Golf: It took a long road of hard work for J.J. Spaun to become U.S. Open champion

OAKMONT, Pa. — J.J. Spaun faced his first big moment on a big stage in golf and he wasn't ready for it. He didn't even have a club in his hand. Spaun was a 26-year-old PGA Tour rookie at Torrey Pines in 2017. He was not eligible for the pro-am and wanted to see the North course when he came across an enormous crowd that could mean only one thing: Tiger Woods. He was walking along the edge of the fairway when Amy Bartlett, a Nike representative, spotted him and offered a chance to meet Woods. Spaun shook his head and took a step back. Bartlett laughed and dragged him over. "I was too scared," Spaun said a few weeks later. "I didn't want to bug him." Woods was gracious, as he often was with young players. For Spaun to imagine then that their names would be on the same piece of hardware — a silver U.S. Open trophy — would have been hard to fathom. "I never thought I would be here holding this trophy," he said in the Sunday twilight at soaked Oakmont during the trophy presentation. "I always had aspirations and dreams. I never knew what my ceiling was." Spaun isn't quite an out-of-nowhere winner that majors can produce — think Shaun Micheel at the 2003 PGA Championship for his first PGA Tour title or Jack Fleck taking down the great Ben Hogan in a U.S. Open playoff at Olympic Club in 1955. He feared losing his PGA Tour card last summer and fell to No. 119 in the world at the end of 2024. But he had a close call at the Sony Open in January and was one turn of the golf ball away from winning The Players Championship, instead losing in a playoff to Rory McIlroy. More than being on the rebound, Spaun was having a good year, already up to No. 25 in the world ranking. A new ceiling. And then he shattered it. In March, Spaun was in the interview room after his playoff loss when he looked up at a television and saw for the first time his tee shot on the island-green 17th at the TPC Sawgrass that didn't quite reach land. "It's floating," he said as he watched the golf ball in the air. Far more fun was looking up in the scoring room at Oakmont for his first look at the 65-foot birdie putt on the 18th that capped off a wet-and-wild finish to the 125th U.S. Open. Equally memorable, if not more important, was standing on the tee at the 314-yard 17th hole, remembering the cut driver he hit during the practice round and envisioning a repeat, which is what he delivered. The drive settled 18 feet behind the hole for a two-putt birdie that gave him the lead and ultimately made him a major champion. Where he goes from here is less interesting than how Spaun reached this point. He didn't have the easiest path. He just worked as hard as anyone. And he always kept going. In his second year playing on the Canadian Tour, Spaun missed the cut in all but one of his seven tournaments. The next year he won, getting him to the Korn Ferry Tour, and then getting him to the PGA Tour. "I think it's just perseverance. 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," he said. "I've had slumps at every level. I went back and said: 'You've done this before. You've been down before. You got out of it.' "There's a little pattern, so hopefully I don't do that pattern again." No one should rush to anoint Spaun the next star. Sure, he is the eighth of the 10 players who won the U.S. Open at Oakmont for their first major. That list includes Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller, Ernie Els and Dustin Johnson. Spaun doesn't fit that profile, in age or pedigree. He had only one PGA Tour title in his eight previous years on tour. The latest U.S. Open champion at Oakmont is a 34-year-old Californian who gave up on skateboarding only when he realized he couldn't make a living. But he is more about Pittsburgh grit than California chill. Spaun, whose heritage from his mother's side is Filipino and Mexican, was asked as a rookie if being a minority in golf was more about the bank account or the color of his skin. "It would probably be money," he said. "We didn't have the means to play the AJGA (American Junior Golf Association). That was like playing a professional schedule. You had to pay to fly to tournaments, pay for the tournaments. My parents would have to take time off from work, another flight, another hotel room." He feels fortunate to have leaned on the Southern California Junior Golf Association, among the best. He starred at San Dimas High School east of Los Angeles. He wasn't heavily recruited and walked on at San Diego State and worked his way up to a 70 percent scholarship. "I had to fight through it and be tough," Spaun said. "My dad always instilled in me to work hard and let golf do the talking, to make my own luck." The reward was enormous, greater than the $4.3 million he won at the U.S. Open, more than he had earned in any season on the PGA Tour. Spaun moved to No. 8 in the world. The victory moved him to No. 3 in the Ryder Cup standings, and it would be hard to imagine him not being at Bethpage Black at the end of September. Most telling is what Spaun said about his future as a rookie. He loved skateboarding, but he always felt there was something special in his future with golf. "Maybe it's helping younger kids," he said in 2017. "Golf is going to help me reach a broader moment. And I'm waiting for that moment to come. I don't know what it is yet." J.J. Spaun, U.S. Open champion. How's that? Doug Ferguson is national golf writer for The Associated Press.