1 shot Defined JJ spaun’s US Open (and wasn’t the blow to 18)

Oakmont, without. – On Sundays on Majors, players are discovered. In one We openmostly. And when the US Open is in Oakmont – the most challenging course in the US open rotation – this becomes even more true. You can take your game on the course on the course on Thursday and Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, if you win, you will need more than the perfection of the verse. Sign in character.

Jj spaun showed his open character in the US in his second shot in the 2nd hole on Sunday. This is when he showed his true himself, that he had what was needed to win this wet slogue, to win in the course where Larry Nelson and Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan open. Talk about harsh men. What made Spaun in the second goal of the 2nd hole shows how much he deserves to round it fourth.

Arriving at Oakmont, Spaun – 34, married, father of two – was best known for losing to Rory Mcilroy in a play off in the player championship three months ago. He had won a PGA Tour event, Texas Open, three years ago. This open was the second American opened by his career. He was following a three round blow and playing Sunday with Victor Hovland, in the penultimate pairing of the day. He made a noise in 1. If he had shot 77, would you be shocked?

Spaun hit a 3-drule toward the middle in the short (352 yard) par-4 2. He had 94 yards on a rear tip. His caddy, Mark Carens – bucket hat, gray beard, white shorts – assumed the position of the attractive, unusual close to his player, and holding in the spaun golf bag as if it were a protector of life. The stroke was perfect: the closed stay, the velocity through the ball, the divotine-fertilizer of the dollar, the low, the rotation, the flight of the car in a warm breeze. The blow was tied to the black and white flag by Get-Go.

The Srixon ball jumped once, probably six meters in front of the hole. And then she climbed immediately in the middle of the fiberglass flag, probably a half -inch diameter. What are the chances?

Fans who sounded green can hear it and see it. Greenside’s MIC took the striking sound and fans’ response. The ball rolled for nearly 30 seconds, below the green greenery, outside it and the collar, back to the green, then off the road, heading to a sea with divotine holes filled from the first round of Open.

You can remember when Tiger Woods Hit the flag in the 15th hole in the second round of the 2013 masters. For the accuracy of Ami -Dead, the purpose of the spaun was almost the same.

This was when Spaun showed that he has what he needs to win this national championship: he did not say one thing. He did not prevent his feet. He did not leave. He just looked at the ball, from start to finish, all half a minute. He scratched his head for a quick second through his blue baseball cap. That was that.

For his third shooting, he had a 50-boron pitch, instead of a five-legged bird blow. He may have done 3. He did 5. A start of Bogey-Bogey. He was fine on his way to 77.

The Spaun of Stoicism showed in response to that blow to the mind Tom Watson in the 1984 British Open in St. Andrews. On Sunday, in the 17th hole, Watson, at the twenty last, trying to win his sixth open and his first in the old course, shakes his second shot, ending his chances of winning. Watson hit a poor blow while Spaun was extraordinary. And Watson didn’t win, and Spaun naturally did it. But the resemblance is that Watson just stayed there and got it. That’s what the spaun did. There is more than one way to play golf, but a harsh essence, as both men showed, will always help on Sundays in the major. Especially in us opens. Especially when they are in Oakmont.

Here is the Play-Play-I-Play-I-Play of Spaun:

“We had 100 jars maybe, maybe less. It was like a perfect type of flying, shredded sandy wedge, which is what the shooting required, because it is directly in the wind, and (green) was soft. I hit it perfect, and it was just one of its issue was that perfect distance or not?

“All I have heard is like one really loudly like,” Ohhhhh! “It wasn’t like a good oh. I didn’t even think it happened.

“When I saw you were coming out of the green at that very speed, I’m like,” this should have hit the pin. “

“Then I’m walking up there, fixing my pitch sign and everyone was like,” She hit the stake! “

“During the rain delay, I saw it and was really unlucky. It was almost a two -stroke rhythm. I was thinking,” it would have been very close, maybe within five legs, if it had not hit the flag. “Yes – not a good start to the day.”

And how did he explain his stoic response?

“It was so early in the round that I couldn’t allow my attitude or any disappointment to take me,” he said.

Tough man, strong response. She made all the difference.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments in Michael.bamberger@golf.com