During the 90-plus minute rain delay on Sunday at the U.S. Open, NBC decided to trot out old faithful: Tiger Woods’ epic finish in 2008 at Torrey Pines. Fitting that once the delay ended and J.J. Spaun resumed his quest for a career-defining major title, he channeled his inner-Woods down the stretch at Oakmont.
Spaun trailed by four shots when play restarted, a product of some of the worst breaks a contender has endured in a major in recent history. None more brutal than his approach into the second green, which clanged off the flagstick on one hop and rolled off the putting surface, coming to rest 50 yards from the hole. It resulted in his second of three consecutive bogeys to begin his final round, and bogeys at No. 5 and No. 6 appeared to banish him from contention entirely.
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Then came the delay after pars at the seventh and eighth holes, a similar, but shorter, blessing in disguise as the four-hour delay at the Players Championship back in March, which helped Spaun mentally and physically reset and eventually earn himself a spot in a playoff with Rory McIlroy. While McIlroy went on to win at TPC Sawgrass, Spaun gained valuable experience on a big stage that week.
“I just felt like you keep putting yourself in these positions, like eventually you’re going to tick one off,” he said Sunday evening. “This isn’t — I don’t put myself in this position often, or at all, for a major, that’s for sure. This is only my second U.S. Open. But all the close calls that I’ve had on the PGA Tour this year has just been really good experience to just never, never give up.”
Making five bogeys in six holes—when you were just one off the lead after 54—at the U.S. Open is the ultimate excuse to give up. But Spaun stayed in it. Once the delay ended, he striped one down the ninth fairway and knew it was game on, despite the fact he was still four off the lead of Sam Burns. He finished with a front-nine 40 but came home in three-under 32, highlighted by a birdie-birdie finish that will be replayed for decades to come.
What fueled Spaun’s preposterous finishing stretch? Some brilliant advice from the aforementioned Woods, via Max Homa, who told Spaun a Tiger story that the 34-year-old was thinking about as he hung tough on arguably the toughest U.S. Open course there is.
“I was having lunch with Max Homa at home. We live in the same area. We belong at the same club,” Spaun said. “He was telling a Tiger story where he was like, As long as you just like are still there, you don’t have to do anything crazy, especially at a U.S. Open. He’s like, Tiger said this would happen, and the wind will switch, but you’ve got to just stay there. Even if you’re four back, you’ve just got to stay there. You don’t have to do anything crazy.
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“I kind of was thinking about that out there this afternoon,” he continued. “Where I was four back, maybe going back out after the delay, and then I made some good pars, nothing crazy. Got a really good birdie. Then, next thing you know, I’m like tied for the lead, I think, and within four holes of the restart.
“That just kind of goes back to that, like you just try to like stay there. You don’t have to do anything crazy, especially at a U.S. Open. All those things came true.”
Oddly enough, that’s the exact playbook a hobbled Woods went with in the final round in 2008 at Torrey Pines, which fans got to rewatch before Sunday’s epic finish at Oakmont. The 15-time major winner simply … stayed there. He hung in. He let everybody else crumble around him. Like Spaun, Woods didn’t do anything all that crazy until he absolutely needed to.
Turns out, that was some good advice to lean on.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
