{"id":5463,"date":"2026-05-26T20:38:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/5463\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T20:38:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:38:30","slug":"golfweek-shot-of-the-year-j-j-spaun-65-foot-putt-oakmont-u-s-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/5463\/","title":{"rendered":"Golfweek Shot of the Year J.J. Spaun 65-foot putt Oakmont U.S. Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dec. 28, 2025, 9:00 a.m. ET<\/p>\n

J.J. Spaun won the U.S. Open by sinking a 64-foot putt on the 72nd hole at Oakmont.The victory came after a previous loss at The Players Championship where a similar long putt came up short.Spaun described the winning moment as one of shock and disbelief that he will never forget.<\/p>\n

There are golf shots that are great because they are perfectly struck, and there are golf shots that are great because the courage required to try them. Rare ones become something else entirely, transforming from shots into moments. You don\u2019t need slow motion or a tracer to explain them. You just say the words and everyone instantly remembers and sees it in their mind.\u00a0J.J. Spaun holing a 65-foot putt on the 72nd hole of the U.S. Open at Oakmont fits squarely in that category.\u00a0It was wet, gray and the greens had softened just enough to make everything uncertain. Everyone at Oakmont felt about as comfortable as someone being told by the dentist that \u201cyou might feel a little pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"J.<\/p>\n

Spaun had been knocked sideways earlier in the day, unraveled briefly, but reset during a rain delay and somehow put himself back into position on one of the hardest holes on the course.\u00a0He didn\u2019t need to make it. Two putts almost certainly would have done the job. But Spaun never looked at the scoreboard. He didn\u2019t want the math.\u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t want to play defensive,\u201d he said later. \u201cI didn\u2019t know if I had a two-shot lead. I didn\u2019t want to do anything dumb trying to protect a three-putt or something.\u201d\u00a0So, he waited. Viktor Hovland rolled his putt first, and Spaun paid close attention. Not just to the break, but to the pace.\u00a0\u201cViktor helped me a lot,\u201d Spaun said. \u201cI was more focused on how hard he was hitting it. I kind of knew the line already.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"J.J.<\/p>\n

Spaun has never been known as one of the game\u2019s great putters. He\u2019s fought it, tweaked it, trusted it, distrusted it and lived with it. The Tour has a long list of players who hit it great and putt it just well enough to survive. Spaun has often lived in that space, grinding out results while knowing the putter could just as easily betray him as save him.\u00a0A few months earlier at TPC Sawgrass, it teased him. On the 72nd hole of the Players Championship, Spaun stood over another long putt with everything on the line. That one came up short. Close, but not close enough. He went on to lose to Rory McIlroy in a playoff the next day, walking away with the familiar ache of knowing he had been one roll away from the biggest win of his life.\u00a0That\u2019s why Oakmont mattered. It wasn\u2019t just the shot; it was the context. Here was the same man, feeling the same nerves, holding the same putter, but trying to get a completely different ending.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0About 8 feet from the hole, Spaun finally allowed himself to believe it might have a chance.\u00a0\u201cI kind of went up to the high side to see if it had a chance of going in,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it was like going right in. I was just in shock, disbelief that it went in and it was over.\u201d\u00a0As the ball disappeared, the crowd erupted. Spaun bent over in disbelief. The U.S. Open was finished with a putt that almost no one could ever expect to make.\u00a0Later, when asked to put it in perspective, Spaun didn\u2019t talk about technique or mechanics. He talked about history. About the moments he\u2019d watched growing up.<\/p>\n

\"J.J.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cYou watch other people do it,\u201d he said. \u201cYou see the Tiger chip, you see Nick Taylor\u2019s putt, you see crazy moments. To have my own moment like that at this championship, I\u2019ll never forget this moment for the rest of my life.\u201d\u00a0That\u2019s the thing about the shot of the year. It isn\u2019t always the most athletic or the most impossible. Sometimes it\u2019s the one that answers a question that\u2019s been hanging over a player for years.\u00a0Can you trust it when it matters most?\u00a0On a soaked Sunday at Oakmont, from 64 feet away, J.J. Spaun answered that question.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a>\"\"\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dec. 28, 2025, 9:00 a.m. ET J.J. Spaun won the U.S. Open by sinking a 64-foot putt on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5464,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[58,1561,3326,59,1236,1237,65,3325,80,1239,67,187,1244,1245,62],"class_list":["post-5463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-j-j-spaun","tag-accessfree","tag-j-j-spaun","tag-pa","tag-sourcegolfweek","tag-sstssportsgolfpga","tag-sstsnpga-tour","tag-taggolf","tag-tagoakmont","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagrory-mcilroy","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagstory-highlights-ai-enabled","tag-tagthe-players-championship","tag-tagu-s-open-championship","tag-typestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5463\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}