Issue No. 218 | June 16, 2025 | Read Online

OAKMONT, Pa. — The United States Open champion started his Father’s Day at 3 a.m. before heading to a CVS for his daughter who was throwing up. I ended my Father’s Day with my feet going viral on the internet.

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Before we get to the news, today’s newsletter is presented by Meridian Putters, which is the best in the business. The Holderness and Bourne of putter companies, if that’s a comp that moves the needle for you.

I have a few guys at the top of this U.S. Open board that I imagine could be talked into testing a new putter or two following this week at Oakmont.

As for me? I’m ready to get home to either the Key West or Kiawah I’ve been meaning to order. I played for a while with the Key West before giving it away, and I loved it. Ready to get back and locked in for some summer golf.

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OK, now onto the news.

13 Thoughts on Round 4 of the U.S. Open

1. We’ll get to J.J. Spaun in a moment, but one of my biggest takeaways from Sunday was how fun and chaotic the final few hours were. Do I want a wet, nasty, sloppy monster like Oakmont every week? I do not. I would probably not enjoy covering golf if that was what it looked like every week.

Am I great with it once a year?

Absolutely.

Augusta felt this year (and most years) like it was barely about golf for the last nine holes. It was about something different altogether. Although the reasons were different, Oakmont, too, felt like it was barely about golf.

As someone who claims to use golf to write about life, that delights me.

And yeah, we can argue if this is the best way to determine the premiere ball-strikers and the greatest champions and all of that. I understand and affirm those arguments. But also … at some point, who even cares? That was fun as hell and a major ending (and I don’t just mean the last putt) that I won’t forget for a long, long time.

2. Strangely, there are almost too many angles with Spaun — and we will talk about several of them in the upcoming days — but two stood out on Sunday.

Let’s start at the end.

It’s not gushing, but the clouds over Western PA are definitely spitting in our direction. It’s getting really dark really quickly. That pre-dark rainy haze has descended.

Security guards have surrounded the 18th green. I slither through a couple of volunteers. There’s Mike Tirico on my right and Cara Banks on my left, searching desperately for Spaun’s wife.

Mike Whan strolls by looking like it’s 75 and sunny.

Off in the distance — if you squint, you can kind of see an outline of someone 201 yards away from history that may or may not be the Players Championship runner up.

Folks who stayed through a torrential downpour and mud that looked like wet concrete finally began to buzz. You submit yourself to the brutality of the event — you, the viewer! — because maybe, MAYBE you get a moment like this.

The entire week felt like getting punched in the face for pretty much everyone involved, but finally we found it: The Juice.

Given the four rounds of play, and this place and the brutality of the day, it’s one of the more wonderful ugly scenes I’ve ever witnessed at a major championship.

Except Spaun — allegedly! — doesn’t know any of this. He said afterwards he did not know where he stood, did not know during his march toward the 64-foot putt that won the tournament and changed his life, whether he led or by how many (we’ll talk more about how wild this is later on).

Fans were delirious at this point on rain and booze, no longer sure of what they’re rooting for. The putt was preposterous. The moment was impossible. The aftermath, though, was electric. Chants of J-J, J-J, chants of U-S-A, U-S-A, media folks laughing at the absurdity of the last seven days (and last seven hours).

The longest made putt of the week at Oakmont happened in the rain and the dark, and it came from the second to last pairing on Sunday to win a U.S. Open?

Come on.

How can you not be romantic about this stupid game?

This post will continue below for Normal Club members and includes …

• A breakdown of my feet.

• What Spaun learned from Tiger (via Max Homa).

• How did Scottie not win this tournament?

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