Oakmont, Pa.-The US Open, the third important championship of the season, produced the most unlikely champion in JJ Spaun, who won excitingly with consecutive Birdies in the final two holes in Oakmont Country Club on Sunday.
Spaun was the only golfer who ended up under the pair in 1 low 279, and was the solitary survivor on a day when the rain and wind caused Oakmont to be even more treacherous.
The last main championship of the season, the championship opened in the Royal Portrush Golf Club in Ireland of the North from July 17 to 20, is one month away.
Who will be the favorites outdoors? Will the improbable victory of Spaun promote more victories? What about the Ryder Cup?
What do you expect from JJ Span for the rest of the season?
Mark Schlabach: Last season, Span lost the cut in 10 of his first 15 openings at the PGA Tour and held the 169th position in the world. He was worried that he could lose his tour card.
“Last year in June it seemed that I was going to lose my job, and that was when I had that moment when 'if that's how I go out, I could get off,” Spaun said.
Spaun changed things at the end of summer, and has been playing some of the best golf of his career this year. He tied secondly at Cognizant Classic in Palm Beaches in February and lost to Rory Mcilroy in a Monday playoff in the players championship. He had been close to adding a second victory in his tour career, and finally he did in one of the most difficult golf courses in the world.
“I think it's just perseverance,” Spaun said. “I have always fought for whatever it is where I needed to be and get to what I wanted. I have done this before. I have had falls at all levels. I have always returned and came back and said: 'You have done this before. You've been before. You've left that.' There is a bit like a small pattern, so I hope I don't do that pattern again.”
Span's competitors were not so surprised to win the US Open, which says something. Although Span may not be so familiar to a name to people who do not follow golf closely, they are considered one of the best ball blows in the world. His putter warmed for four days in Oakmont, which is one of the main reasons he won.
Paolo Uggetti: While at first glance it may seem that Spaun was a winner of the United States Open, it is a testimony of its evolution as a player who could last more than each person in the field this week.
As his new coach Josh Gregory detailed after the final round, Span could have been happy just being a median PGA player: he had $ 17 million in professional profits before this week, after all, but instead he wanted, Gregory said, being elite.
“It would be very easy to settle and say what I'm doing works,” Gregory said. “For his credit, he said 'I need to be better'.”
For Span, who has always been an elite ball beatee, that meant working in his placement and chipped, with which Gregory said he has helped. This week was a work test that he has done, and will prepare it well for the rest of the year. Now, every time there is a course that prioritizes the iron game, Span seems to be able to trust once you find the green.
Although it is stated in the last major of the year it can be crazy since Spaun has never played in the weather, I hope Spaun is in the mixture in several PGA Tour events, including the next Tour championship.
Thoughts about the Ryder Cup after the first three specialties of the year?
Schlabach: The Captain of the Ryder Cup of the USA, Keegan Bradley, was received by the “Usa! Usa!” When Green Green arrived in Oakmont Country Club on Sunday, and is a battle cry that will often listen to in the coming months.
Spaun almost assured his Ryder Cup place by winning the US Open. It is the third at points, only the number 1 of the world Scottie Scheffler and the two -time major winner Xander Schauffele. Bryson Dechambeau is fourth, followed by Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa. They are probably locks to make the team.
In addition to winning Spaun, Russell Henley and Ben Griffin were probably the largest movements in Oakmont. They tied the tenth of 5 to 5, and now they are seventh and eighths at points of the Ryder Cup, respectively.
The six best players in the points classification after the BMW Championship on August 17 will automatically do the team; Bradley will also make six decisions from the captain.
Uggetti: I am sure that Captain Luke Donald enjoyed seeing Viktor Hovland once again approaching his first important title, as well as Tyrrell Hatton and even Jon Rahm, who almost became controversy, working well. All ended within the Top 10 and will undoubtedly be in Bethpage, even if Rahm and Hovland are currently outside the top 6 in the European ranking at this time.
Someone who is within the TOP-6 is Robert MacIntyre, whose Sunday race until second place helped him obtain his best final in a specialty and increase his name to the room in the Ryder Cup classification.
MacIntyre was considered the last man two years ago in Rome, but he more than his 2-0-1. On the tour of this season, MacIntyre has four results among the 10 best, and that type of result in a course like Oakmont will certainly strengthen his case and placed it in an excellent position to return to the team in September.
Thoughts too early on the open championship?
Schlabach: Scheffler fought against his swing and his putter for 72 holes in Oakmont, but managed to tie for seventh place at 4 for another top 10 in a major. Even in less than the best, Scheffler is still better than the majority, and I think that the list of golfers who can compete in Royal Portrush begins with the three times older winner.
“My main conclusion is that I fought as hard as I did this week,” Scheffler said. “I was very proud of how I was in the course of four days. I did many things out there that they could really break a week, and I never got that good rest that drives you. I would hit it so far, and apparently every time I did, I was punished with quite a severity for it.”
Shane Lowry took home the Claret Jarra the last time the Open in Ireland of the North was played in 2019, and I think it will be among the favorites again. Lowry fought powerfully in his second senior consecutive and the cut was lost after publishing 79-78.
Rory Mcilroy will seek redemption after losing the cut in Royal Portrush five years ago. He still fought a little with his driver in Oakmont, but went home with some impulse after publishing a 3 -under 67 on Sunday. I think he will get his mind and balancing in the right place before reaching Northern Ireland.
“Look, if I can't motivate myself to get up for an open championship at home, then I don't know what can motivate me,” said Mcilroy. “Yes, as I said, I just need to get into the right mood. I probably haven't been there in recent weeks.
“But as I said, getting home and having a couple of weeks free before that, hopefully feeling renewed and rejuvenated, it will take me again to the right place.”
Uggetti: How about the defending champion doing another career? With everyone's eyes at the top of the classification table on Sunday, Xander Schauffele in silence gathered a round under the torque to finish inside the top 12 in Oakmont.
Slow but sure, the Schauffele game has been written again in the form of an important championship after it was missing some time at the beginning of the season with a rib injury. In its last seven openings, Schauffele has five Top-15.
“He had never been injured before. So I think everything was new,” said Schauffele this week. “I felt that I was playing at a fairly high level. Then I hurt. My expectations of what I knew I could do where I was very different, and accepting that was difficult. I think that was the best call for attention to come back.”
It is fair to say that Schauffele is almost all the way and just in time for the second important championship that he won last season. The 31 -year -old said the Claret jug last year in Troon with a wonderful Sunday performance that showed that he could excel, not only in the PGA Tour configurations, but also in links of links with link conditions. Portrush will bring these two things to the stage in a month, and Schauffele will have the benefit of knowing that he has won in that type of environment before.
In addition to Span, who were the biggest winners in Oakmont?
Schlabach: Viktor Hovland's swing has been a disaster, or at least believed it, for much of the season, but managed to enter the mixture and finished third at 2 and in third place. Hovland's interior battle for perfection could prevent him from joining Scheffler, Schauffele and others such as the true best golfers in the world, but there is little debate that he is one of the most talented. Everything is there for him to win a couple of specialties, at least.
“I continue to progress in the right direction and have the opportunity to win an important championship without my best things and not feel very comfortable, it's very great,” said Hovland. “So I'm going to take many positive aspects this week.”
Although Adam Scott would have liked a better end than 9 and 79 on Sunday, he was there in the mixture until the conditions became bad in the second nine. He had believed that Scott's possibilities to compete in the specialties had ended since he is 44 years old. But this was the first time he did it in a long time, and he could still have something in the tank to do it again.
Uggetti: I will return to MacIntyre here. Oban's man looked comfortable in chaotic conditions on Sunday and played the nine in Oakmont in a 2 -und without Fogey to take the leadership of the club house that almost took him to the playoff with Spaun.
“I'm just a guy who believes,” MacIntyre said. “Today was a day that I said: 'Why not? Why not be me today?'”
All week, the Scotsman went out, took fourth place in the hits won: put and, despite a round of 74 on Friday, he remained in the tournament that predicted that he would have a winter.
MacIntyre was almost right.
Once he ended with his round and could only see how Spaun drained the 64 -foot Birdie to ensure a low -low finish score and victory, the cameras caught MacIntyre in the annotations room giving Span an abundant applause and a sincere “wow”. It was a human moment that obtained many praise and limited a week that MacIntyre will not forget soon.
“It feels great,” MacIntyre said about being disputed. “It's what I dreamed when I was a child, sitting at home looking at all specialties. Yes, it feels incredible.”
