J.J. Spaun is the U.S. Open champion thanks to one of the most insane final-round turnarounds in tournament history.
Spaun began the day just one back, but made five bogeys en route to an opening-nine 40 on Sunday. However, a 97-minute weather delay allowed him to reset, and he flipped the script with a back-nine 32 to erase a four-shot deficit standing on the 10th tee.
While Spaun was thriving in rain-soaked conditions at Oakmont Country Club, the rest of the field was dropping back, and when the dust cleared, Robert MacIntyre represented the biggest challenge.
However, Spaun's birdie on the 17th hole pushed him one clear, and he capped the win with an outrageous 64-foot birdie on the iconic 18th to make the final margin two strokes.
| Place | Player | Round 4 score | Total to par |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | J.J. Spaun | 72 | -1 |
| 2 | Robert MacIntyre | 68 | +1 |
| 3 | Viktor Hovland | 73 | +2 |
| T-4 | Cameron Young | 70 | +3 |
| T-4 | Tyrrell Hatton | 72 | +3 |
| T-4 | Carlos Ortiz | 73 | +3 |
| T-7 | Sam Burns | 78 | +4 |
| T-7 | Jon Rahm | 67 | +4 |
| T-7 | Scottie Scheffler | 70 | +4 |
| T-10 | Ben Griffin | 71 | +5 |
| T-10 | Russell Henley | 71 | +5 |
Spaun credited that break in the action as a timeout of sorts that allowed him to get things pointed back in the right direction.
"All I was thinking was - and even my whole team, my coach, my caddie, they were like, 'Oh, dude, this is exactly what we need.' And it was," Spaun said. "We went back out and capitalized on kind of - I changed my 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 is the first U.S. Open champion to make six bogeys or worse in the final round since Hale Irwin in 1979. He can thank his putter for delivering when he needed it most, as he entered the week ranked 84th on the PGA TOUR in putting but finished second over four rounds at Oakmont.
While the highlight was the absurd finisher on the final hole, the slippery 40-footer for birdie on the 12th hole really represented where things began to change. He ended up holing a mind-boggling 136 feet of putts over his final seven holes.
Spaun's win came as a surprise given his lack of success in previous majors, but he was in the mix throughout the entire week at Oakmont. The same can't be said for runner-up MacIntyre, who began the day seven strokes off Sam Burns' 54-hole lead. The Scotsman thrived in the wet conditions, putting up a sizzling 2-under 68 to grab the clubhouse lead at 1-over. That forced Spaun to play the final two holes in at least 1-under to win the trophy, a task he was up to and then some.
Spaun and MacIntyre seemed to be the only two players that made runs following the restart, as the majority of the field wilted away in the testing conditions at Oakmont. The final group of Burns and Adam Scott both ended up shooting 78 to fall well out of contention before reaching the final hole.
"It just wasn't easy out there," Scott admitted to ASAP Sports. "All things being equal, it's Sunday of the U.S. Open, one of the hardest setups, and the conditions were the hardest of the week. Thank God it wasn't like this all week."
Burns actually looked to be the likely winner after a birdie on the 10th but immediately gave that back with a double-bogey on the 11th. He ended up playing his last eight holes in 6-over to end up well off the lead. His fall also continued the trend where 54-hole leaders struggle at Oakmont, as only one has closed out a U.S. Open at the Pittsburgh-area layout.
