Really, can you blame JJ Spaw? Maybe not because of the special place in his heart that this particular piece of equipment might have.
IN The invitation of Genesis at the Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles on Wednesday, the 2025 US Open champion was asked if the USGA — the organization that runs the US Open — ever asked him for a meaningful club from his victory to keep for his archives.
Yes, said Spaun – but he wouldn’t let them have it.
“I said, ‘Unfortunately, I can’t,'” Spaun said. “That thing is not ready to retire, especially after that easy shot.”
That easy shotyou may remember, it’s the 64-footer that he used to do win the 125th US Open in walk-off fashion at Oakmont Country Club last June.
“Viktor (Hovland), we had a good line, a good read on the speed,” Spaun said after his win at Oakmont, when he birdied the effort to secure his first major title. “I was more focused on how hard he was hitting it. I kind of knew the line already, but it looked like he hit it really well because it started raining for the last 10, 15 minutes. I just tried to get my line and hit it good. I knew it was going to be a little slow. About 8 feet out, I had a chance to go to the high side and I was going to go up. I was just in mate, the disbelief that crept in and ended.
So you can understand why Spaun didn’t want to part with his LAB Golf DF3. So he went with the next best thing.
“The second club probably the most valuable, I think, was my driver, and I had actually switched to a younger driver, which means he was probably getting close to his limit,” Spaun said Wednesday. “It ended up being kind of unusable anyway, so I gave it away and I think they were quite happy.”
Just last week we discovered Rory McIlroy lost one of his important clubs through donation as well. McIlroy’s most memorable shot from his 2025 Masters victory was the 7-iron he hit on the par-5 15th green on Sunday, setting up an easy two-shot birdie.
“I didn’t realize it, but I came back the day after on Monday and I basically hadn’t seen my golf clubs since like after the playoff, and I saw that my 7-iron was missing,” McIlroy said last week at Pebble Beach. “I thought this is a pretty important club. Sean (O’Flaherty, my business manager) had already given it to the club, he just didn’t tell me. That’s fine, I’ll get a new 7-iron. If there was one I’d give to the club, it would probably be that one.”
