Oakmont, Pa. — Oakmont didn’t need this. They didn’t need a fierce storm to humble the world’s best golfers and make the toughest tests in golf even more demanding. So when rain sheets turned grass fields into shallow waters on Sunday, it felt like a knife twist for those trying to win a major championship.
Play stopped at 4:01pm. The 18th green was not recognised due to the flow of water. The athletes have taken off the golf course. During the delay, some people ate it and they were called family. Robert McIntyre took off his shirt and tried to dry it out with the air conditioner unit. Fan either huddled under an umbrella or attempted to evacuate on 191 acres of land featuring one tree.
Soon after, an Oakmont ground crew appeared, clutching their hands and trying to distract water from the surface of play. The rain eventually subsided and play resumed at 5:40pm, leading the leader quickly realized that the course he left behind was not the same.
“When the fairways soaked, it was very difficult to control the golf ball,” Adam Scott said. “It wasn’t playable, but everyone had to deal with it.”
Despite the squeegee, the fairway was not dry. The ball landed from the tee and never rolled – or, if so, they retreated. Contact with the club, including iron, wedges and fairway wood, caused a splash. Even Scotty Schaeffler had little knowledge of where the ball would go when he hit it. The golf course was already difficult to set up, making it an even more rigorous test of patience and mental endurance.
“Waiting for a squeeze isn’t fun. There’s not much rhythm there,” said Cameron Young, who came in fourth. “There are wet spots. You have to guess. There’s nothing you can do. You’re waiting for them to squeeze them, but while it’s still raining, the water gathers so quickly, and you’re pounding it and trying to see what you get.”
“It was a Sunday of the US Open, one of the most difficult setups, and the conditions were the most difficult of the week,” Scott said. “Thank God, it wasn’t like this for a week.”
During a few holes after the delay, the sun appeared and teased his competitors through the clouds. But by the time the final group teeed off on hole 10, the rain had returned. The tournament was about who could survive, not who would surge any more. Even Justin Thomas, who missed the cut this week, posted on social media from his home that the course was “a little suspicious to play.”
“It was a little close (cannot play), but it was viable,” Victor Hofland said. “The conditions were really, really tough. This golf course is just a beast. It was crushing.”
Other players struggled to get back to the rhythm they had before the delay, but Grind was what JJ Spaun needed to become one of the most unlikely major winners in recent memory.
“I just tried to continue digging deep,” Spawn said. “I’ve been there forever.”
He just started the shot behind Barnes, but the possibility quickly gave way to disappointment. He bogeyed five of his first six holes. Second, his ball hit the flag and spun from the greenery. Third, his tee shot bounced back to roughly bad lies. When he made a turn, his scorecard reads 40. He had a three-shot deficit and it felt like it wasn’t his day. It then rained.
“What happened was a reset,” Spawn coach Josh Gregory said.
“I felt like I had a chance. It was a really good chance to win the US Open at the beginning of the day. It solved it very quickly,” Spaun said. “But that break was actually the key to winning this tournament.”
Spaun’s career is defined by exceeding expectations. He was never a promoted prospect or a star created. As he said on Sunday, he was not “groomed” to become a professional golfer, nor was he expected to win a major. He won his first PGA Tour event at the age of 31, and until this year he was one of many journeymen whose main goal is to maintain his PGA Tour card.
However, this year, Spaun has made a leap. Heading this week, he was No. 15 in the world golf rankings and entered the spotlight when he lost to Rory McIlroy in the Player Championship in the playoffs.
“He was there,” Gregory said. “I told him, ‘Hey, I can do this. I can be one of the best in the world. I can be a rival. I can win a major championship.”
Having met with disappointment so long ago, Spawn seemed to be in the flaws of bad Sunday breaks and bad weather. Spaun knew where to find it on days when he needed something beyond his talent.
“I think it’s just patience,” Spawn said. “I always fought anything, whatever it was, to get where I needed and to get to what I wanted.”
The rain picked up again as the final group hit a stretch of the house. The breeze whips precipitation from west to east, giving Span a final challenge. It is Oakmont’s 18th luxurious luxury.
Nine years ago, Dustin Johnson stood on the same tee, trying to close his first major victory and end the hole. Fairways, green and short birdie putts, he conquered Oakmont.
On Sunday, Spaun splits the fairway. He found the green and then under the umbrella his caddy had held, he took the time to read a 64-foot putt. All he needed to win his first major was a par.
For a week, players speculated that if someone fires even a tournament par, they could appear in the trophy. Spaun was on the verge of doing that. However, Spaun fought back when Oakmont showered with another tired challenge to his competitors.
“I didn’t want to be defensive,” Spawn said.
The putt began rolling across the swelling greenery, fitted by countless players in 124 years of history and settling from left to right towards the iconic Sunday pin. Dead center. birdie.
“Seriously?” said his caddy Mark Cullens as he walked up the stairs of the clubhouse. “What happened?”
Spawn wasn’t the only man. He was the only one to finish with a par. I remember the only red number in his name. For Spaun, that’s proof of a lot. His abilities, his resilience, and how he fights against everything that his golf course, the weather and his spirit threw at him on 72 holes.
“He’s an over-achiever, a grinder,” Gregory said. “It should verify with him that he is one of the best players in the world.”
For Oakmont, 1 under might be bittersweet. The course did not score the winning score due to the coveted membership, but once again brought a legitimate winner to Golf World with over 72 holes and 18 broken holes on Sunday.
