PGA TOUR Americas in the news: After starting his career in Canada, J.J. Spaun conquers Oakmont
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Written by Henry Schleizer
Eleven years ago, J.J. Spaun lost his job.
Yesterday, he joined a club that boasts members like Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Johnny Miller and Ernie Els, as a U.S. Open champion at Oakmont. He also became the founding member of a new club, becoming the first major champion who also played on PGA TOUR Canada, PGA TOUR Latinoamérica or PGA TOUR Americas.
The summer of 2014 was nearly the end of Spaun’s journey, but in reality, it was the beginning of his climb to the summit of professional golf. In seven starts on PGA TOUR Canada in 2014, Spaun made one cut – a T35 finish in Thunder Bay, Ontario. His earnings for the year: $825 Canadian. In total, the Los Angeles native recorded four rounds in the 60s and finished 159th in the Order of Merit.
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Spaun returned to PGA TOUR Canada Q-School in 2015, where he finished T8 and regained his card. His strong showing at Q-School was the start of a run of dominance that included nine top 25s, seven top 10s, four top-three finishes and a victory in Thunder Bay, the place he made his lone cut in 2014.
Spaun’s stellar play earned him the No. 1 spot in the Order of Merit, Player of the Year honors in Canada and Korn Ferry Tour membership for the 2016 season.
The momentum from Canada carried into Spaun’s first season on the Korn Ferry Tour, where he earned his PGA TOUR card after finishing as the No. 3 player in the points list in 2016. Two years after nearly losing his job, Spaun had reached the PGA TOUR, but that was only the start of his journey to Oakmont.
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From 2017-24, Spaun experienced the ups and downs of professional golf, finishing as low as 185th in the FedExCup. After regaining his card via Korn Ferry Tour Finals in 2021, Spaun won his first event on TOUR at the Valero Texas Open in 2022.
After finishing 98th in the FedExCup in 2024, Spaun entered Oakmont in the midst of a career-best season. Despite sitting at No. 15 in the FedExCup, with five top 10s including a runner-up finish at THE PLAYERS Championship, Spaun was still searching for his second win on TOUR and first since Valero in 2022.
Spaun found it at the 125th U.S. Open. Eleven years after losing his job in professional golf, Spaun secures TOUR membership through 2030, exemptions into every U.S. Open through 2035 and the next five editions of the other three majors as a U.S. Open champion.
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“I think it's just perseverance,” Spaun said in his post-tournament press conference on Sunday night. “I've always kind of battled through whatever it may be to kind of get to where I needed to be and get to what I wanted.
"I've done this before. I've had slumps kind of at every level. I've always kind of, I went back and said, ‘You've done this before. You've been down before. You got out of it.’ … This is a pretty all-time high for me.”
Spaun cemented his name alongside the game’s greats on Sunday afternoon at Oakmont, and it all started in Canada.
