Spaun's putt delivers all-time U.S. Open finish, classic Oakmont moment
By Josh Rowntree, Director of Communications • June 15, 2025
It was no secret coming into the 125th U.S. Open that Oakmont Country Club’s membership and leadership preferred to see no players finish the championship under par.
After a course defined by its church pews had the heavens open above it, an answered prayer ended up being all that stood in the way of that happening.
With a dramatic, 64-foot putt on the 72nd hole of the record tenth U.S. Open to be played at Oakmont, J.J. Spaun claimed his first major championship in front of a soggy but elated gallery.
“It's definitely like a storybook, fairytale ending,” said Spaun, the Los Angeles native. “(It was) kind of an underdog fighting back, not giving up, never quitting. With the rain and everything and then the putt, I mean, you couldn't write a better story. I'm just so fortunate to be on the receiving end of that.”
Spaun clung to a one-stroke lead at even-par over Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre after a birdie on the drivable, uphill 17th hole. He hit the fairway with his drive on the 18th, but his approach shot sailed to the far-left side of the green.
That’s when Spaun — needing a two-putt to avoid a Monday playoff for the championship — delivered the putt of his life.
“I didn't look at the scoreboard,” said Spaun, who has just one other career win on the PGA Tour. “I knew based off of what the crowd was saying that I felt like, if I two-putted, I would probably win.”
The putt, which crested over and dropped off a slope about halfway to the hole, slipped into the hole, sending Spaun into a fist-pump driven frenzy in which he picked up his caddie, Mark Carens, spinning him and his rain-soaked umbrella around on the 18th green.
“About eight feet out, I kind of went up to the high side to see if it had a chance of going in, and it was going right in,” he said of the 64-footer, the longest made putt of the entire championship. “I was just in shock, disbelief that it went in, and it was over.”
Spaun’s theatrics came after Mother Nature drenched the grounds and spectators at Oakmont, causing a dangerous weather delay that stretched 1 hour, 30 minutes.
“I thought it was a good thing having the delay,” he said. “It happened to me at THE PLAYERS earlier this year where I was kind of struggling on the front nine. I had the lead going into Sunday, and we had a four-hour delay, I think. I ended up turning that round into a nice fight where I got myself into the playoff.
“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. We went back out and capitalized. 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.’”
For Spaun, the win seemed improbable following a bizarre and difficult start — not just to his round, but to his day, as well. He bogeyed four of the first five holes, including the unluckiest of breaks on the 2nd hole in which his approach shot clanked off the flagstick and rolled back into the fairway.
“I hit it perfect, and it was right at it,” said Spaun, whose odds of winning dipped below two percent during his first nine holes of the day. “It was just a matter of was it the perfect distance or not? All I heard was like a really loud, ‘Oh!’ It wasn't a good one.
“During the delay I went and watched my thing, and it was just really unlucky. It was pretty much a two-shot swing. I was thinking that would have been pretty close, maybe inside of five feet, if it didn't hit the flag. Yeah, it was not a good start to the day."
Well before that shot, however, Spaun’s day got off to an even rockier start.
“Today I was running to CVS in downtown (Pittsburgh) because my daughter had a stomach bug and was vomiting all night long,” Spaun said. “I was just like, okay, my wife was up at 3:00 a.m., and she's like, ‘Violet is vomiting all over. She can't keep anything down.’
“It was kind of a rough start to the morning. I'm not blaming that on my start, but it kind of fit the mold of what was going on, the chaos.”
While his day started with attempting to get his daughter healthy and quickly reached a disastrous level on the golf course, it began to even out as he made the turn and reached a back nine that finished with four birdies in the final seven holes.
“The tee shot on 9, like my first shot back (after the delay)… I just flushed one, like a nice little cut up the left side,” said Spaun, who led the U.S. Open field in total feet of putts at 401.5 feet. “And I was like, ‘all right, we're back.’ I didn't hit too many bad shots after that.”
His 3-under score of 32 on the back nine was the second-best to finish a round at an Oakmont-based U.S. Open, trailing only Johnny Miller’s legendary round of 63 in 1973, in which he posted a 31 on the final nine holes.
“It was super wet, but it was similar to yesterday,” Spaun said of the conditions. “The greens slowed down quite a bit, but I knew with my iron game, as long as I got on the fairway, I could attack because of how soft it got… I just tried to take what the course gave me.”
Those conditions, as well as his clutch putting and handling of a course that has now seen only 28 players finish under par in a USGA championship in its history, ended with him holding both of his children as he signed his winning scorecard inside of Oakmont’s 121-year-old clubhouse.
A brief time later, he sat in front of the media and was asked if he felt like the ‘luckiest guy in the world.’
“100 percent, at least in my mind,” he said. “Just to finish it off like that is just a dream. You watch other people do it. You see the Tiger (Woods) 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.”
For any media inquiries, please contact WPGA Director of Communications Josh Rowntree.
About the WPGA
Founded in 1899, the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association is the steward of amateur golf in the region. Started by five Member Clubs, the association now has nearly 200 Member Clubs and nearly 37,000 members. The WPGA conducts 14 individual competitions and 10 team events, and administers the WPGA Scholarship Fund and Western Pennsylvania Golf Hall of Fame.