Wet and wild finish at the U.S. Open gives J.J. Spaun his first major title

OAKMONT, Pa. – As the rain continued to fall, J.J. Spaun erupted into tears beside the 18th green – more waterworks on this wet, wet day – and one of the wildest U.S. Opens in recent years had one of its most unlikely champions.

Spaun mastered the greens, survived a Sunday storm, outmatched the game’s best and somehow conquered one of the toughest golf courses on the planet. Overlooked, underrated and left for dead midway through the final round, the 34-year-old had never played Oakmont Country Club but looked right at home poking around the course for four days and 72 holes – steady, relaxed and in control nearly the entire time.

Even a lengthy weather delay Sunday couldn’t deter him – if anything, it saved him. In a wild, wet, punishing final round, Spaun sank a birdie on the 17th hole, breaking a twilight tie, and then added a stunningly long birdie putt on the 18th to win the 125th U.S. Open for his first major title. Despite posting five bogeys and shooting a disastrous 40 on the front nine, Spaun closed the day with a 72, finishing at 1 under par for the tournament and winning by two strokes over Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre, who shot a sparkling 68 in the miserable conditions to finish at 1 over.

“The weather delay we had just changed the whole vibe for the day,” Spaun said during the trophy ceremony.

The win was a coronation of sorts for a talented golfer who had struggled to break through on the sport’s biggest stages. He had won just once on the PGA Tour. At this year’s Players Championship, he held the 54-hold lead but then lost to Rory McIlroy in a playoff. He was a long shot coming into the U.S. Open – his odds were listed at 120-1 at some sportsbooks – but he played with more confidence, skill and poise than any of the favorites.

And after three days of steady play, he saved the fireworks for Sunday, closing with back-to-back birdies – including a 64-footer on No. 18 – to top the field. He entered the day tied for second at 3 under, trailing Sam Burns by a stroke. Spaun’s final round couldn’t have started any worse – bogeys on the first three holes and five of the first six. He didn’t seem to calm down until a storm swept through the area and sent golfers and fans scrambling for shelter.

With the leaders at the eighth tee box, play was suspended at 4:01 p.m. as rain drenched the course. At the time, Spaun was at 2 over and four shots behind Burns. The delay lasted 1 hour, 36 minutes – and Spaun looked like a different golfer when he returned to the course.

While the wet conditions drowned the championship hopes of the remaining golfers, Spaun kept plugging away. He was 5 over before the delay – and 3 under after.

On the 17th hole – a 314-yard par-4 – he sent his tee shot 17 feet past the hole. His eagle putt rolled 3½ feet past the cup, but he had no problem draining the biggest birdie putt of his life. He made an even more impressive one just one hole later.

As if the players hadn’t endured enough this week while playing the toughest tournament of the year, the rainy conditions turned Oakmont into a water park on the back nine. Pools of liquid accumulated, the rough went from nuisance to nightmare, and the tricky green speeds became impossible to read. Balls were wet, club faces were slick, and championship dreams were doused – for everyone but Spaun.

Surviving the downpour wasn’t a test of wills; it was a torture exercise, the week’s best players flailing for survival. Just take the ghastly rain-soaked 11th hole, where the leaders at the time – Burns and Adam Scott – thrashed through the rough and splashed their balls across the green. Burns had to swallow a double bogey and dropped to even par; Scott was fortunate to post a bogey, which left him just one shot back. The hole essentially reset the final round and opened the doors for Spaun and others.

The carnage continued, and no one was spared. Nearly every shot was accompanied by a groan from the gallery. Suddenly, no golfer was under par, and several seemed back in the hunt. It no longer mattered that most of the world’s top players were no longer in contention. The course, the conditions and the stakes created an early-evening knot near the top of the leader board, and the dark clouds only added to the drama.

When Burns bogeyed the 12th hole, he fell back to 1 over and was tied with four others – Scott, Carlos Ortiz, Spaun and Tyrrell Hatton – for the lead. And so there they came down the homestretch, not quite like champion thoroughbreds but more like battle-weary combatants. To a man, they had seen some stuff on this day.

Spaun rolled in a 22-foot birdie putt on No. 14 to move to even par and grab the lead temporarily. Ortiz dropped back with a double bogey on No. 15, and Scott turned in a bogey on No. 14.

After Spaun bogeyed No. 15, there were again four tied up top, with MacIntyre suddenly in the mix after a birdie on No. 17. The Scotsman was the clubhouse leader at 1 over and had to watch on television to see whether the remaining golfers would continue to sputter.

On No. 17, Hatton chipped from the rain-soaked rough on one side of a bunker 25 feet to the rough on the other, slamming his wedge into the ground and grumbling. His next shot went nine feet and still didn’t make the green. And on No. 15, Burns wanted relief on his approach shot, upset at the water around his lie. His request was denied, and he sprayed his shot into the rough. “It’s ridiculous,” he muttered on the course.

For Spaun, it was a dream.

“I never thought I’d be here holding this trophy,” he said.