OAKMONT, Pa. – When the camera cut to Bob MacIntyre in the comfort of Oakmont’s clubhouse, a single word came from his mouth. 

What more could be said? J.J. Spaun, a small but mighty Californian who had lost in a playoff at The Players Championship earlier this year — finally, a breakthrough, after years of lacking confidence — had just rolled in a 64-footer for an incredible walk-off birdie to win the U.S. Open. 

The chants of “J.J., J.J.” rained down on Spaun as the real rain had been falling through Sunday afternoon. A delay of an hour-and-a-half. A front-nine 40, and then Spaun, who received a tip from his coach on the driving range before restarting — “Just a half-second faster over the putts” — went out and won the damn thing. 

Spaun, who has just one victory on the PGA Tour on his resume, became the first golfer since 2003 to shoot a 40 on his front nine at a tournament and still come back and win. He made four birdies after returning from a 96-minute weather delay, including two in a row to finish his championship — just the fifth winner in the championship’s history to go birdie-birdie to close out a victory. 

The first of the two closing birdies for Spaun, on the short penultimate par-4, came after perhaps the drive of his life — leaving him just 17 feet out for eagle. 

With the rain pelting down once again on 18, he put his drive in the fairway but left his approach more than 60 feet away. Viktor Hovland, Spaun’s playing partner on the day, however, hit his approach outside of Spaun and gave him the read and the speed. 

Spaun stepped up and made the curling bomb — the longest putt made by anyone on any hole all week long. Spaun made more than 400 feet of putts for the week, the most of anyone in the field. 

“That was unbelievable,” Hovland said. “To watch him hole the putt on 12 down the hill there was unreal. And then he makes another one on 14 that was straight down the hill. And then the one on 18 — it’s just absolutely filthy there.” 

Spaun started the week in ideal fashion, leading after the first day after a 4-under 66. Spaun was paired with Canadian Taylor Pendrith for the first two days and Pendrith said he had made things look awfully easy out there — just finding fairways and making putts. A basic, but solid strategy. 

Spaun was still able to right the ship through the final part of the day — if he ended up tied, they would have played the two-hole playoff on Monday — and, impressively, Spaun was the first U.S. Open champion to begin a round with three holes over par. 

“After his start, it just looked like he was out of it immediately,” Hovland said. “Everyone came back to the pack — I wasn’t expecting that really.” 

Spaun himself wasn’t really expecting to be here, Sunday night at the U.S. Open with the trophy in hand.

Earlier in the year, when he fell to Rory McIlroy in a playoff at The Players — which took place on the Monday of that week, too, with a rain-delayed final round in the rearview mirror, Spaun admitted he may have been “done” with PGA Tour golf last year. He missed 10 of his first 15 cuts. He was thinking, he said, about the end. 

“I was kind of thinking, ‘Hey, I played eight years out here, I’ve got a great family, I’ve won. So, it’s not the end of the world if this is how it ends for me,’” he said.

It’s not, of course, how things ended. 

Spaun notched four top-10s to close out his 2024 campaign and then began this year with a tie for third at the Sony Open. He had a tie for second at the Cognizant Classic before his playoff defeat at The Players, plus a tie for sixth at the Charles Schwab Challenge. Then came his U.S. Open victory. 

“I just felt like you keep putting yourself in these positions, like eventually you’re going to tick one off,” Spaun said. “I don’t put myself in this position often, or at all, for a major, that’s for sure. This is only my second U.S. Open. But all the close calls that I’ve had on the PGA Tour this year has just been really good experience to just never, never give up.”

Spaun had his daughters in tow from the back of the 18th green through the clubhouse celebration and into the night. He didn’t know if they would even make it to the course Sunday morning, as he said his wife was up at 3 a.m. with one of his daughters, Violet, who was vomiting due to a stomach bug, forcing Spaun to run to a drugstore in downtown Pittsburgh. He didn’t want to blame his rough start on the classic parenting situation, but that didn’t not contribute to things. He said having that unfold, and his whole family with him this week, was actually a nice distraction. 

There was still golf to be played, of course, and one by one some of the challengers fell away. Hovland bogeyed Nos. 8 and 9 after the restart, plus No. 15. Adam Scott made a mess of things after the restart, going 6 over for his final nine holes, while Sam Burns went 5 over. There were some questions about course conditions, with Scott calling it “borderline unplayable,” but he was quick to say, well, everyone was playing the same course. 

MacIntyre, who finished alone in second, had the steadiest of ledgers after the break, going 3 under for his final 10 holes Sunday. He was in the house at 1 over, and it appeared the more holes a golfer had left, the more opportunities there were for mistakes. 

Alas, Spaun did the complete opposite of everyone else and made those two closing birdies. One hand around the trophy, and then the other. 

“It’s definitely like a storybook, fairytale ending, kind of underdog fighting back, not giving up, never quitting,” Spaun said. “With the rain and everything and then the putt, I mean, you couldn’t write a better story.”