career major victory.
“I didn’t look at the scoreboard,” Spaun said at the post-round press conference. “I knew based off of like what the crowd was saying that I felt like, if I two-putted, I would probably win, but I didn’t want to look because I wanted to still — I didn’t want to play defensive.”
A two-putt would have secured the championship, but the soaked Oakmont crowd erupted as the 64-footer fell, and the improbable 2-over 72 after shooting 40 on the front nine secured just his second PGA Tour victory.
“I couldn’t even believe what I witnessed when that went in, kind of like a Nick Taylor moment but for the U.S. Open.”
That signature Taylor moment he is referencing, now enshrined as the RBC Canadian Open’s logo, was the historic 72-foot marathon putt the Canadian sank to become the first countryman to capture the event in 69 years.
Spaun, born in Los Angeles, turned pro in 2012 and played eight tournaments on the PGA Tour Canada (now PGA Tour Americas) circuit in 2013, and has been a regular on the PGA Tour since 2016.
He had just one victory in 235 PGA events heading into Sunday, along with a heartbreaking playoff loss to Rory McIlroy at the 2025 Players Championship.
“It just, it felt like, as bad as things were going, I just still tried to just commit to every shot. I tried to just continue to dig deep. I’ve been doing it my whole life.”
Like Taylor’s putt, Spaun’s ended a long drought filled with effort and sacrifice, and also brought an entire country to its feet.
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