J.J. Spaun’s place in Oakmont’s U.S. Open lore is different than you think

Oakmont Country Club’s lineage of champions is legendary. Walk down History Hall in the clubhouse and you’ll see a who’s who of golf royalty that lifted a U.S. Open trophy at the iconic course.

Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Tommy Armour, Johnny Miller, Dustin Johnson and Ernie Els are among those whose photos adorn the walls. Add in the course’s PGA Championship and U.S. Amateur history, and you get names like Bobby Jones and Sam Snead. Outside of Sam Parks Jr., who won the 1935 U.S. Open, Oakmont has seen only the best of the best pass its test. Fluke doesn’t exist in the anchor site’s dictionary.

As the final round of the 2025 U.S. Open unfolded, Oakmont’s past suggested a few options as to who would be the last man standing. Adam Scott adding a second major win to his illustrious resume fit the mold. Viktor Hovland ascending to the next level and winning his first major did, too. Scottie Scheffler or Jon Rahm making a Sunday charge while the rest of the field came back to them would have been the perfect Oakmont ending.

Of course, J.J. Spaun had other ideas, finishing birdie-birdie to become an improbable Oakmont champion.

As Spaun flung his putter in the air after canning a 65-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to put an exclamation point on his unlikely win, I thought about his place in Oakmont’s history. From now on, Spaun will have his own case in History Hall. On the surface, the 34-year-old seemed to be an Oakmont outlier. He is to some extent, but the connection makes more sense than you might think.

“The guys and the ladies that have won here often fall into two categories,” Oakmont club historian and archivist David Moore told GOLF.com. “It’s their first major or breakthrough either after a couple years of struggle after their emergence on Tour, like Tommy Armour, Jack Nicklaus, Paul Creamer, Johnny Miller, Dustin Johnson and Ernie Els. They fit that mold of like this was their first major championship but it made sense that they got it. It was part of the ascension. Then you look at the other group and it was kind of the swan song. It was won later in their career like Ben Hogan or Sam Snead. It was won near the end of the road. J.J. doesn’t fit into either of those categories.”

However, Moore sees parallels between Spaun and two past Oakmont winners: John Mahaffey, who won the 1978 PGA Championship at Oakmont, and Hogan, who won the 1953 U.S. Open.

“If I had to equate him with any of our champions, it would be John Mahaffey,” Moore said. “The reason being, Mahaffey came into that PGA kind of out in the wilderness. He had gone through a bitter divorce and an injury. He was just kind of starting to recapture something and find his footing. He won that PGA in a playoff. No one expected him to come in and win. He didn’t even expect to come in and win. It totally changed his life. Not only did he win the PGA. He won the following week, went on to win 10 more times on Tour. He won a Players Championship.

“It changed everything for John. I can’t help but think similar to J.J. You hear the stories. He has almost lost his card a couple times. He almost lost his card last year. He started on the Canadian Tour and worked his way up and had his struggles. Not necessarily the personal struggles that Mahaffey did, but the professional struggles of getting to this point. He was trending this year. He played well at The Sentry, the Cognizant, almost beat Rory at the Sawgrass. It seemed like good things were coming and now it finally pays off. I think it’s going to be fun to see what J.J. does moving forward. Is this going to be one of those guys like Mahaffey who takes this and ends up having a really good career for the last 10 years of it. Is this the catalyst to that as it was for Mahaffey? That’s why he doesn’t fall into any of the two prominent categories. He falls into that one.”

But while Spaun’s story and career arc to this point put him in Oakmont’s third box, his electric finish, where he drove the green on the par-4 17th and made an easy birdie before the 65-footer that capped the stunning win, connects him with the legendary Hogan, who also finished with a flurry.

“The one thing that’s so cool is the parallel to Ben Hogan,” Moore said. “They both won the Texas Open and they both won here. They both drove the 17th green on Sunday and two-putted [for birdie]. They both hit basically the same shots on 18: driver, 6 iron, make a birdie putt to close a U.S. Open. It’s so crazy some of the parallels.”

Regardless of how Spaun’s career unfolds to this point, and whether or not his career touches other Oakmont champions, the lasting image of his life-changing win will forever be linked with Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer’s 1962 duel and Johnny Miller’s historic Sunday 63.

“That putt [on 18] is iconic,” Moore said. “I was right there and I saw it with him standing there, the putter is in the air, the caddie has his arms raised in the background and that’s going to be an iconic picture of here moving forward.”

At Oakmont, where golf icons live forever, Spaun’s putt made him a worthy member of the club with a lot of story still to be written.