JJ Spaun entered the 2025 season a new man.
He almost lost his PGA Tour card in 2024, and was on nobody’s radar to win a major championship the following year. But Spaun came out swinging, taking Rory McIlroy to a playoff hole at The Players, then winning the US Open at Oakmont.
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Spaun thrived at the most difficult courses of the season and was the only man to shoot under par at Oakmont in horrendous conditions. He was then one of Team USA’s standout players at the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black, with the world watching.
It seems the higher the stakes and the harder the conditions, the better Spaun performs. And that’s why he brings confidence into the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images
JJ Spaun explains why he’s confident of contending for Farmers Insurance Open
Torrey Pines is one of the most challenging tasks players face on the PGA Tour schedule, but Spaun isn’t intimidated by the challenge. Instead, he thinks he stands a better chance of contending for the win here than he would at easier courses.
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Speaking to reporters before the Farmers Insurance Open, he explained, “Heading into this year, I’ve been like this has always been a course that I feel like is a U.S. Open-style test for just a standard PGA Tour event.
“I think after winning last year at the U.S. Open at Oakmont, it’s just given me more belief that this course is big and it’s tough, but so is the place that I won.
“So it’s given me a lot of confidence. It’s a place that I’m really excited to tee it up and see if I can add one to the list, and it would be pretty much the cherry on the cake.”
Spaun finished T15 at the Farmers Insurance Open last year, a solid result, but one he’ll hope to better this year.
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JJ Spaun reveals the secret to his success in 2025
Spaun admitted that during his struggles that epitomized the opening few years of his career, he entered tournaments hoping to make the cut. But as it became more likely that he’d lose his card, it enabled him to swing freely, and it changed his game.
He explained, “In the past, I just was trying to make cuts. You know, trying to not play myself out of the weekend, Thursday and Friday. Now I think I turned that corner.
“In 2025, halfway through, I had to play really well to keep my fully exempt card, so just making cuts wasn’t going to do it. So I had to just say I’m going for broke, I have nothing to lose. Although I had something to lose, I had to use that mindset to kind of keep the aggression there and play to the ability that I knew I could play at.
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“And when I did that in 2024 and played well to keep my card, I just kept rolling with that same mindset, and just not being afraid. It’s done really well for me.
Spaun continued, “I think there’s a lot of fear in golf. It’s easy to think about misses, it’s easy to think about the what ifs, and to not hit it there, to not hit it there. But I just, I didn’t care anymore because I was content with what I did.
“I said if this is how I go out, this is how I go out, but I’m going to go down swinging. And I was able to keep that mindset all throughout last year, and it did really well for myself.”
It’s an admirable mindset, and Spaun had to face up to his golfing mortality in order to get himself to a place where he can play with freedom. Perhaps that’s a lesson to every golfer near the bottom of the leaderboard.
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