Scottie Scheffler hovered at the US Open. Jon Rahm surged. It just wasn't enough for either
Associated Press
OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm fought to find their form at the U.S. Open. Neither managed to do so long enough to surge into contention on the weekend.
Neither, however, is complaining after taking different paths to a tie for seventh behind winner J.J. Spaun.
The top-ranked Scheffler made 'silly mistakes' over the first two rounds but posted even-par 70s on both Saturday and Sunday. If not for another roll or two on a couple of putts or a poor tee shot on 18 Sunday that led to a closing bogey, Scheffler believes he might have inched a bit higher up the leaderboard.
'If I had four days like I did today, I think it would have been a different story,' Scheffler said. 'I was playing kind of behind the 8-ball most of the week (by) hitting the ball in the rough. Overall, proud of how I battled, gave myself a chance, but ultimately didn't have enough.'
There is little Scheffler hasn't accomplished during his three-year run atop the sport. Figuring the U.S. Open out is one of them. He hasn't broken par in each of his last nine rounds at the national championship, dating back to the final round at Los Angeles Country Club in 2023.
Rahm, who was near the top of the leaderboard on Thursday after opening with a 1-under 69 before following it up by going a combined 8-over on Friday and Saturday, closed with three straight birdies to close the final round. His 3-under 67 tied with Rory McIlroy for the best round of the day.
The 2021 U.S. Open champion also had the luxury of finishing before rain stopped play for more than 90 minutes. Rahm's 4-over total held up for quite a while. How long? He was still hanging around outside the locker room with his golf bag when Spaun finally seized the tournament some five-plus hours after Rahm had walked off 18.
'It's crazy because it doesn't feel like I played that different (than) every other round,' Rahm said. Y es, a 301-yard par 3
Rahm had a great strategy for playing the longest par 3 in major championship history.
'You most likely take a head cover off one of your clubs and hope it goes straight,' he said.
Indeed, there was nothing to be ashamed of using a wood to conquer the 301-yard eighth hole at Oakmont — a monster of a hole on a monster of a course.
The USGA set the distance at exactly 301 yards for Sunday's final round; that was one yard longer than the previous record of 300, also set by No. 8 at the 2007 Open won by Angel Cabrera.
It has been hard to find many fans of the uber-long par 3s.
Even Jack Nicklaus, who won at Oakmont in 1962, before No. 8 turned into quite the monster it is today, said tongue-in-cheek, 'I haven't played it since they lengthened it to be a short par 5.'
Whatever Rahm did was working. He played No. 8 at even par over the four days; that included a birdie Saturday.
With about half the field through No. 8 on Sunday, the hole was the third hardest of the tournament, playing nearly a half stroke above par. Punching their tickets
Cameron Young had to birdie his last two holes and win a playoff in qualifying just to reach this U.S. Open. That won't be necessary next year after Young finished tied for fourth at 3 over, assuring him of a spot in the field next June at Shinnecock.
Everyone inside the top 10 automatically earned a return trip next year, a group that included Carlos Ortiz. Ortiz also tied for fourth, earning him a Masters spot next April. As a member of LIV Golf, Ortiz would be unlikely to make it to Augusta any other way.
'A really great week,' Ortiz said. 'Obviously, when you have a chance, you really want to take advantage of it. I feel like I played good enough. I just made a few mistakes that cost me. Overall pretty proud.' Hasting's game
Justin Hastings made a bit of history by capturing low amateur honors. The 21-year-old became the first player from the Cayman Islands — a self-governing British Overseas Territory located in the Caribbean about 275 miles south of Havana, Cuba — to take home one of the biggest prizes in amateur golf.
Hastings, who earned his way into the tournament by winning the Latin American Amateur Championship in Argentina in January, was the only amateur to reach the weekend and finished his four days at Oakmont with a total of 15-over 295.
Heady territory for a player whose home country has all of 27 holes of golf. It also served as another confidence boost two months after he fired a respectable even-par 72 during the second round at the Masters, where he missed the cut by just two shots.
'I think (it) just reaffirmed that, when I have my golf game, I can kind of compete out here," he said.
Hastings had planned to turn pro after finishing up his senior year at San Diego State this spring. His Latin Am victory changed those plans. Next up, is a trip to Royal Portrush next month to play in the British Open, he's also locked into a spot in the U.S. Amateur if he wants.
'Obviously, the easy answer is we want to get on the PGA Tour as soon as possible,' he said. 'My coaches like to say that good golf takes care of all that, so we're going to focus on playing as well as we can, and when we get opportunities the next few months, hopefully we can take advantage of it.' Schauffele ties Snead
Xander Schauffele tied for 12th at 6 over, giving him a ninth straight U.S. Open finish inside the top 15, matching Sam Snead's run from 1947-55.
The only players with longer streaks of coming in 15th or higher since 1920 are Jack Nicklaus (12 straight), Ben Hogan (12) and Bobby Jones (11).
Schauffele needed a final-round 69 to pull into a tie with Brooks Koepka and Chris Kirk. Playing to the crowd
Philp Barbaree finished his second U.S. Open start with a fashionable flourish.
The 26-year-old, the 2015 U.S. Junior Amateur champion whose wife Chloe doubles as his caddie, made the cut on the number early Saturday morning. While Oakmont pushed him around over the weekend, it hardly seemed to get to him.
Barbaree traded the pink pullover he wore for most of his final round for a Pittsburgh Pirates jersey with the No. 25 and his last name on it on the 18th green, and the gallery roared when he tapped in for par to finish up a 12-over 82.
While Barbaree doesn't have any ties to Pittsburgh, another LSU alum does: Pirates ace and LSU graduate Paul Skenes.
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AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson, AP National Writer Eddie Pells and AP Sports Writer Noah Trister contributed to this report.
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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
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Associated Press
10 minutes ago
- Associated Press
US Open champion JJ Spaun turned a freefall into a title at rain-soaked Oakmont
OAKMONT, Pa. (AP) — Nobody backs their way into a U.S. Open title. J.J. Spaun wasn't about to be the first to say he did. On a day built for umbrellas, panchos and industrial-sized squeegees, Spaun reversed his own freefall, took advantage of several others' and hit two shots that turned him into a major champion while finally, mercifully, creating a moment to remember at the rain-soaked brute called Oakmont. 'I just tried to dig deep,' said the 34-year-old Californian who can now call himself a major champion. 'I've been doing it my whole life.' The shots that will go down in history are the drive he hit on the reachable par-4 17th and the 65-foot putt he sank with the sun going down and the rain falling on 18. The first set up a birdie that put him in the lead by himself for good. The second was for emphasis — he only needed a two-putt, after all — that ensured this U.S. Open would finish with one — and only one — player under par. The 65 footer, the longest of any putt made all tournament, closed out a back nine 32 and left Spaun at 1-under 279 for the tournament. His 72 was the highest closing-round score for a U.S. Open winner in 15 years. But that wasn't Sunday's takeaway. Rather, it was the 401.5 feet worth of putts the champion made over four days. And the fact that Spaun joined none other than Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Jon Rahm as the fifth U.S. Open winner to finish birdie-birdie. 'I just felt like you keep putting yourself in these positions, like eventually you're going to tick one off,' said Spaun, whose loss in a playoff to Rory McIlroy three months ago at The Players Championship was his third top-three finish of 2025. But at the U.S. Open? In that kind of weather? None of it seemed possible when the rain started coming down during the tail end of a front-nine 40 that took Spaun from one shot back at the start of the day to four behind and fading fast. Coaches told him, 'Dude, just chill,' and Spaun did A 1-hour, 37-minute rain delay ensued. It was a break that changed everything. 'They were just like, 'Dude, just chill,'' Spaun said of the pep talk he got from his coaches. They suggested that, if earlier in the week, he'd been told he could be four shots back with nine holes to play, he would have jumped at the chance. 'They just said, 'Just let it come to you, be calm. Stop trying so hard,'' Spaun said. Staying calm resulted in making a downhill 40 footer on the par-5 12th for birdie, then a 22-foot birdie on 14 to take the lead by himself for the first time, at even par. Everywhere else, meltdowns in the rain. Third-round leader Sam Burns thinned a shot out of a divot and over the 11th green en route to the first of two back-nine double bogeys. He shot 40 on the back and finished tied for seventh. Adam Scott, the only major champion in the top 10 after Saturday's play, shot 41 in the rain on the back nine and dropped to 12th. 'I didn't adapt to those conditions well enough,' Scott said. Tyrell Hatton, who shot 72, briefly threatened and was part of a brief five-way deadlock for the lead before making bogey on the last two holes to finish tied for fourth. Robert MacIntyre turned out to be Spaun's most persistent challenger. The left-hander from Scotland faded his drive just short of the green on the way to birdie on 17 to get to 1 over and set the target for Spaun, who was playing three groups behind. MacIntyre was waiting in the locker room when Spaun hit his approach on 18 to 65 feet. Everyone knew it was no sure two-putt. Hardly anyone expected Spaun to get down in one. 'To watch him hole the putt on 12 down the hill there was unreal,' said Viktor Hovland, who played in the twosome with Spaun. 'And then he makes another one on 14 that was straight down the hill. And then the one on 18, it's just absolutely filthy there.' A sick kid and 'chaos' ends with a trophy When they close the book on Spaun's victory at this rainy U.S. Open, maybe the most telling story will be about the way his Father's Day began. As much as the front-nine 40, it had to do with the 3 a.m. trip to the drug store for his daughter, Violet, who Spaun said was 'vomiting all over.' 'It was kind of a rough start to the morning,' he said. 'I'm not blaming that on my start, but it kind of fit the mold of what was going on, the chaos.' Then, through all the rain, and through all those bad lies and bad breaks, Spaun brought some order to it all with a drive and a putt that landed him with the silver trophy and gold medal that go to U.S. Open winners. 'We all sacrifice so much to be here, and to see it come to fruition, that's why we do it,' said Spaun's coach, Adam Schriber. 'It's for these moments.' ___ AP golf:
New York Times
25 minutes ago
- New York Times
This was not Adam Scott's U.S. Open. Will the wait for his second major ever end?
OAKMONT, Pa. — With the day finally over and the week finally done, Adam Scott got to the Oakmont Country Club parking lot and began the process of realization that comes when any long wait is prolonged. These are the moments when the quotation marks fall away, when you hear the hard stuff. Scott stopped walking and started talking. Advertisement 'You know, when I won that Masters,' he said, looking around like a man in an empty room, 'I really thought, 'Here we go, the floodgates are going to open.'' That Masters, played in the spring of 2013, when Scott was 32 and let out a winning roar as photo flashes lit the green and rain fell from above, was 12 years, one month and 20 days ago. At the time, Augusta was going to be the starting point of the story that would determine his place among the greats in golf, and, well, he was sort of right. Except, instead of a career defined by major wins, it's been resembling some cruel Sisyphean endeavor. There's a reason this was everyone's sentimental pick on Sunday at this U.S. Open. What a story it'd be. The old guy. The wise one. The guy who put in his time and traveled the long road and stuck with it. The guy whose résumé has never quite matched a swing so smooth that it somehow overshadows his looks. Adam Scott, in the final pairing of his 24th career U.S. Open, in his 96th consecutive major tournament start, would be a fitting winner for a cathedral like Oakmont. So, what happened? Seventy-nine shots. Seventy-nine wicked, wet, woebegone shots. Each seemingly worse than the last. All over the course of a day seemingly as long as the wait that it took to get here. Scott arrived a little after noon on Sunday. He teed off alongside tournament leader Sam Burns at 2:15. He left the course at 4 amid a pounding rain, then went back to the practice range at 5, then to the eighth hole for a 5:40 restart. Before the delay, Scott liked where he stood. He opened with two bogeys in the opening three holes but got one back on the par-5 fourth before missing a 10-footer for par on No. 6. He was 2 over on the day but felt good about his form and was 1 under for the tournament and one shot out of the lead. He knew Oakmont would take its toll on everyone and believed he'd stay standing. 'I was absolutely feeling great,' he said afterward. 'No doubt.' He did until he didn't. After the stoppage of play, what had been a daring weeklong pas de deux between this U.S. Open's entrants and this wonderful old beast of a course devolved into a sopping-wet street fight of survival. Scott never found his way, pushing drive after drive down the right side. Every second shot he hit seemed to be played out of a bowl of soup. Bad shots combined with some bad breaks, and the Aussie came undone. He played the final 11 holes in 7 over par and finished in a six-way tie for 12th. His tournament essentially ended with back-to-back bogeys on holes 14 and 15, then a coffin-closing double on the 16th. Advertisement Coming up 18, Scott walked through the shockwave of J.J. Spaun's 64-foot winning putt, seeing it all play out a few hundred yards away. In the aftermath, he hit an approach, then set off on a long stroll that he undoubtedly imagined differently only a few hours earlier. A career coronation. A final validation. Instead, he was passed by volunteers running down the side of the hole to get in position for Spaun's trophy presentation. Scott wrapped up a final bogey, tipped his cap, shook hands with his group's standard-bearers and walked off into yet another void. The thoughts that came next are ones he's all too used to. 'I understand that winning another major would, you know, put me in some kind of different category,' he said in the parking lot. 'I've dreamed of winning lots of majors. I'm just trying to get that next one — always. But that's the way it is.' The hardest part about Scott's journey — from Masters winner to world No. 1 to years searching for a next major victory — is that it's never been for a lack of effort. If anything, it's the opposite. The longer he's gone on like this, the harder he's working. Trevor Immelman, CBS's lead analyst, is Scott's closest friend and his extra set of eyes. The two came up together, from junior golf to the PGA Tour to the Presidents Cup to Masters champions. Immelman's career was cut short by injuries; he openly acknowledges living vicariously through his friend. He has seen everything Scott has done and how he has done it. The endless equipment tweaks. All the work on approach shots and iron play. The fitness regimen. Speaking by phone Sunday from his home in Florida, Immelman, 45, pointed out what's missed in all the old-man tropes that line Scott's narrative. The most common perception — that his age and experience are his advantage — is wrong. Advertisement In truth, it's the fact that, even in his 40s, Scott maintains the swing speed and power of a top-20 player in the world because he works endlessly to sustain it. Just like Tiger Woods did. Just like Phil Mickelson did. Just like Ernie Els and Vijay Singh and Davis Love III. And that's the difference. 'An awesome weapon of speed and power — that's how he stays relevant,' Immelman said. 'Because if you don't have that, then you can't use your experience.' Now, still looking for that long-awaited second major, the question is: How much longer can Scott use what he has? There's what he sees on the course. Even with Sunday's disappointment, Scott left Oakmont knowing he was in a position to win, same as he was at Quail Hollow, when he was in second place with seven holes to go before again fading hard and finishing tied for 19th. He expects to contend at Portrush next month and is positioned to make the Tour Championship. And there's what he sees in the mirror. Scott turns 45 next month. His wife and three kids live year-round in Switzerland. He is, at last check, not getting younger. It's hard. Waiting is one thing. Not knowing what you're waiting for is another. Here, Scott acknowledges what he knows. He's on the clock. 'I feel like I can keep this up for another 18 months, for sure,' he said. 'Then, at that point, I'll be 46. I think I can push myself for the next year and a half and then reassess, you know? That's a reasonable goal. It's not so long, but it's like, 'Are you ever going to do it?' I need to give myself a bit of a deadline, a bit of urgency, right?' In truth, he's long had that. It just feels different when time keeps moving.
New York Times
25 minutes ago
- New York Times
Why J.J. Spaun winning the U.S. Open was actually awesome
OAKMONT, Pa. — One by one, they made their way over the bridge, down the stairs and into the scoring area. Their shoes and ankles were covered in mud. Their polo shirts soggily suctioned to their bodies. Their eyes glazed over from the things they'd seen. My goodness, these men wanted to win the U.S. Open with every bit of their being, to finally win a major championship and make this ugly, rainy day worth the battles behind them. Advertisement And then they watched those dreams fade away, as J.J. Spaun made his a reality. Tyrrell Hatton was mid-interview as the putt rolled in, seeing a television screen out of the corner of his eye. The often aggravated, ornery Englishman slowed his words as he saw it, and his scowl turned to a smile of calm joy. 'He's holed it,' Hatton said. 'Unbelievable. What a putt to win. That's incredible.' Viktor Hovland was there on the green, still fighting with hope as it went in. His dreams were shattered right in front of him, yet Hovland immediately put his putter down and clapped with pure appreciation. He even slapped the man's hand like a first-base coach celebrating a home run. Robert MacIntyre was leaning back in a scoring area chair, hoping to the golfing gods for a J.J. Spaun disaster. He was the clubhouse leader with a chance to steal the U.S. Open until Spaun took the lead. If Spaun could just bogey 18, they'd go to a playoff. MacIntyre watched too as it fell, and the 28-year-old Scot lifted his arms and exaggeratedly clapped his hands high in the air. Pure respect. Well Done. 'Wow,' he mouthed to himself. Because everybody who witnessed what J.J. Spaun did on that 18th green Sunday at Oakmont understood they had just seen what this whole damn thing is about. They saw the reasons to still believe. The payoff for all the pain. The fact that maybe, just maybe, anybody can win a U.S. Open. And that mattered so much more than feeling sorry for themselves. What happened was Spaun — a journeyman, a grinder, a stocky, 5-foot-8, 34-year-old golfer who nearly lost his PGA Tour card a year ago — came out of a rain delay four shots behind the lead after a disastrous start. And Spaun just played. Played so well that he went to that 18th green at the toughest course in America with cold, foggy rain beating down, needing just a two-putt for a major championship. Instead, Spaun went ahead and made the 64-foot, 5-inch putt to win the whole thing by two shots. WHAT A PUTT!!!! J.J. SPAUN WINS THE U.S. OPEN!!!! — U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 16, 2025 There are times at sporting events when you become fundamentally aware that it's OK to feel. That we're all just people working jobs and traveling around, hoping to get a little bit further, and a little bit further, and hoping it all works out in the end. You don't get what you want often enough, and the cynicism can build in. Even watching golf. Oh, Scottie Scheffler wins again? Bryson DeChambeau? Cool. More superstars are getting what they want. But now and then, you witness Spaun launching his putter into the air in complete disbelief that he — he — really did the thing at the one place designed to bend golfers to its will. And you remember to feel. Advertisement Because J.J. Spaun is not your typical U.S. Open champion. He's a Lakers fan who was asked about his Kobe Bryant moment and compared himself to Derek Fisher. He recited a Tiger Woods story about playing in U.S. Opens, but not because Woods talked to Spaun himself. No, he just got the story secondhand from Max Homa. He is a mixed-race guy from California who started playing golf without any formal lessons, learning by hitting balls into a net his dad set up in the garage. He was a walk-on at San Diego State and earned his way onto the team before becoming an All-American. He grinded on mini tours for four years, and even when he made it to the PGA Tour, he simply fought to survive for half a decade. He broke through with a 2022 win at the Valero Texas Open, but within two years was missing 10 cuts in five months. 'Last year in June, I was looking like I was going to lose my job, and that was when I had that moment where, if this is how I go out, I might as well go down swinging,' Spaun said. There was a shift that summer. For so long, it was about climbing, climbing, climbing. Aspirations. Goals. Bitterness. Slights. Yet at 33, he understood he was OK. He had a wife, Melody, and two kids under age five. He'd spent eight years on the PGA Tour. He had made it in life. So golf did not need to be everything. The motto became: Let the golf be golf. For so long, he had heard others talk in those sorts of self-improvement slogans and didn't grasp them. Sure, stay focused. Stay calm. Got it. He had a family, but that still meant stress to provide for them. He still allowed golf to be his identity. He'd leave close calls in Hawaii and Memphis distraught, feeling a 'crawl-into-a-hole-and-die kind of a feeling because it was just so embarrassing. I was just afraid to feel embarrassed again.' But last June, when he had to come to terms with the possibility this whole ride could end, it shifted. 'If this is how I'm going to go out,' he said, 'then this is it.' And the golf got better. Three top 10s and five top 30s in six starts to end the season. Good performances in the fall. He kept his tour card, kept the success going into 2025, and got himself into signature events like the Players Championship. And there in Ponte Vedra, the possibilities were able to shift. No, it wasn't life or death anymore, but he could dream a little bigger. Advertisement That day, so much like this Sunday, he went into the final round with a lead and struggled. Three bogeys before an afternoon rain delay forced him to reset. Everyone assumed the tournament was Rory McIlroy's until Spaun came out of the delay and birdied 14 and 16 to force McIlroy into a playoff. He didn't win, but he understood he could. So on Father's Day, entering it one stroke behind leader Sam Burns, he opened with an ugly bogey. Then, he caught one of the worst breaks imaginable on No. 2 with a perfect approach that bounced off the flagstick, went across the green, and rolled down the steep front for an eventual bogey. He bogeyed five of his first six holes for a front-nine 40. NBC stopped showing his shots. He was done for. Until another weather delay. As he went back to the driving range to prepare for the restart, his (very new) coach, Josh Gregory, told him, 'Stop trying so hard.' Just chill, the team told him. Because in any world, J.J. Spaun should not be disappointed he's four back at a major championship. When he went to the ninth tee to restart, he smoked one in the fairway and knew. He had a chance. While everybody around him collapsed into oblivion, Spaun made a 40-foot birdie on 12, a 22-foot birdie on 14, and when he went to the famous drivable par-4 17th hole, he was tied for the lead. There on 17, he hit a shot so good it's only unfortunate history will remember the winning putt on 18 more. He landed the uphill green, hitting a 309-yard drive to 18 feet from the tight pin. He two-putted for birdie, went to the 18th tee with the lead and needing a par to win. And he launched a perfect drive into the fairway. He stepped off the tee with his chest pumping in and out like a cartoon, the adrenaline surely flowing in excess. From the fairway, a bogey was less likely. He could put his approach safely on the left of the green, as he did. He could, as most would assume, two-putt for par and go off into the foggy sunset. But by Sunday night, J.J. Spaun had learned to dream a whole dream. Advertisement 'I didn't want to play defensive,' he said. 'I didn't know if I had a two-shot lead. I didn't want to do anything dumb trying to protect a three-putt or something.' Hovland's putt before his showed him the exact line. Spaun had his guide. He had his line. And Spaun launched that 64-foot, 5-inch putt up the hill and let it go. And the entire golfing world — from the gallery, to the workers, to the golfers hoping he missed — watched something special happen in front of them. They watched as the putt fell, and they remembered what this was all for.
