US Open champion JJ Spaun tries to clear his head and get back to work at Travelers
CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) — This isn’t the first time J.J. Spaun has come to the Travelers Championship after a life-changing moment. Two years ago, his daughter Violet was born on a Monday and he didn’t show up to the TPC River Highlands until the night before the opening round.
He might be even more wiped now. That’s what winning a U.S. Open can do.
“Violet’s birthday is Thursday,” Spaun said while reminiscing. But then he stopped and his eyes widened slightly. “Tomorrow. I don’t even know what day it is.”
It’s been quite the whirlwind, and the U.S. Open champion wouldn’t trade it.
The Los Angeles Dodgers — the team script is on his yardage book — are trying to arrange for him to throw out the first pitch. Shortstop Mookie Betts, who played the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with Spaun a few years back, congratulated him. Text messages came in from U.S. Open champions Curtis Strange and Hale Irwin.
Spaun slept three hours early Monday before it was off to New York, where he had a full day of media on Tuesday and then was driven to the TPC River Highlands. He slept eight hours, about as much as the previous two nights combined.
“It’s been pretty hectic but also very fun,” Spaun said Wednesday. “It’s been nice to be given the opportunity to express my feelings, my emotions. A lot of people want to hear from me. I was really grateful to have the opportunity to tell everyone about it. So I enjoyed it.”
And now it’s back to work, which should be a fun time for the 72-man field, at least those who had to slog through 5 1/2-inch rough soaked by rain at Oakmont for a grueling week.
The Travelers Championship, the last of the $20 million signature events, is a happier occasion where the scoring is easier, even though the TPC River Highlands can still punish bad shots.
The rough is still plenty thick, just not quite as dense as it was at Oakmont. And players are not hitting into putting surfaces where the golf ball never seems to stop rolling.
Still, it’s a welcome relief.
“It’s more just kind of getting back into the swing of things of, ‘All right, actually I have a 7-iron in my hand, but I don’t have to be quite as careful,’ I guess,” Jordan Spieth said. “It’s no gimme golf course, especially if we’re going to see windy conditions.
“The short answer is, yeah, it’s kind of nice,” he said. “It would be hard to play something like that (Oakmont) every single week. But at the same time, you get a lot of risk-reward on the back nine here, which can yield 3-, 4-, 5 under rounds, but you can also get in big-time trouble.”
For Spaun, it’s moving forward just four days after his dynamic finish. He was in a five-way tie for the lead on the back nine and pulled ahead with a driver onto the 17th green for a two-putt birdie and a 65-foot birdie putt for a magical finish in his two-shot victory.
“I definitely need to keep the hunger there,” Spaun said. “I think I will have the hunger just because I want to continue to prove myself, but not prove myself to anybody other than myself. I feel like my biggest barrier throughout my entire career is just trying not to be so hard on myself and not ruining any sort of confidence that I’ve built from all these experiences on my journey as a golfer.
“As long as I keep that up, I think I’ll continue to play well,” he said. “And obviously winning the U.S. Open is going to be a huge boost to that inner ego, I guess you could say, to keep that self-belief alive and burning.”
Scottie Scheffler had no trouble last year when he went from winning the Masters to winning the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town. Rory McIlroy won the British Open in 2014, had two weeks off and then won a World Golf Championship at Firestone and a PGA Championship in consecutive weeks.
“I think after winning a major championship, like the first time you come back out to the course is a bit of a circus sometimes just with all the people,” Scheffler said. “J.J. just achieved a lifetime goal and dream of his. It’s definitely different coming to the golf course, for sure. There’s a lot more people, a lot more stuff to sign, a lot of stuff that goes on.
“It’s all good things. It’s all stuff that’s fun.”
Keegan Bradley won his first major in 2011 as a PGA Tour rookie, had a week off and then missed the cut in his next two tournaments.
“I remember coming home and going out to dinner with my friends and walking into the restaurant. I could feel that people knew who I was. I had never felt that,” Bradley said. “The thing I told J.J. was I hope he really enjoys this.”
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