Spaun DRILLS electric 64-FOOTER to win U.S. Open
J.J. Spaun needed a two-putt to win the U.S. Open. He did better than that, sending this electric 64-footer to the bottom of the cup and walking it off in STYLE at Oakmont.
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USA Today
14 minutes ago
- USA Today
New angle of J.J. Spaun's 64-foot U.S. Open putt shows how hard it was
New angle of J.J. Spaun's 64-foot U.S. Open putt shows how hard it was To borrow from The Maltese Falcon, J.J. Spaun's 64-foot putt was the stuff dreams were made of. He needed to two-putt to clinch the 2025 U.S. Open in the pouring rain, in a tournament where no lead is safe and making par can feel like a miracle. But given the conditions and the pressure of the situation, even making two could have been nearly impossible. But he nailed it. And the question is: just how crazy was that putt? When you look at the angle on the broadcast, it seemed hard. But the angle you'll see below? Wayyyyyy harder. You can see the undulation of the 18th green and how he had to aim way left, and boom, there it goes. WOW. And you have to love this angle because you really get the crowd's reaction to this surreal moment. Congrats to Spaun and his family, who celebrated the putt and the win afterwards. What a moment, what a tournament, what a finish!
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
U.S. Open 2025: J.J. Spaun hits the shots of his life to win his first major
OAKMONT, Pa. — Some major championships are exquisite exhibitions of athletic grace and mental tenacity, symphonies conducted on fairways. You watch them, and you feel thrilled, energized, even inspired by the generational talent on display. The 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont was none of that. J.J. Spaun won the tournament with a score of -1, but the better way to put it might be he survived the tournament. This was a down-in-the-mud fistfight, a battle against the elements, the course, the field and the self. Advertisement With six holes remaining and rain falling, five players were tied for the lead: Sam Burns, Adam Scott, Tyrrell Hatton, Carlos Ortiz and J.J. Spaun. One stroke behind them: Viktor Hovland and Robert MacIntyre. MacIntyre, with a birdies at 14 and 17, got himself to 1-under. Playing ahead of the pack, MacIntyre stood over a par putt at 18 to set the mark, and he drained it. He was in the clubhouse at +1. Would it hold? Ortiz bowed out with a double bogey at 15, Hovland with a bogey there, and Hatton with bogeys at 17 and 18. Burns ejected with a brutal break at 15 when he wasn't granted relief from what he believed was standing water. Forced to hit it where it sat, he hooked it into the rough, leading to a double bogey. Advertisement Scott, trying to win his first major since 2013, found the rough on just about every hole coming home, and he was done. And then J.J. Spaun hit the shot of his life. Or maybe, the second greatest: That led to a birdie, a one-stroke lead and one par on 18 for the U.S. Open championship. He didn't get par. He drained the putt for birdie ... from 64 feet. "Just to finish it off like that is just a dream," Spaun said after. "You watch other people do it. You see the Tiger chip, you see Nick Taylor's putt, you see crazy moments. To have my own moment like that at this championship, I'll never forget this moment for the rest of my life." Advertisement This was a vintage U.S. Open, brutal and uncompromising and requiring everything the leaders had to give. Those who couldn't bring it home will remember this one for a long, long time, and Spaun will remember it forever. Oakmont plays the starring role At most majors, the course is a supporting character, taking a couple key lines here and there but deferring to the stars. Oakmont thundered onto the national stage, its history of hurling around the game's best like dirty laundry making for a sinister overture heading into the tournament. Oakmont's quirks — greased-mercury greens, abandon-all-hope rough, the Church Pew bunkers, the highway that cuts through the heart of the course — all combined to make the course itself the star of the show. No course has hosted more U.S. Opens than Oakmont, and virtually every one of the nine prior to this year featured drama, controversy and gritty, muddy scrambles for the trophy. Advertisement So in retrospect, the entire golf world was pretty naive in thinking that Scottie Scheffler would come in here and ransack the joint, that Bryson DeChambeau would overpower the old warhorse, that Xander Schauffele or Collin Morikawa or Rory McIlroy would use some of their modern wizardry to take down a course that's been humbling champions longer than their grandfathers have been alive. 'When you're in the fairway, there's opportunity,' Scheffler said on Tuesday, 'but what's so special about this place is pretty much every time you're off the fairway it's going to be very difficult for you to get the ball to the green.' Advertisement (This is what is known as foreshadowing.) J.J. Spaun, best known prior to this week as McIlroy's playoff victim in this year's Players Championship, leaped out to the Thursday lead with a bogey-free 66. 'I kind of came out here with no prior history at Oakmont, not really knowing what to expect even U.S. Open-wise. This is only my second one. I don't know if that freed me up in any aspect,' he said. 'I'm just overly pleased with how I started the tournament.' Others, not so much. McIlroy struggled to a +4 first round and left without speaking to the media. DeChambeau, completely twisted up by the greens, made a mental mistake in dropping his ball on the 12th, but was saved from a penalty by a friendly official. Advertisement 'This golf course can come up and get you pretty quick and you've just got to be on your game, and it got me, and I wasn't fully on my game,' DeChambeau said after his Thursday round. 'Pretty disappointed with how I played.' Si Woo Kim offered up the most direct perspective: 'Honestly, I don't even know what I'm doing on the course,' he said. 'Kind of hitting good, but feel like this course is too hard for me.' As tough as Thursday was, Friday proved even more difficult. Spaun surrendered two strokes off his total and gave up the lead to Burns, who finished the day at -3. DeChambeau imploded, missing the cut by three strokes. Phil Mickelson, so often frustrated by the U.S. Open, suffered one last indignity when he melted down on his final three holes and missed a chance to play the weekend by mere inches. Shortly after a disappointed Mickelson left the course, the skies opened up, dousing the few players left on the course and halting the second round early. That led directly to one of the few feelgood stories of this brutal weekend: qualifier Philip Barbaree, with his wife Chloe caddying for him, came back on Saturday morning needing a par on the tough ninth to make the cut. He pulled it off and celebrated; who cares if he finished the tournament at +24? He had a once-in-a-lifetime moment on one of the toughest courses on the planet. 'Knowing that I pretty much had to come out and make par on one of the hardest holes on the course, and then to actually do it, that's what you practice for, that's what you care about,' Barbaree said. 'To be able to pull off a shot like that when it matters, and then with her on the bag, it's special.' Stars exit stage right and left and into the fescue Burns reached -4 on Saturday but couldn't extend his lead; Spaun stuck right with him to finish at -3. Also at -3, and checking in from 2013: Scott, competing in his 97th major. The overnight rains softened the course up; the field averaged two strokes better on Saturday than on the two days prior. Advertisement Meanwhile, stars flickered and fizzled. Scheffler, McIlroy, Rahm, Schauffele … none of the game's best could keep up with the pace set by Burns, Spaun and Scott. (Yes, that is a real sentence.) McIlroy, in particular, remained frustrated at his inability to capitalize on his epic Masters win, and unloaded his frustrations on the media by speaking for the first time after a major round since Augusta. 'I feel like I've earned the right to do whatever I want to do,' McIlroy said, when pressed about his decision not to speak after his rounds. He later declared that all he wanted out of Sunday was 'hopefully a round in under four-and-a-half hours and get out of here.' McIlroy's frustrations continued on Sunday, though on the positive side he pulled off one of the most impressive club tosses you'll ever see: But McIlroy, like most of the other superstars, was irrelevant to the tournament's final outcome. Burns (-4) and Scott (-3) made up the final pairing, with Spaun (-3) and Viktor Hovland (-1) just ahead of them, and Carlos Ortiz (E) and Tyrrell Hatton (+1) in the third-to-last group. Advertisement 'If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times, but this golf course is difficult,' Burns said Saturday evening. 'It takes a lot of patience.' He had no idea how right he would be. Survival Sunday The carnage began early for the leaders. Scott bogeyed the first and third holes, while Burns bogeyed the second and fifth. Ahead of them, Ortiz, Hatton and Hovland all struggled. Spaun, in particular, surrendered five strokes in his first six holes … which, under normal conditions, would have ejected him from the tournament. But these were not normal conditions. Not all of it was his fault. He would later have a ball hit a rake, another spin off the green, and when he made the turn, he had five bogeys on his card and had dropped from the top of the leaderboard. Advertisement Soon thereafter, the weather arrived. At 4:01 p.m., with Burns and Scott standing on the tee at the 8th, the soaking rains returned, washing out the entire field for a full 96 minutes. The course flooded, requiring a squeegee-wielding maintenance crew to attempt to get Oakmont playable once again. Play resumed at 5:40, and almost immediately Burns and Scott both got into trouble off the tee at the par-3 8th, the longest par-3 in U.S. Open history, Burns off the edge of the green and Scott into the rough. Burns was able to get up and down for his par, but Scott dropped a shot to fall back to even. Ahead of them, Hatton and Hovland both fell to +2. Advertisement More critically, Burns surrendered a stroke at the 9th when his tee shot found some of the longest hay on the property on the left side of the hole. Scott's tee shot ended up on a cart path along the right side of the hole, but he was able to convert his birdie. Burns thus turned at -1, Scott at even par, and Ortiz, Hatton, Spaun and Hovland all at +2. And right about then, the rains started up again. This time around, though, there was no thunder, meaning the players were getting doused but continued to play. On the first hole of the inward nine, Burns extended his lead with a birdie to get back to -2. Ahead of him, Ortiz was able to chop his way back into the hunt with a birdie on 11 that dropped him to +1. The tournament turned at No. 15 for both Burns and Scott. Burns, standing in a puddle, asked for relief. He wasn't given it, then hooked his shot over the green, leading to a double bogey. From there, everyone but Spaun and MacIntyre fell off. Advertisement Playing ahead of Spaun, all MacIntyre could do was wait in the clubhouse, where he watched Spaun produce the two most magical shots of his life. Earlier this year, Spaun lost The Players Championship to Rory McIlroy in a playoff. It was a crushing defeat for a player who had one PGA Tour victory on his resume. Three months later, he's a major champion.
Newsweek
37 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Pro Golfers Reactions to JJ Spaun 64-Foot Walk-Off are Priceless
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The final round of the 125th U.S. Open at Oakmont was nothing short of brutal. Rain had soaked the course, turning an already punishing setup into a nightmare for the field. But through the chaos, J.J. Spaun delivered one of the most unforgettable finishes in major championship history. OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA - JUNE 15: J. J. Spaun of the United States celebrates winning on the 18th green during the final round of the 125th U.S. OPEN at Oakmont Country Club on June 15, 2025... OAKMONT, PENNSYLVANIA - JUNE 15: J. J. Spaun of the United States celebrates winning on the 18th green during the final round of the 125th U.S. OPEN at Oakmont Country Club on June 15, 2025 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. (Photo by) More Getty Images Standing over a 64-foot birdie putt on the 18th, needing only a two-putt to secure his first major, Spaun drained it, sending the crowd into a frenzy. As the ball disappeared into the cup, Spaun threw his putter into the air, overwhelmed by the moment. Viktor Hovland, who had battled Spaun throughout the day, was the first to embrace him. Hovland hugged the $4.3M winner and expressed his mad respect, saying, "That was impressive dude, congrats." 'That was impressive dude, congrats.' Mad respect from Viktor Hovland to JJ Spaun. Sports still undefeated — Christopher Powers (@CPowers14) June 16, 2025 "Yeah, that was unbelievable," Hovland said later during the press conference. "To watch him hole the putt on 12 down the hill there was unreal. 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." Viktor had his own battle. He had led for much of the final round, but a bogey on 16 and a missed birdie chance on 17 left him finishing at 2-over, settling for third place. Meanwhile, Robert MacIntyre, watching from the clubhouse hoping to join Spaun in a playoff, was captured with his priceless reaction. As Spaun's putt dropped, MacIntyre couldn't help but smile and clapped wholeheartedly. A few seconds later, he shouted, "Wow!"—a moment caught on camera that instantly went viral. Bob MacIntyre applauding JJ Spaun draining the winning US Open putt as it ended his dream. Love that reaction. Did all he could, but he had to applaud — Ryan Ballengee (@RyanBallengee) June 16, 2025 Tyrrell Hatton was mid-interview, and had an epic live reaction. "Oh, he has holed it. Unbelievable! What a putt to win! That's incredible." When asked what Spaun must be feeling, Hatton didn't hesitate: "In shock!" The praise kept rolling in. Billy Horschel, sidelined due to injury, tweeted: "Take a bow @JJSpaun!!!!". Ex PGA Tour pro, Colt Knost, also chimed in: "Congrats @JJSpaun!!! What a back 9!!! He added "Dude has always been a stripe show and now a @usopengolf champion!!!". Michel Kim, a fan favorite, summed it up tweeting: "Dropped out of coverage to 65ft birdie putt and a US Open trophy. Unreal. Congrats to JJ!" More Golf: Adam Scott's Strange Practice Routine Unveiled amid US Open Run
