J.J. Spaun put an all-time exclamation point on his 2025 U.S. Open championship victory, concluding a final-round 72 with a 64-foot, 5-inch bomb of a birdie putt on the 72nd hole to create one of the most memorable moments in tournament history on Father's Day. Spaun went out in 32 on Sunday at Oakmont Country Club to finish 1 under at the national championship (279), ending a wild fourth round in which seemingly no one in the field other than Spaun and Robert MacIntyre, who finished second, were able to make clutch shots.
The 34-year-old journeyman, who entered the week at 120-1 odds to win the tournament per DraftKings, missed the cut in the only prior U.S. Open he started (2021). Spaun had never finished better than 23rd at a major (2022 Masters) and only claimed one PGA Tour victory prior to Sunday at the 2022 Texas Open. When he opened with a bogey-free 66 on Thursday, the world waited patiently for him to implode, but on a course that demands everything from those attempting to conquer it, Spaun was able to dig deeper than the rest.
His play across the board at Oakmont earned him the U.S. Open trophy, but that instant-classic putt to put a dagger in the championship on the 18th -- the longest make of the entire week -- will be the stuff of legend at the USGA-hosted event and Oakmont itself.
"Viktor [Hovland], we kind of got a good line, a good read on the speed. I was more focused on how hard he was hitting it," Spaun said about his final putt. "I kind of knew the line already, but it looked like he gave it a pretty good whack because it started raining there for the last 10, 15 minutes. I just tried to pick my line and put a good stroke on it. I knew it was going to be a little slow.
"About 8 feet out, I kind of went up to the high side to see if it had a chance of going in, and it was like going right in. I was just in shock, disbelief that it went in and it was over."
Spaun opened his day with five straight 5s -- as part of five bogeys in his first six holes -- to fall five shots back of 54-hole leader Sam Burns. He was the victim of some horrible breaks in Round 4 -- none worse than seeing a beautiful approach on No. 2 hit the flagstick and roll back all the way off the front of the green.
After that disastrous start, Spaun regrouped and steadied the ship going to the back nine after a 95-minute weather delay that completely changed how Oakmont was playing. The course was soaked after a torrential downpour, and Spaun adjusted to the conditions better than anyone else in the final groups, thanks in part to a conversation he had with his coaches on the range before going back out.
"They were just like, 'Dude, just chill. If you were given four shots back going into the back nine on Monday, like, you would take that,'" Spaun recalled. "They just said, 'Just let it come to you, be calm. Stop trying so hard.' That's what I was doing. I felt like I had a chance, a really good chance to win the U.S. Open at the start of the day. It just unravelled very fast. But that break was actually the key for me to winning this tournament."
Coming out of that break he settled down and then finally saw his putter heat up, making a 40-footer for birdie on the 12th and followed that with a 22-footer on the 14th to get back to even par.
Burns and Adam Scott, who entered the fourth round tied with Spaun one back, were simultaneously in the midst of an all-time final pairing ejection. They combined to go 17 over Sunday.
Suddenly, Spaun was the leader alone with new life to his game despite those early struggles. Though he bogeyed the tough 15th, Spaun delivered the shot of the tournament on No. 17, hitting driver on the par 4 to 18 feet from the cup.
That led to a two-putt birdie in which Spaun reclaimed the solo lead. He split 18th fairway and found the left side of the green where he made his now-iconic putt to win.
"It's definitely like a storybook, fairytale ending, kind of underdog fighting back, not giving up, never quitting," Spaun said afterwards. "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."
It was as gutsy a performance on a golf course as someone can muster. Spaun could not have started worse, but as he had done his best to tame Oakmont this week, he knew everyone else would be facing similar struggles. Spaun stayed in it mentally, shaking off bad breaks and bad swings to eventually find his best again when it mattered the most.
Spaun joins Ben Hogan as the only players to finish birdie-birdie to win an Oakmont-hosted U.S. Open, perJustin Ray. On a day that looked as if it would be a battle of who would fail least often, Spaun changed Sunday's storyline into one of triumph.
Spaun's tee shots on the 17th and 18th were his best swings with a driver all day. He didn't need his putt at the last, but this U.S. Open was craving it. That 64-footer finding the cup gave a week filled with pain and suffering a defining, iconic moment of joy.
2025 U.S. Open leaderboard breakdown
1. J.J. Spaun (-1):Spaun had every reason to mentally check out after his first six holes, but to his credit, he refused to stop grinding. Now, he's a U.S. Open champion and gets everything that comes with that. The $4.3 million winner's check is the biggest of his career by nearly 400%, but perhaps as important are the exemptions. He now has a 5-year exemption onto the PGA Tour, locking up his card through 2030. He's exempt into the next 10 U.S. Opens, avoiding any qualifiers until 2035, and he gets into the next five Masters, Opens, PGA Championships and Players Championships. For a guy who thought he might lose his card not long ago, that's some incredible stability.
2. Robert MacIntyre (+1): The only player in the final 10 pairings to post a round under par (68) nearly backdoored a U.S. Open title. MacIntyre birdied the 14th and 17th holes to climb into a share of the lead going to No. 18, making a solid par at the last to get into the clubhouse and make the field stare down that 1 over number. As he signed his card, Tyrrell Hatton and Burns were backing up, leaving Spaun as the only other man tied with him, and it looked like he would have a great chance to at least get into a playoff on Monday. Spaun had different ideas with his birdie-birdie finish to win in style, and MacIntyre couldn't help but applaud in the clubhouse as Spaun's putt dropped on the 18th. The $2.3 million in his bank account surely softens the blow.
3. Viktor Hovland (+2):Hovland picks up his fourth top-5 finish in a major, but like everyone else that teed off late Sunday, he'll be thinking about this as a missed opportunity for some time. His driver betrayed him on Sunday as he found just 7 of 14 fairways. After an incredible scrambling round Saturday, he couldn't back that up Sunday. There are positives to take away from this week, as it's the first time in a year that he's contended at a major, but with the way everyone backed up around him, there was an opportunity to get that ellusive first win if he could've produced his A-game in the final round.
T4. Cameron Young, Tyrrell Hatton, Carlos Ortiz (+3):Hatton is the one of this group that will be feeling the most frustration -- and not just because that's his default setting. He was tied for the lead on the 17th tee, presented with a golden opportunity to get a birdie on the easiest hole on the golf course. However, where Spaun delivered his best driver swing of the week, Hatton hung his drive high and right, bounding into the rough on the downslope short of the bunker. From there, he fluffed his chip into the rough on the other side of the bunker, leading to the first real Hatton tantrum of the week. That led to a bogey and he followed that up with another on the 18th after driving it into the rough to fall back to T4, good for his best finish in a major but one that he will feel slipped away.
T7. Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Sam Burns (+4):Rahm's 67 was tied with Rory McIlroy for the best round of Sunday as he left Oakmont with some positive vibes. Scheffler shot an even-par 70 to get another major top 10, but given the way the field came back to him, there was a chance to post a number and make the field stare at the name of the world's No. 1 on that leaderboard. Scheffler missed too many short putts all week, and again on Sunday; he could not pay off an excellent ball-striking round.
And then there's Burns, who came into the day as the solo leader at 4 under only to score a 78 in one of the all-time collapses at a U.S. Open. Thankfully for him (and Scott), that became a bit of a secondary headline after Spaun's incredible finish. Burns went out in a 3-over 38 and didn't make a birdie on the front nine, but he still held a two-shot lead after getting his first circle on the card on the the 10th hole.
Unfortunately, the wheels came off from there, starting with some bad breaks that seemed to snowball on him until he broke completely. His tee shot on No. 11 rolled into an old divot and his approach came up short and found a horrible spot in the rough just above the lip of the bunker. That led to a double bogey to drop back to E, but he still had the lead. Then on No. 12, he had an unforced error from the fairway with his third, tugging it in the rough left from 125 yards leading to a bogey on the par 5, creating a 5-way tie for the lead.
After two pars, everything unraveled on the 15th when two rules officials refused to give him relief from what certainly appeared to be casual water in a low area of the fairway. Fuming from being denied relief, he hooked his second and went on to make double bogey after fluffing his third and leaving it in the rough. At that point he was at 3 over and largely out of contention, but another bogey on the 16th officially ended his chances on his way to a 78.
There will be lessons to eventually take from this day for Burns, but in the immediate aftermath, it will be hard to blame him for feeling like he lost his best chance at a U.S. Open title for reasons outside his control.
T12. Adam Scott and six others (+6):Despite all of those issues for Burns, he still won his head-to-head matchup with Scott in the final pairing after Scott shot a shocking 79. Like Burns, Scott went out in 38 but remained just one shot off the lead as they made the turn. He left a few putts tantalizingly close that allowed Burns to remain one ahead of him, and even the 95-minute rain delay wasn't enough to get him focused and on his game.
Scott never get himself on track during a disastrous ball-striking day, which was stunning to watch from a player who has long been one of the gold standards in that regard. He only hit seven fairways and nine greens in regulation, living in the lush Oakmont rough, which his scores reflected. Four bogeys and a double on the back nine dropped him all the way out of the top 10, and the 44-year-old will rue missing out on what could be his last great chance to win a second major.
