J.J. Spaun won the 125th U.S. Open defeating Robert MacIntyre by two strokes to earn his first career major championship. This is Spaun’s second PGA Tour win and his first since the 2022 Valero Texas Open.
Despite Spaun’s strong start on Thursday, his final round got off to a rough start after bogeying five of his first six holes. He had two unfortunate bounces after hitting the flagstick on the second hole and a rake on the third hole. After shooting a front nine of 40 (+5), he used the weather delay to regroup.
Play was suspended just after 4:00pm ET due to dangerous weather in the area. Burns held a one-shot lead over Scott when the horn blew. They were the only two golfers under par when play was suspended for more than an hour and half. Both players were 2-over through the opening seven holes.
As play resumed, Burns made par on the eighth hole while Scott made a bogey, giving Burns a two-shot lead. On the ninth hole, roles reversed with Burns making a bogey and Scott making a par. As they headed to the back nine, Burns sat at one-under and Scott at even for the tournament. Hatton, Ortiz, Spaun and Hovland all sat at two-over par and in a tie for third as they started their final nine holes.
Burns double-bogeyed hole 11 and then a bogeyed hole 12 to drop to one-over and into a 5-way tie for first place with six holes to play.
On the par-5 12th hole, Spaun made a 40-foot birdie to get closer to the lead. Spaun took the lead after making a 22-foot birdie putt on the 14th hole but quickly dropped a shot on the next hole to fall into a four-way tie for first. On the short 17th hole, he drove the green to give himself an excellent putt for eagle. The eagle putt would slide by, leaving him three feet for birdie. After making that putt, he took a one-shot lead over MacIntyre heading to the 18th tee.
Needing a par on the 18th hole to win, Spaun calmly hit the middle of the fairway and hit his approach shot to 64 feet. After watching Hovland putt on a similar line, Spaun just needed two putts to win his first major championship. Spaun did better than two putts, he made the 64-foot birdie putt, threw his putter in the air and hugged his caddie, celebrating their first major win together.
With this win, Spaun gets a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour and into the Masters, PGA Championship and the British Open. Along with winning $4.3 million, Spaun also receives a 10-year exemption into the U.S. Open.
Next week, the PGA Tour heads to Connecticut for the last signature event of the season at The Travelers Championship. Scottie Scheffler will look to defend his title against a star-studded field at TPC River Highlands.
