OAKMONT, Pa.—The 125th United States Open’s final round turned into The Agony and The Ecstasy.

Of course, it was eight hours of mostly agony followed by five minutes of ecstasy but hey, a good dessert makes you forget a tough steak ten times out of time. When J.J. Spaun sank a 67-foot putt on the final green in the rain Sunday evening to win in electrifying fashion, he made the most memorable and important stroke in Oakmont Country Club’s storied history of hosting ten U.S. Opens.

Johnny Miller’s 63 was a more exciting round in 1973; Larry Nelson’s record weekend total of 132 en route to victory in 1983 was more impressive; and Ben Hogan’s 1953 Open when he blitzed the field by six was more historic. But nobody ever gave Pittsburgh a shocking jolt of adrenaline and joy like this. Finally, something to cheer about on what had felt like National Bogey Day until then and even better, a champion to cheer for instead of an anticlimactic Monday morning. 

Sixty-seven feet for the win? That’s big even for basketball sharpshooter Caitlin Clark. And when Spaun’s putt dropped into the right half of the cup, the gallery absolutely thundered. At that point, they were wet and probably hangry, too.

Meet J.J. Spaun, your new U.S. Open champion, and the man who saved this tournament from an artistic standpoint after a day full of Oakmont Country Club once again asserting its dominance over the world’s best players. It was Black Sunday as most of the red under-par numbers dropped off the scoreboard nearly as fast as the hopes of Pittsburgh Pirates’ fans this season. 

The last day was brutal, awful and just plain ugly as Oakmont made these world-class golfers look borderline inept. It wasn’t them, it was Oakmont. Was the course set up so hard that it negated ability and caused many of the world’s highest-ranked players to not be in contention? That’s for the furtive Golf Channel talking heads to decide.

Exhibit A of Oakmont cruelty starred the final twosome of Adam Scott and Sam Burns. They combined to shoot 17 over par. Even Spaun was a victim early, playing the first six holes in five over par and, apparently, taking himself out of contention. But he didn’t. Maybe his back nine performance alone should make him a candidate for Comeback Player of the Year. The man shot 40 on the front. Who shoots 40 on the front nine and wins when he isn’t leading after 54 holes? Nobody. Except Spaun, a former San Diego State University player. 

The final nine featured a five-way tie for the lead, then a four-way tie, and one by one the contenders fell away at the end.

It all came down to the 72nd hole. Spaun, the tournament’s first-round leader, needed to par the final hole to edge Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre by one shot to win. In an incredible stroke of luck—and Spaun probably had that coming—playing partner Viktor Hovland hit his approach to the left side of the 18th green, just a foot behind Spaun’s ball and showed him the line.

The rest is instant replay history. Why did Spaun have a good break coming? At the second hole, his on-target approach took one bounce, clanged off the flagstick and cruelly rolled off the front of the green and 30 yards back down the fairway. It was not an easy bogey from there. Golf is a cruel game sometimes. Yeah, you said bitterly, most of the time. 

The winning stroke gets more unbelievable, if that’s possible. Spaun intentionally did not check the scoreboard to see where he stood. “I knew based off what the crowd was saying that if I two-putted, I would probably win but I didn’t want to look because I didn’t want to play defensive,” Spaun said. “I didn’t know if I had a two-shot lead. I didn’t want to do anything dumb trying to protect against a three-putt or something.”

It is remarkable that Spaun didn’t know for sure but there’s more. When he got his first victory at the Valero Texas Open, Spaun’s ball was on the fringe of the last green, and Scott Stallings hit a bunker shot that landed near his ball mark and rolled right down to the hole. “When I was walking up to 18, I was thinking, ‘Oh my god, this is meant to be because this is the same thing that happened to me for my first win,’” Spaun said.

Then came the Spaun Heard ‘Round the World. More on that momentarily. 

First, the stroke of genius that set up this win came after the par-4 17th hole. Spaun unleashed a driver, landed a stout tee shot just in front of the green and the greenside gallery roared as his ball trucked past the pin, missing it by less than two feet. The ball stopped about 15 feet above the hole, leaving him a slick eagle putt that would have all but iced victory.  

Spaun carefully rolled that putt just past the hole, made the birdie tap-in to take the lead and faced the daunting task of making par at the big, bad 18th. To make it harder, after a nice drive in the fairway, it began to rain again and Spaun popped open his umbrella as he ambled off the tee box. Note the smart move by a veteran player: Spaun walked slowly up the fairway to keep his heart rate down. Keep it down? More like get it down after that birdie. It’s how a pro stays in the moment. Kids, DO try this at home.

You know how it ended. Spaun flipped his putter to whereabouts unknown—possibly the deep rough just off the green—while his caddie Mark Carens jumped all over him. In the clubhouse, MacIntyre watched a monitor. NBC smartly had a camera on him and Bobby Mac, as he is known, probably already figured he was going to come up short after Hovland gave Spaun the read on that monster putt. When it went in, MacIntyre clapped and mouthed in awe, “Wow.” In other words, pretty much like everyone else only a lot calmer and without expletives.

England’s Tyrrell Hatton was part of that five-way tie for the lead on the final nine and looked like he might be the guy to beat. But he ran into trouble at the 17th hole with an unfortunate severely downhill lie in the rough by the bunker and made bogey. He was talking to the media and keeping one eye on a monitor as Spaun putted.

Asked what he did during the rain delay, Hatton said, “I sat in dining—he’s holed it! Unbelievable! What a putt to win! That’s incredible!”

Hatton was asked what he thought Spaun was feeling just then. “Shock, I would guess,” he said. “Unbelievable. Fair play.”

Hatton shot even-par 35 on the front but it was the bogey at 17 that dropped him two strokes back that ended his chances. He shot 72 on the round. “I’m sad about how I finished but I’m very happy for J.J. To win a major in that fashion is amazing.”

Golf Channel analyst Paul McGinley gushed all week about Spaun’s on-target iron play and solid driving, and he wasn’t wrong. Spaun’s overall game is a cut above the average and at Oakmont, he really showed it off.

Maybe it helped his mental approach that he was distracted. Spaun said he had to run out to a drug store because one of his daughters, Violet, was vomiting all night long. “It was kind of a rough start to the morning,” Spaun said. “It kind of fit the mold of what was going on, the chaos.”

No better word describes what went on in the final round. Sam Burns and Adam Scott struggled and slipped away. Carlos Ortiz was in the hunt until a mistake-filled double-bogey at the 15th dropped him out of a tie for the lead. Hovland never got anything going. He made just two birdies all day but he needed one at the 17th to get within one of Spaun. Hovland needed to birdie the 18th to maybe get in a playoff if Spaun bogeyed but that’s when Hovland pulled his approach badly and helped Spaun go to school on the putt’s line by landing his approach right behind Spaun’s ball.

Maybe Oakmont’s setup was never intended to identify the best player. But it did identify the player who handled Oakmont’s full-court pressure the best. 

When the last putt dropped, Spaun was embraced by his caddie and he held up one clenched fist in triumph. His cheeks were wet as he pulled off his cap and blinked. Was it the rain or were those tears of joy? 

You know the answer. 

OAKMONT, Pa.—Nobody gets a break at Oakmont Country Club. Nobody. 

Also, nobody says, ‘Have a nice day’ during U.S. Open week. Because next to nobody ever has a nice day at Oakmont during the Open. Friday’s second round was another virtually joyless day of hack-outs, lip-outs and far more bogeys than birdies.

Even Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro had a tough day. He stopped by to praise the club and the area leaders and volunteers for all the hard work of hosting the Open, and all that, and of course maybe win over a few voters. The Governor gamely took a few questions. The first three were about golf. The fourth and involved protests. The fifth was about rising Middle East tensions.

“This is a real leap, by the way,” the Governor said. “We went from golf to protests and now we're going to go to the Middle East here?” He paused, smiled and said, “Anybody from the USGA want to take these?”

There were no volunteers for that. The Governor handled it himself. He was tough enough.

The supposed definition of U.S. Open golf is a strong layout that pushes golfers to their breaking points and sometimes beyond. Oakmont, the meanest beast in the Open Rota cage, excels at this. Some old-time golf writer, probably the great Dan Jenkins, dubbed this event the No Fun Open. It is holding true this week.

Friday, I watched Russell Henley make a modest charge into the top ten on the leaderboard. After he finished his round of 2-over-par 72 in the morning, players above him in the standings started dropping like water balloons from the Delta House fraternity porch. Henley, ranked seventh in the world, lost strokes to par but actually improved his position on the leaderboard from his opening even-par 70.

Former Open champ Jon Rahm of Spain shot 75 and was suffering from OFS—Oakmont Frustration Syndrome. (Researchers are still looking for a cure. Send money.) “I didn’t play bad, I played quite good golf,” Rahm said. “Didn’t see anything go in beside a 7-footer. That’s it. That’s a very hard thing to deal with to try to shoot a score out here.”

Asked to put his score into perspective, given the course’s difficulty level, Rahm answered, “Honestly, I’m too annoyed and mad right now to think about any perspective. Very few rounds of golf I played in my life where I think I hit good putts and they didn’t sniff the hole. Very frustrated.”

This is pretty much what the USGA and Oakmont had in mind for the course setup. John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s Chief of Championships, delivered the usual warning Wednesday before the tournament began. “Our mantra is tough but fair,” he said. “And what does that mean? It’s not about the score, it’s about getting every club in a player’s bag dirty, all 15 of them—the 14 in their bags and the one between their ears.”

Is it too early to declare Mission Accomplished on that this week? No, it is not. Exhibit A was Thursday’s opening round when Patrick Reed recorded an albatross on the 4th hole. The former Masters champ was asked about his historic shot and gave a snippy answer.

“There’s 71 other holes we have to play,” he barked. “One hole doesn’t mean jack, to be honest with you.”

The questioner was apparently unaware that Reed had just triple-bogeyed his final hole a few moments earlier. So he played that hole and his albatross hole in even par. Asking a tour player any question, no matter how complimentary, is a crapshoot if he doubled or tripled the last hole. A general golf writer rule: Just don’t do it. Leave him alone. Reed lightened up after a few answers but his sizzle was 100 percent understandable. Oakmont and OFS strikes again.

Scottie Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world, had another day of struggling, including an unscheduled visit to the Church Pews bunkers. He shot 71, which left him seven shots behind 36-hole leader Sam Burns, who happens to be a close buddy of his. Two days of frustration boiled over for Scheffler, who went to the range in the mid-afternoon heat and humidity for a long session with coach Randy Smith in which Scheffler vented his frustration vocally. Scheffler striped it on the range, as usual, and, well, Saturday is a new day.

“It’s just about giving it your best on each shot,” Scheffler said. “There were times today where you feel like you could give up just based on how difficult the course is and how my swing was feeling. I barely pull a shot on 11, there’s a lot of places that ball could end up. I thought it could end up in the fairway and it ends up in a place where I don’t have a swing. So am I going to get mad about it, get frustrated or chip out and see what I can do from there? That’s what a lot of today was about.”

Scheffler nailed it, the answer is the stuff of cliches but it’s true in major championship golf. As Ben Hogan used to say, “The most important shot in golf is the next one.” 

These players know that but sometimes, faced with adversity, they lose sight of it.

Norway’s Viktor Hovland shot 68 and is in third place. It’s not a coincidence that he kept his cool despite five birdies, an eagle, three bogeys and a double bogey. 

“For some reason, I’ve been in a really nice mental state this week,” Hovland said., “Both my rounds have been very up and down. A couple of times if it would have happened at another tournament, I could have potentially lost my mind there a little bit.”

But it’s the U.S. Open. It’s not supposed to be fun. The only player who has fun that week is the winner… maybe.

By Gary VanSickle

OAKMONT, Pa.—Not just anybody can win a United States Open at mighty Oakmont Country Club.

Or so they say. It’s got to be one of the game’s best players, if not the best. (Insert Scottie Scheffler’s name here if you want.) The list of past champions says so, from Ben Hogan to Jack Nicklaus to Johnny Miller and Larry Nelson, Ernie Els, Angel Cabrera and Dustin Johnson.

Not so fast. Andrew Landry was right there in the mix in 2016. So was Frenchman Gregory Bourdy. And the antique version of Lee Westwood. Els barely held off Colin Montgomerie and Loren Roberts. Johnson outlasted, among others, Scott Piercy. And Miller’s 63 was nearly downgraded to a nice little round by John Schlee, who nearly chipped in on the final hole in 1973 to force a playoff. As Lanny Wadkins remembered it a few days ago in an interview, “Of all people, John Schlee.”

So it’s definitely not true that anybody can win a U.S. Open but pedigree doesn’t matter here. Hitting fairways and greens does.

Here are my Oakmont Open Power Rankings on who may win and why. Bet early and often. (And why not? It’s not my money you’re betting.)

One. Scottie Scheffler. Duh. Really, you shouldn’t need more than that. Reigning PGA Championship champ. Power Stick Rating: 98.6 (outta 100).

Two. Bryson DeChambeau. He’s No. 1 in the Tour Player Internet Content Provider Rankings, too. No matter how you feel about him, he is regularly in contention in the majors. You can look it up but you don’t have to, I did it for you: He finished 6th or better in five of the last six major championships, including the memorable Open win at Pinehurst last year and runnerup finishes in the last two PGA’s. He’s got the length to reach the 300-yard par-3 8th hole in one shot (a joke for the USGA’s chortling benefit) and the strength to maybe do something out of this industrial strength rhubarb-length rough. He can probably hit 2-iron all day and find fairways. Power Stick Rating (or PSR as insiders know it at the Spiranac Golf Institute): 96.2.

Three. Shane Lowry. The Irishman had a four-shot lead going into the final 18 here in 2016 but wasn’t able to bring it home. Our patented Power Stick Search Engine has determined that the Open champion will be the best iron player who finds the most fairways. Lowry ranks 28thin driving accuracy on the PGA Tour and, by the way, No. 1 in proximity to the hole with iron shots. He’s also an outstanding chipper. Putting? Not so much but at Oakmont, it’s more about two-putting for par than running in 25-footers for birdies. Unless it’s about running in 15-footers for pars, in which case you should’ve hit the green with your approach in the first place. PSR: 95.7.

Four. Sepp Straka. Your favorite Austrian (sorry, Arnold Schwarzenegger) doesn’t have much of a record yet in major championships. He’s oh-for-two in making the cut this year but he’s hotter than that Eggo waffle I accidentally forgot about in the toaster, with wins at the American Express and Truist Championships this year. Why he’s vaulted up the ol’ Power Stick is his accuracy. Straka ranks 11th in fairways hit and fifth in proximity to the hole. There’s more to winning a U.S. Open that stats but his numbers are a good place to start. Seems like he’s still trending upward on the ol’ Stardom Pole. He also looks unflappable, unlike his fellow Austrian Arnold, who vas, vell, very flappable vhen he vas rescuing Sarah Connor. Hey, everybody has to win their first major somewhere. PSR: 94.2.

Five. Collin Morikawa. This guy fits the profile of an Oakmont Open winner. He drives it straight, hits his irons close and putts decently. And he’s halfway to the Career Grand Slam with wins at the PGA and (British) Open Championship. So if he’s so good, why hasn’t he won anything at all since 2023? Yeah, well… He’s got to get out of his own way. But if you rank 2nd in driving accuracy and 8th in iron proximity, you’re a threat in any major championship. His last four U.S. Open finishes were 14th, 14th, 5th and 4th. He’s gotta be on your fantasy team or however you’re playing this Open at the Bushwood Casino. PSR: 92.9.

Six. Russell Henley. Surprise! You probably don’t know a thing about The Hen. He’s a gamer. (So he’s a Game Hen? No, never mind.) He’s 36, he’s a Georgia boy who played golf at the University of Georgia. Henley has five wins on the PGA Tour, including this year’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. He ranks 14th in driving accuracy and third in proximity with his irons. Henley seems to have found his footing in the last year or so and realized just how good he is. He finished seventh at last year’s Open and he’s all about playing golf and not about talking about himself. He’s quiet, cut in the mode of Hall of Famer Larry Nelson. Can he handle U.S. Open Sunday pressure? It’s time to find out. PSR: 90.8.

Seven. Rory McIlroy. Former Pittsburgh Steelers Coach Chuck Noll used to tell players, “If you’re thinking about retiring, you’re already retired.” McIlroy has bravely voiced his issues recently with complacency and pushing himself to keep going hard after that Masters win completed his Career Grand Slam. He is also tinkering with his driver setup and, ahem, Oakmont is not a place to tinker. It is completely understandable that any player might suffer a letdown after what McIlroy accomplished. Can he climb yet another mountain this week? If he finds fairways with his new driver, or whatever clubs he hits off the tee, look for the competitor in him to switch back on. Count him out at your own peril. PSR: 90.6.

Eight. Nick Taylor. This Canadian always gets his man (Legal Department: note trademark infringement on the Canadian Mounties catchphrase here) in playoffs. Taylor has five wins and a 3-0 record in PGA Tour playoffs. His Canadian Open win was so brilliant, the tournament made him into its official logo. Maybe Taylor can start a collection of National Open titles by adding one at Oakmont. He’s a solid player, pretty straight off the tee (17th, driving accuracy) and steady with his irons (18th, proximity to the hole) and he has come through repeatedly in clutch situations.

Nine. Jon Rahm. It is easy to forget about Rahm because he’s in the Witness Protection Program known as LIV Golf and is out of sight, out of mind. He has played steady golf at LIV but not his best golf. However, he seems to have turned a corner. He was seventh at last month’s PGA Championship and he’s built for U.S. Open golf. His last four Open finishes were 10th, 12th, 1st, 23rd and 3rd. Rahm is an auto-top-10 in LIV events and seems to have renewed interest in chasing the No. 1 player in the world again. PSR: 77.4 (number adjusted because LIV plays only 54 holes).

Ten. Keegan Bradley. This isn’t as crazy as it may sound. Bradley has played some of his best golf this season on some of the tour’s hardest tracks. He finished 5th at the API, where Bay Hill had formidable rough; 8th at the PGA Championship, where Quail Hollow was just about zero fun; and 7th at the Memorial Tournament, which could just as easily have held the U.S. Open that week at Muirfield Village Golf Club. Maybe there’s something about being the U.S. Ryder Cup captain that has inspired him or, who knows, taken his mind off his own game enough to free himself up. As for the potential dilemma of being a playing captain in a Ryder Cup, there’s no dilemma. Each captain already has about 14 assistant captains now. It’s not like the old days when, gee, one assistant captain sufficed. They’ve got a captain for everything now, from foursomes to party favors to snack crackers. He did win a PGA Championship an eon ago early in his career and, not that he’d ever say it, but wouldn’t it be nice to stick to the previous Ryder Cup captain who passed over him two years ago to pick his tour pals instead and get waxed in Italy? PSR: 89.9.

By Gary Van Sickle

OAKMONT, Pa.—Rory McIlroy has always reminded me a little of David Duval, a former No. 1 player in the world.

Not their swings or their golf games, which were very different. But both are intelligent, literate and have other interests outside of golf. Normal, in other words, not obsessed with only golf. 

I remember when Duval was once asked why he didn’t practice more, although I forget why that topic came up, but he said, “How many perfect 6-iron shots in a row do I have to hit?”

He also described how he woke up the next day after finally landing a major championship, the Open, and wondered, “Is that all there is?”

When McIlroy completed the Career Grand Slam in April by winning the Masters, his first major title in 11 years, he completed a dream and a mission rolled into one. Complacency after great success is human nature. Even Arnold Palmer admitted, in Michael Bamberger’s excellent “Men In Green” book, that he lost his edge after winning the 1960 U.S. Open in style at Cherry Hills. Palmer kept winning majors for a few more years but he did it knowing that something he used to have, whatever it was, was gone.

It would be easy to write of McIlroy and psychologically fat and happy after this Masters win. His play since April has been lackluster. Is that disinterest or is he merely having driver issues? McIlroy said he learned something at the recent RBC Canadian Open and when pressed for details, answered, “I learned I wasn’t using the right driver.” So he switched from one TaylorMade driver model to a different TaylorMade driver.

It might be as simple as that. McIlroy entered this year with three stated goals and that was to complete the Slam, become the greatest player in European history and win one more Ryder Cup in the U.S.. Well, he’s already nailed down two of the three. Now he’s trying to sort out what drives him and how much fun time at home with his wife and young daughter, Poppy, he is willing to give up to continue playing the best golf of his life. 

There is no guidebook to work from for this. McIlroy will have to make it up as he goes. The fact that he even talks to the media about this, admits that it’s hard to keep pushing when he has accomplished so much, could be healing. It’s the elephant in the room only one wearing a green jacket.

What’s your plan for moving on from the Career Slam, he was asked? “I don’t have one. I have no idea,” he admitted. “Look, you dream about the final putt going in at the Masters but you don’t think about what comes next.”

He hopes to have “a little bit of amnesia” to forget about that Masters summit and “find the motivation to go back out there and work as hard as I’ve been working,” he said. From October until April this year, he geared up and steeled himself to prepare for the Masters. 

“I’ve always been a player who struggles to play after I win whatever tournament,” he said. “I always struggle to show up with motivation the next week because I’ve just accomplished something and I want to enjoy it and sort of relish achieving a goal. Chasing a certain goal for the better part of a decade and a half, I think I’m allowed a little time to relax. But here at Oakmont, I certainly can’t relax this week.”

McIlroy arrived in Augusta last April with great expectations. Is it possible that arriving with low expectations, or no expectations, is easier? He can free-wheel it this week at Oakmont. He has nothing to lose and nothing to prove.

It’s not as if he has forgotten how to hit a 340-drive or hit a fade since then. Scottie Scheffler is the world’s top player and the man to beat this week. McIlroy has been off form in his last few outings but does that really matter in the wake of climbing the mountain he climbed at the Masters? 

I probably wouldn’t bet any money on Rory to win this week. I also would not discount him, either. He’s still got it, the talent is still there. 

Really, how many perfect 6-iron shots in a row does a man have to hit?

PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania — So many players have made golfing history at Oakmont Country Club during the nine U.S. Opens played there.

Johnny Miller. Sam Parks. Jack Nicklaus. Arnold Palmer. Ernie Els. Larry Nelson. Forrest Fezler and ...

Wait. Forrest who?

Fezler  was a PGA Tour regular in the 1970s and early 1980s. He made a  rebellious gesture in the last round of the 1983 U.S. Open, fitting in a  city where the Pittsburgh Steelers’ game-day tradition includes  blasting Styx’s “Renegade” on the scoreboard sound system.

Fezler was a renegade when he became the first player to wear shorts in the U.S. Open — or any pro tournament for that matter......

Read the rest here:  https://thefirstcall.substack.com/p/the-long-and-shorts-of-forrest-fezlers?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=732523&post_id=165312956&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1f3pg0&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email