SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. – The Spauns have at least gotten the injury bug out of the way this time.
In the early morning hours before his U.S. Open victory last year at Oakmont, J.J. Spaun found himself in a CVS in downtown Pittsburgh, picking up medicine for his 2-year-old daughter Violet, who had woken with a stomach virus.
Now, it’s his oldest daughter, 5-year-old Emerson, who has been through the ringer of late. She broke her collarbone at PGA Tour daycare during last month’s Truist Championship, then had a tooth pulled last Wednesday.
“Hopefully, that’s all out of the way for at least this week,” said Spaun, whose national-championship defense begins Thursday at Shinnecock Hills.
Aside from 3 a.m. pharmacy trips, Spaun plans to follow the same exact blueprint that led to his major breakthrough a year ago – hit fairways and greens, and hope the putter gets hot; oh, and showcase that same resiliency.
Spaun famously relied last season on a mantra borrowed from the Disney movie Frozen. Of course, after nearly losing his card the prior year, it was easy to let it go and play like he had nothing to lose.
But after joining the list of major champions, Spaun had to adjust to new expectations. He closed last year by finishing in the top 25 in all but one of his nine post-U.S. Open starts, including three showings of sixth or better. He started this season, however, with just one top-25 and four missed cuts in his first seven tournaments before winning the Valero Texas Open.
“All of a sudden, I’m a top-10 player in the world, I’m a U.S. Open champion, Ryder Cupper; I felt like every week at the start of the year I had to be that guy that needed to show up and play well and kind of validate where I was in the world rankings and what I had achieved this season,” Spaun said. “So, it was the complete opposite of letting it go. I put more pressure on myself, put way more emphasis on outcome instead of just focusing on my process.”
Spaun explained that he tried to forget about this image he had of himself as “this perfect golfer.”
“In reality, I just was doing the same things,” he added. “I just was mentally a little bit more nice to myself, I guess, and not so worried about being perfect. That’s what led to better golf.”
The hot putter necessity
Though Spaun has missed both major cuts so far this year, he enters this week with four finishes of T-14 or better in his last five starts. He’s made some putting adjustments following two rounds at Aronimink, where he lost over two strokes per day on the greens.
“My putting has been very hot and cold this year,” Spaun said. “That’s kind of been the only thing holding me back. I got too caught up in, like, thinking I was the only one putting poorly at Aronimink, but apparently everyone was three-putting. I think if I would have just accepted that, I would have done less of three-putting, and maybe it would have been a different week.”
Simulating the Long Island winds
Shinnecock’s undulating greens will be equally as challenging, but unlike the PGA, high winds will factor greatly on Long Island, with gusts into the high 20 mphs forecasted for multiple days. Preparing in Scottsdale, Arizona, isn’t ideal – with little wind and slow, well-water greens – but Spaun has focused on his flighted shots.
“I just tried to simulate what kind of shots I will be envisioning myself hitting throughout the tournament,” Spaun said.
For Spaun, hopefully one of those is the winning shot.
He already knows what that feels like.