U.S. Open 2025: Before J.J. Spaun won a major championship, his street cred was sky high in … skateboarding

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U.S. Open champion J.J. Spaun grew up in Los Angeles, and all over Southern California there are far more kids who pick up a skateboard at one time than try golf clubs. There is, after all, a better chance of a neophyte, or grom, running into Tony Hawk or Shawn White at a skatepark rather than hitting balls on the range at a private club with Phil Mickelson or Xander Schauffele.

MORE: The 96 minutes that turned J.J. Spaun from journeyman to major champion

For decades, golf and skating could not have been more diametrically opposed in vibe or purpose, but that’s changed a lot in recent years. There are plenty of top skaters not only playing golf but even starting their own lifestyle companies related to the game.

Late on Sunday, with the sun still shining bright on the West Coast, skaters were toasting somebody they consider one of their own.

On an Instagram post, pro skater Justin Eldridge, filming in his backyard, sported a wide grin while delivering the news of Spaun’s thrilling victory at Oakmont. “Our guy—our guy!—just proved he’s a legend in golf and he’s a skateboarder,” Eldridge beamed. “Yeah, it means so much to me. … I hope you guys watch, but if you aren’t watching if you’re a skateboarder that’s looking at this right now, it is fun.”

Eldridge is particularly invested in golf, having started a company with his wife, Ali, called Golf With Flavor. Their product is flavored toothpicks in the shape of a golf tees.

Spaun won’t be ripping around at the X Games anytime soon, but he put himself on the skateboarding map with an Instagram post in 2020. Skating on an outdoor basketball court, he pulls off a trick called a backside flip. The video below explains it better than any words, and if it looks easy, then you haven’t skateboarded. Avid skaters can take a long time to pull off the trick. Most never do. And as Spaun added to his original post, “At least 15 years since I’ve landed one of these.”

So Spaun now has a U.S. Open trophy and a golfer’s kick flip for the ages. In SoCal, it doesn’t get more heroic than that.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com