Hours after JJ Spaun’s win in the US Open, the best moment was unspoiled

Oakmont, without. – Here comes jj spaun, moving away from metal stairs, US Open trophies on one side and surrounded by Bum Mics and cameras. The dark gone in the Oakmont Country Club, in addition to the flood lights by illuminating the parking lot and Golf Channel’s “Live From Live” group, where the spaun is just coming out.

He is tired, but he is running in adrenaline. It’s been a long day. He was raised at 3am, the man bound for the third in the US Open, running to CVS to take his daughter’s medicine. Then there was a rain delay between the 18 grueling holes in the most difficult tournament in the world in one of its most difficult courses in even more difficult conditions. He had to deal with a terrible start for his round, bad vacation and all those big championship nerves. Then he decided heck with all of themhe was going Earn US Open Anyway. Now he is moving without stop for the last two-plus hours. A trophy engraving is ongoing, one of the biggest obligations for the sample of one of the biggest golf events.

Finally, he asks the question I am wonder for a while now.

“What time is it?”

***

Within the Oakmont club club, they are a vacuum. This place has been annoying for last week – with players, cadets, members and VIP guests – but now it is very quiet and vacuums are lost together by some rooms away.

It is 10am, and JJ Spaun sits in a chair after two massive oak doors with white ornamentation. He is passing the guarantee of interviews with USGA rights holders first TSN, then CNN, followed by ESPN and Siriusxm. A USGA employee looks at the direct hit of ESPN from their phone, 15 meters away.

Since the spaun made it to the SH.BA Robert Macytre – It has been a tedious, chaotic explosion. Good kind of busy.

The first trophy presentation came first, followed by the NBC and the interviews of the Green rights holder. He then posed for the photo before he went into a golf cart and held a press conference with additional media. Thirty minutes later he was again in a wheelchair, trophies in traction, turning into the 18th green. A dozen photographers were waiting for him, killing time by killing the shots of a USA employee to get the lighting properly.

More photos followed – with USA, with Oakmont members, with his family (his wife, Melody and their two daughters), his agent, Caddy, coaches and friends. Some security guards, near the end of their weekly change, gathered in green for the front row.

Johnson Wagner stayed nearby, waiting to reset the 72nd 72nd point for TV. At 9:30 pm, Green Cleared, Wagner was lit and Spaun disappeared at the club club for hits on TV. At 10:10 pm he left the room and headed to the “Live From” set, where he wing Rich Lerner, Brandel Chamblee and Paul McGinley.

Four workers, taking a break from the task of cleaning, stayed at their top to steal a short appearance.

***

These post -profit routes are merely guides. There is room to get out of the script. Like when Bryson Dechambeau won US Open last year, he did not spend time reaching the New York City on the media tour, flying at night.

Sometimes you have to leave room for spontaneity, as when the trophy presentation ended on Sunday at night, immediately before they started one-in open rights. Instead of throwing into his next set of interviews, the spaun walked rapidly on the farthest green edge of the 18th, and he walked alone. This was not planned.

A USA official – in an effort to keep dozens of people with agendas and work to make informed – showed the scene for photographers, cameramen and media: “He is simply telling Hi his father.”

John Spaun, dressed in a black Masters 2025 hat, has been here all week. He walked 18 holes on Sunday. He flew from Arizona and tries to see his son play in the diplomas and most of the West Coast events. He knew his son was special when he was only 7 years old, when JJ had a beautiful, inside-out pace. A gift from God, John called it.

Twenty -seven years later, that gift had handed John one present.

“As soon as he was walking towards me with that trophy, I just lost it,” John says. “Tears. I just couldn’t keep it inside.”

John, like JJ, never lost hope on Sunday, even after JJ Bogeyed five of his first six holes. His son always returns, he said, so he was not surprised when he mourned four of his last seven as his competition was split. Throughout this trip there was a lot of up and down – JJ himself called it a “end of fairy tales” – but no moment was sweeter than this. John told his son that he was proud of him.

They hugged and lasted a few seconds long; John closed his eyes, as if carving a memory forever. His eyes retired and he kissed his son on the cheek. From the ancestors behind them, a man shouted, “Happy Father’s Day!”

It is unclear which spaun they were screaming, but it didn’t matter. A few minutes later, John held one of JJ’s two daughters and told her how amazing her father was.

“Dad won,” she told her grandfather. “He has a trophy now.”

***

The US open trophy is 18 inches tall and made of pure silver. The original one from 1885 was lost in a fire in 1946, and an exact copy was used until it retired in 1986. This is the third version, but it is no less spectacular. Spaun carries him in his left hand as he leaves the “Live” set, goes through a parking lot, up to a crossing and returns to the Oakmont club.

The steps towards the second floor closet room are wrinkled as you walk on them. There is no air conditioning here, and fans are all in full explosion. When it is quite quiet, you can hear them, but around the corner, in a room off the stairs, a holiday is coming to life.

There is food outside, playing music and about a dozen people – the team of Spaun, friends and Oakmont employees – awaiting the arrival of the big biggest golf champion. This is the last stop of the night. Dozens of us flags and open posters sit at a table in the middle of the room, waiting for the spa to write his name on them.

But first, he sits next to Otto Carter, who is ready to engrave the spaun name in a trophy. The day before Carter happened to ride the same transfer as Spaun’s wife, and he joked that he drew for players with the shortest names. (He must have been pleased with the spaun victory.)

For just one moment, maybe to see how well he feels to rest, the spaun pulled back into his chair and pulled out. Someone brings him a beer in an open cup in the US, those who fans used throughout the week, and puts it next to it.

“My mind is still competing,” Spaun says. “It will sink probably tomorrow.”

Spaun was asked to be dad during his press conference but he was never asked his The father, the man he embraced in the green 18 hours ago, the same one who looked at that press conference from the back of the room.

“It’s been an extraordinary trip,” Spaun tells me. “My father introduced me to the game and always supported me every step of the way. It was great to have him there to witness him and spend his father’s day watching me playing. The best gift to give him than to be able to win US Open.”

This group can go to NYC on Monday, or maybe Tuesday, for even more photos still and appearing on a long list of conversations. But this is not a decision to make this second. JJ Spaun just exceeded 155 others on the last field of the Golf Battle.

Outside the club, the rain has stopped, the 18th green is deserted. Oakmont is closing. But on the second floor, in a room full of golf legends, a holiday is underway. Sleep be cursed.

You can reach the author in Joshua.berhow@golf.com.

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