U.S. Open 2025: The 96 minutes that turned J.J. Spaun from journeyman to major champion

OAKMONT, Pa. — There are no time outs in golf. But there are rain delays. And the one that created the unforeseen intermission in the final round of the U.S. Open proved exactly what J.J. Spaun needed on a Sunday afternoon that ended in glory but looked for long while like it would be another lost opportunity in the 34-year-old journeyman’s golf career.

When the horn blew at 4:01 p.m., stopping play after heavy rain had drenched Oakmont Country Club, Spaun had just finished the eighth hole, five over par on the round after making five bogeys on his first six holes. He was four shots back of leader Sam Burns, and visibly frustrated.

When he returned to the ninth tee for the 5:37 p.m. restart, however, Spaun was a changed man. Literally, taking the time to swap out his wet threads with a whole new outfit.

“I'm like, I'm done wearing those clothes. I just needed to reset everything, kind of like start the whole routine over,” Spaun said.

It wasn’t just his wardrobe that needed a makeover. Spaun knew his attitude had to change if he was going to have any chance when play resumed.

“All I was thinking was—and even my whole team, my coach [Adam Schriber], my caddie [Mark Carens], they were like, ‘Oh, dude, this is exactly what we need.’ And it was. We went back out and capitalized on kind of [the reset].”

Through Spaun’s nine seasons on the PGA Tour, the Los Angeles area native had often been too tough on himself, expecting perfection when that just wasn’t possible. He had a PGA Tour win, the 2022 Valero Texas Open, but acknowledged he was scared to be in the lead, worried about being good enough to hold on.

By the time he hit that drive on the ninth hole, things immediately clicked. “I just flushed one, like a nice little cut up the left side. And I was like, ‘All right, we're back.’ I didn't hit too many bad shots after that.”

After three straight pars, he made four birdies on his last seven holes, rolling in 136 feet of putts including the 64-footer on the final hole to clinch the two shot win.

Spaun said what helped him was the fact he had gone through an even longer delay—four hours—during the final round of the Players Championship in March. That Sunday, he hung on to get into a tie with Rory McIlroy in regulation before falling in a Monday playoff. It wasn’t a victory, but it was a mental turning point.

Additionally, he spoke about something else he contemplated during the delay, a recent lunch he had with fellow PGA Tour pro Max Homa.

“We live in the same area. We belong at the same club,” Spaun said. “He was telling a Tiger story where he was like, 'as long as you just like are still there, you don't have to do anything crazy, especially at a U.S. Open.' He's like, Tiger said this would happen. The wind will switch, but you've got to just stay there. Even if you're four back, you've just got to stay there. You don't have to do anything crazy.

“I kind of was thinking about that out there this afternoon, where I was four back, maybe going back out after the delay, and then I made some good pars, nothing crazy. Got a really good birdie [22-footer on the 14th hole]. That just kind of goes back to that, like you just try to like stay there. You don't have to do anything crazy, especially at a U.S. Open. All those things came true."

Oddly, enough, Spaun also allowed himself the luxury of seeing what had gone wrong early in the round to help him course correct. He watched a replay of his second hole, in which his approach shot landed around a foot from the hole, only bang off the flag stick and roll clear back off the front of the green.

Spaun’s career almost ended a year ago. Last June, he was outside the top 125 on the FedEx Cup points list and keeping his PGA Tour card becoming an uncertainty. He had conversations with his family about stepping away, hopeful he’d made enough money to retire. But he wasn’t going to do that without putting up another fight.

Sure enough he grinded things out the rest of the summer and finished No. 102 on the points list. Even so, it wasn’t until watching the movie “Wimbledon,” during a vacation flight in December that he knew his playing days weren’t over yet. The plot: an aging tennis pro is set to retire from the game but not until he makes one final start at Wimbledon, where he low and behold wins the title.

Spaun, meanwhile, had close calls at the Sony Open (T-3), Cognizant Classic (T-2) and Players (playoff loss), each offering him a boost of confidence.

So what had Spaun learned? “I think it's just perseverance,” he said. “I've always kind of battled through whatever it may be to kind of get to where I needed to be and get to what I wanted. I've done this before. I've had slumps kind of at every level. I've always kind of, I went back and said, You've done this before. You've been down before. You got out of it. There's kind of like a little pattern, so hopefully I don't do that pattern again.”

Spaun's birdie/birdie finish made sure of that. He's the only player who broke par for 72 holes. "Yeah, it's definitely like a storybook fairytale ending, kind of underdog fighting back, not giving up, never quitting. With the rain and everything and then the putt, I mean, you couldn't write a better story. I'm just so fortunate to be on the receiving end of that.