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J.J. Spaun was winning while his hometown and country were fighting.
In one of the most dramatic major golf championships ever played, a U.S. citizen with a Mexican-American mother proved to himself and the world that he could become the golfer he always dreamt about. As Spaun said after holing a near impossible putt to clinch the U.S. Open at Oakmont in western Pennsylvania, he had to be resilient.
Torrential rain that almost made the course unplayable caused a long delay as the players milled about inside while somehow the ground crew got the swamped greens back into shape. Spaun had shot a five-over-par 40 on the front nine with five bogeys on his first six holes and a bunch of bad breaks that almost knocked him out of contention.
But in the rain that wouldn’t quit he shot a three under 32 on the back nine, including two spectacular birdies on the last two holes. On the par 4 17th reachable off the tee by the pros, he drove it 15 feet past the pin from where he two-putted for a birdie. On the 18th, he made the longest putt on the final hole of the U.S Open to seal the deal with another birdie.
It is the 34-year-old’s first major victory, and he pocketed $4,300,000 of the $21.5 million purse, as his wife and two toddler daughters watched from behind the 18th green. The raucous crowd chanted USA! USA! for Spaun’s chances to make the Ryder Cup team.
The dramatic victory underscored the division in the rest of the country as sports continues to be a salve for those fighting elsewhere. In Spaun’s hometown of Los Angeles, the No Kings Day protesters kept fighting against the police, while the governor and mayor kept fighting against the President. And Spaun said he had to keep fighting, too.
Usually when there is a rain delay and the golfers have to wait out the storm, those who hadn’t played well going into the break continue to fade coming out of it. Not Spaun, who played college golf at San Diego State and relied on swing and short game coaches to take him to the next level where he never thought he would be.
This was the tenth U.S. Open played at the Oakmont Country Club, where fairways are thin and winding and greens are multi-leveled. Spaun caught one break when he got to watch playing partner Viktor Hovland attempt almost the same putt from a few feet farther out on No. 18. Spaun followed Hovland’s line but only a bit slower and the ball went down the slope and snaked its way into the hole.
So the American golfer and child of immigrants had a day he will never forget. By the way, Chapel Hill’s Ben Griffin contended for three rounds until he shot a 78 Sunday but he still finished 10th, which was worth a cool half-million bucks.
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Featured image via Associated Press/Gene J. Puskar
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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