Your open leader in the US thought his career … after the movie Kirsten Dunst?

Oakmont, without. – JJ spaun wonder if you’ve seen it Wimbledon.

Indeed, it doesn’t matter; He can fill you in the plot from the film that separates a name with the tennis tournament.

“Maybe it’s in the early 2000s,” he said. “And it’s this, not washed, but he is an older player, tennisist, and he is thinking of leaving, and he wants to retire in Wimbledon this year. He ends up winning Wimbledon, and going through it all, he meets a girl and goes through all these things. This kinda has resonated with her that you can’t get rid of yet.

“And I was looking, and I was like, oh, maybe that could be me.”

Add this, then, to the achievement list of ROM-Com 2004 Interpreting Kristen Dunst and Paul Betany and directed by Richard Loncraine: a pulse. Who knew? But on a flight to London last December, clip He needed something to spend time – and also found a beacon. Occasionally, you at least question your direction some. In the case of Spaun, he was 34 years old and a one-time winner-and only one winner once. Do you continue to grind for 45, especially with a family at home?

Spaun did, we know. And there he was Thursday, in a more sublime place: your We open The leader of the first round. On a day where big, bad Oakmont All harassed, Spaun turned out relatively unsafe in his second appearance at the National Championship. Four birds. Not bogeys. A 66.

Six months since his moment that came to Wimbledon have had other moments, though what you need to know came to March, In the player championship. There, after 54 holes, the spaun also led. And he co-guided after 72, with Rory Mcilroy. During the oversized schedule, Monday morning, Mcilroy won, and Spaun left with a thought. Growing up in LA, he would idle Kobe Bryant. And Bryant inspired it. Bryant wished the ball in his hands at the bottom of the games.

In the players, Spaun said he now wanted to be that type, too. In Oakmont on Thursday, he said it again.

“I’ve been a kind of scared to look for the ball, or I think you might say to have the lead or be the one they are all following,” Spaun said. “I was always comfortable to be a follower than the one who followed.

“I mean, I had a truly harsh Sunday in Memfis as three years ago, and this kind gave me a scar tissue. And then a real kind did not objection with much like the one in the middle of this year, leading to Sony, or going to Sony on Sunday, a bullet with a stroke, I never really played historically well.

“So I was pretty nervous. But I was like, you have to embrace this, stop to fear. You don’t want to come back thinking, if I didn’t hug this, who knows what I would have done, against yes, I want to be that guy. That’s what all the great players want.

“So if you want to be a great player. That’s the way you have to go.”

You saw some of her Thursday. On the 10th, his first hole of the day, he withdrew from the right green cabbage. “It was a nice little awakening call at 7:10 in the morning or whatever it was,” Spaun said. There was more there. Earlier during the week, he would connect with coach Josh Gregory, and they would review the lies from the rough. “It was funny,” said Spaun, “My Caddy, after getting into the first hole, he goes, Chip Nice, Josh, just because this is the name of the instructor.” Spaun also believed that Thursday was his best day of year -round; After his morning wave, he won more than four strokes.

In the 9th Green, his last hole on Thursday, Spaun surveyed him as his group ended. He looked at 500 or more people to the green right. He was quiet. At the beginning of the round, he said the nerves caught him. He would hear Oakmont stories. Rough holes. Rough greens. Harsh harsh. But he said he caught the feeling. “This type increases my focus, makes me swing better, I think,” Spaun said. “I don’t know. I’m some more kind in the area, and if I don’t have any concern or if I’m not in it mentally, it’s a just kind of lazy round or whatever there. I like to feel uncomfortable. I ended up feeling comfortable towards the end of the day.”

“But there is a long way to go yet.”

So it’s that too. 18 -holes leader you land just a story on a golf web site. The second round of Spaun begins at 12:52 in the afternoon, about 24 hours after he finished talking with the herd of the media. What happens now? Who can tell?

But the spaun knows who won inside Wimbledon.

“I don’t know why this is happening already or is happening at this point of my career, but I think I’m a kind of place in that place with the players, I was leading to the last round of Sony Open, I finished second in Cognant, as I was there,” Spaun said. “And everyone knows that the more you put yourself there, the better you will have results and the better you will play, eventually turn one of those tight calls into a victory.

“The players were a kind of spring in self-esteem because it was not like me to fake it. Yes, you could probably fake it in Sony and Cognant or whatever, but to do it to the players, a course where I would never have done well historically, and go head-to-head Rory on Sunday, and then Play-off was great for my faith.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t win, but it was great for me to rely on that experience and know that I can perform in the biggest stages and treat it with pressure.”

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