OAKMONT, Pa. — J.J. Spaun wonders if you’ve seen Wimbledon.
Actually, it doesn’t matter; he can fill you in on the plot from the movie that shares a name with the tennis tournament.
“It’s probably early 2000s,” he said. “And it’s this, not washed-up, but he’s an older player, tennis player, and he’s thinking of quitting, and he wants to retire at Wimbledon this year. He ends up winning Wimbledon, and going through it all, he meets a girl and goes through all this stuff. It kinda resonated with him that, you know, you can’t give up yet.
“And I was watching, and I was like, oh, maybe that could be me.”
Add this, then, to the list of achievements of the 2004 rom-com starring Kristen Dunst and Paul Bettany and directed by Richard Loncraine: an impetus. Who knew? But on a flight to London last December, Spaun had needed something to pass the time — and also found a beacon. Occasionally, you at least question your direction some. In Spaun’s case, he was 34 and a one-time winner — and just a one-time winner. Do you keep grinding for 45ths, especially with a family at home?
Spaun did, we know. And there he was Thursday, in a most sublime place: your U.S. Open first-round leader. On a day where big, bad Oakmont bullied everybody, Spaun came out relatively unscathed in his second-ever appearance in the national championship. Four birdies. No bogeys. A 66.
The six months since his come-to-Wimbledon moment have had other moments, though the one you must know came in March, at the Players Championship. There, after 54 holes, Spaun also led. And he co-led after 72, with Rory McIlroy. In overtime, on a Monday morning, McIlroy won, and Spaun left with a thought. Growing up in L.A., he’d idolized Kobe Bryant. And Bryant inspired him. Bryant wanted the ball in his hands at the end of games.
At the Players, Spaun said he now wanted to be that dude, too. At Oakmont on Thursday, he said it again.
“I used to be kind of scared to want the ball, or I guess you could say have the lead or be the one that everyone is chasing,” Spaun said. “I always was comfortable kind of being a chaser than the one being chased.
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“I mean, I had a really rough Sunday at Memphis like three years ago, and that kind of gave me some scar tissue. And then kind of didn’t really contend too much like that in between then until this year, leading into Sony, or going into Sony on Sunday, one-shot lead at a course I never really historically played well.
“So I was pretty nervous. But I was like, you need to embrace this, stop being scared. You don’t want to go back thinking, what if I didn’t embrace this, who knows what I would have done, versus yes, I want to be that guy. That’s what all the great players want.
“So if you want to be a great player, that’s the route you’ve got to go.”
You saw some of that Thursday. On 10, his first hole of the day, he chipped in from the cabbage just right of the green. “It was a nice little wake-up call at 7:10 in the morning or whatever it was,” Spaun said. There was more there. Earlier in the week, he’d connected with coach Josh Gregory, and they’d reviewed lies from the rough. “It was funny,” Spaun said, “my caddie, after I chipped in on the first hole, he goes, nice chip, Josh, just because that’s the instructor’s name.” Spaun also believed Thursday was his best putting day all year; after his morning wave, he gained more than four strokes on the field.
On the 9th green, his final hole on Thursday, Spaun surveyed around him as his group finished. He peered at the 500 or so folks to the right of the green. He was calm. At the round’s start, he said nerves seized him. He’d been hearing the Oakmont stories. Rough holes. Rough greens. Rough rough. But he said he seized on the feeling. “It kind of heightens my focus, makes me swing better, I guess,” Spaun said. “I don’t know, I kind of get more in the zone, whereas if I don’t have any worry or if I’m not in it mentally, it’s kind of just a lazy round or whatever out there. I like feeling uncomfortable. I ended up feeling pretty comfortable towards the end of the day.”
“But there’s a long way to go still.”
So there’s that, too. The 18-hole lead lands you just a story on a golf website. Spaun’s second round starts at 12:52 p.m. ET, about 24 hours after he finished talking with the media herd. What happens now? Who can tell?
But Spaun knows who won in Wimbledon.
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“I don’t know why this is happening already or happening at this point in my career, but I guess being kind of put in that spot at the Players, I was leading going into the final round of the Sony Open, I finished second at Cognizant, like I’ve been consistently right there,” Spaun said. “And everyone knows that the more you put yourself there, the better you’re going to have results and the better you’re going to play, eventually turn one of those close calls into a win.
“The Players was sort of a kind of spring into the self-belief because it wasn’t like I faked it. Yeah, you can maybe fake it at the Sony and Cognizant or whatever, but to do that at the Players, a course where I’d never done well historically, and to go head-to-head with Rory on Sunday, and then the playoff was great for my confidence.
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