Oakmont, Pennsylvania – Oakmont didn’t need it. He didn’t need a storm of biblical proportions to humiliate the best golfers in the world and make the most difficult golf test even more difficult. So when he came on Sunday, the rain leaves that transformed the grass fields into a bodies of water, it looked like a knife torsion to those trying to win a major championship.
At 4:01 p.m., the game stopped. The 18th green was unrecognizable because a river of water which had crossed it. The players were withdrawn from the golf course. During the delay, some ate, some called their families. Robert Macintyre removed his shirt and did his best to dry him with an air conditioning unit. Fans have snuggled under umbrellas or tried to take refuge on 191 acres which have only one tree.
Shortly after, the army of joy of Oakmont emerged, breeds in hand, making their best to divert the water from the players in play. The rain finally calmed down and at 5:40 pm, while the game resumed, the leaders quickly realized that the course they had left behind was no longer the same to which they had returned.
“Once the fairways are soaked, it was very difficult to control the golf ball,” said Adam Scott. “It was unplayable at the limit. But everyone had to face it.”
Despite the Racilles, the fairways were far from dry. The balls landed the T -shirt and never rolled – or if they did, they came back. In contact with a club, whether it is an iron, a corner or a fairway wood, a splash would follow. Even Scottie Scheffler barely had an idea of the place where the ball would once hit him. The golf course, already difficult in its configuration, has become an even harder test of patience and mental endurance.
“It’s not fun to wait for the mouth, and there is really not much rhythm to have,” said Cam Young, who finished fourth. “There are wet places. Just guess. There is not a ton that you can do. You wait for them to tighten them, but even if it is still raining there, the water collects so quickly that you try to slap it through puddles and see what you get.”
“It is Sunday from the US Open, one of the most difficult configurations, and the conditions were the most difficult of the week,” said Scott. “Thank goodness, it was not like that all week.”
For a few holes after the delay, the sun has emerged, teasing the competitors through clouds. But when the final group died on the 10th hole, the rain had returned. The tournament was no longer talking about who was going to increase but rather who could survive. Even Justin Thomas, who missed the cup this week, posted on the social networks of the house that the course was “a little questionable to play”.
“It was a bit close [to unplayable]But it was doable, “said Viktor Hovland.” The conditions have become really, really difficult, and this golf course is just a beast. It was a version. “”
While other players struggled to come back to the pace before the delay, the Grind was exactly what JJ Spaun needed to become one of the most improbable winners of recent memory.
“I tried to continue to dig deeply,” said Spaun. “I made it all my life.”
He had started the day just a shot behind Burns, but the potential quickly gave way to disappointment. He has not only Bogey five of the first six holes. The second, his ball struck the flag and turned all the way to Green. On the third, his TEE shot rebounded in a bad lie in the harsh. When he went around, his dashboard read 40. The deficit was three shots and it seemed that the golf gods above decided that it would not be his day. Then the rain came.
“The best thing that has happened was reset,” said Spaun coach Josh Gregory.
“I felt like I was a chance, a very good chance to win the United States Open at the start of the day. It just happened very quickly,” said Spaun. “But this break was the key for me to win this tournament.”
Spaun’s career has been defined by its ability to exceed expectations. It has never been a very tuned perspective or a star in the making. As he said on Sunday, he was never “cared for” to be a professional golfer, and he should never win a major. He won his first PGA Tour event at 31 and, until this year, he was one of the many companions whose main objective is to keep their PGA Tour card.
This year, however, Spaun made a jump. Before this week, he was ranked 15th in the world golf ranking and his name had come in light when he lost against Rory McILroy in the players’ championship in playoffs.
“He was there,” said Gregory. “I think it has proved that” hey, I can do it. I can be one of the best in the world. I can be a rival. I can win a major championship. “”
After falling face to face with disappointment not so long ago, Spaun appeared imperturbable both by bad breaks and bad weather. A day that required something beyond talents, Spaun knew where to find it.
“I think it’s just perseverance,” said Spaun. “I have always somehow fought on everything that could be to happen where I had to be and get to what I wanted”
While the last groups reach the section at home, the rain started to resume again. The breeze whipped precipitation from west to east, giving Spaun a last challenge: the 18th of Oakmont in another downpour.
Nine years ago, Dustin Johnson was held on this same T-shirt trying to close his first major victory and played the hole in a way that could only be described as Immaculate. A fairway, a green sneak and runs later, he had conquered Oakmont.
Spaun divided the Fairway on Sunday. He found the green and then, under an umbrella held by his shopping cart which could only give it so much blanket, he took his time by reading the 64 -foot putt. Everything he needed to win his first major was a peer.
Throughout the week, the players assumed that if someone even fired compared to the tournament, they could emerge with the trophy. Spaun was about to do that. But while Oakmont doubled his competitors with another exhausting challenge, it was the Spaun who retaliated.
“I didn’t want to play defensive,” said Spaun.
The putt started riding on the corrugated green which gave countless players of 124 years of history and from left to right to the emblematic Sunday spit. Dead end. Birdie.
“Are you serious?” His shopping cart Mark Carens said on the stairs to the clubhouse. “What has the F — just happened?”
Spaun was not only the last standing man. He was the only one to have finished under the peer. The Red number alone by its name will remain memories forever. For Spaun, it will be proof of many things: his capacity, his resilience and the way he fought the whole golf course, the weather and his own psyche threw him more than 72 holes.
“It’s a surplus, a crusher,” said Gregory. “It should validate him that he is one of the best players in the world.”
For Oakmont, the 1-sous can be a soft-bitter figure. The route may not have produced a winning score on a sur-spare when his subscription wanted, but more than 72 holes and 18 outings on Sunday, he again delivered the Golf World a legitimate winner.
