OAKMONT, Pa. — J.J. Spaun would like to use a mulligan. The 34-year-old pro had already bogeyed the first hole of his final round at the U.S. Open at Oakmont on Sunday, but he’d put himself in good position on the short par-4 2nd hole.
Faced with a 93-yard approach, Spaun hit a spinny wedge right at the flag.
“On a good line,” Dan Hicks said on the broadcast.
And it was. Too good, in fact. It bounced once, hit the bottom half of the flagstick and — due to the spin on the ball and slope of the green — rolled all the way back down and off the green. It caught a ridge and settled 49 yards away.
“This is going to finish way back in the fairway where we saw a lot of guys driving it early in the week when it was downwind,” Kevin Kisner said on the broadcast.
“Big time back-to-front tilt on this green and that is one of the worst breaks we’ve seen all week,” Hicks said. “That thing was going to spin in there you’d think pretty close.”
Here’s a graphic the broadcast used to show where Spaun hit his second shot from, where it landed and where it ended up.
From 49 yards away, Spaun pitched to 8 feet but missed the par putt, recording his second straight bogey.
Later, on the fourth hole, he drove it near the church pew bunkers and his ball hit a rake and nestled into the rough.
“He’s due for some good bounces on the last 14,” Kisner said.
Spaun and others are chasing 54-hole leader Sam Burns. You can track all of the Sunday action here.
