J.J. Spaun used to attend the PGA Tour’s annual stop at Riviera Country Club as a kid.
“I just remember it always being wet,” he said during a pre-tournament interview on Wednesday. “Like I’ll never forget just hopping across puddles down on Capri trying to get to the clubhouse and watching Fred Couples and J.J. Henry warming up in the rain, as I’m watching outside that net down 2.”
J.J. Spaun holding the U.S. Open trophy at Oakmont Country Club.
Spaun, a Los Angeles native, played in his hometown tournament for the first time in 2016 after receiving the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption, which typically has been given to a golfer representing a minority background. Spaun made his second career Tour start – he previously had played in the 2015 RBC Canadian Open – and missed the cut. But one year later, he earned his Tour card and won his first Tour title at the 2022 Valero Texas Open.
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Spaun, who won the 2025 U.S. Open, was asked during his press conference if he had donated a club from his Open victory to the USGA to display at the World Golf Hall of Fame. Spaun explained that he wasn’t willing to donate his LAB Golf putter, which has made his putting stroke reborn since the club switch.
“I said, ‘Unfortunately, I can’t. That thing is not ready to be retired, especially after that putt,’ ” he said, referring to his long-range bomb on the 72nd hole to clinch the U.S. Open at Oakmont. Instead, he gave what he considered his second most valuable club, a driver, in his bag.
This season, Spaun is just getting go but he is one of three players this season to rank in the Top 20 in both par 3 and par 5 scoring average, along with Hideki Matsuyama and Russell Henley. He has never averaged under par on par 3s in a season in his PGA Tour career. Spaun has birdied or better 24 of 32 (75 percent) par 5s, the second-best rate on the PGA Tour.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: J.J. Spaun on his U.S. Open win and his prized putter
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