OAKMONT, Pa. – There, J.J. Spaun stood. Sixty-four feet and five inches from a dream he never got far enough to craft. A dream, 12 months earlier, he came to grips with that might never materialize, and just nine holes earlier, it looked fleeting.

Three months ago, from a spot not too different, Spaun watched as his ball stopped hauntingly short, squandering a chance to alter the trajectory of his career with a win at THE PLAYERS Championship.

This time, in the misty hue of history, on a property that has played host to some of the most iconic moments in golf, Spaun watched his ball track toward the cup and drop.

It needed to end this way. A moment of unexpected, what-the-hell-did-we-just-witness triumph on a day where those emotions were reserved for disasters. It was a day that tested the resilience of the man more than the skill they possessed. Where strength of character won over talent. Where the clinching putt was a test of will above all else. Perhaps nothing describes Spaun and his route to Oakmont Country Club's 18th green – where he holed a 64-foot, 5-inch putt to become the U.S. Open champion – better.

Spaun, 34, didn’t believe this was possible. Until recently, he didn’t believe he was good enough. So you’re excused if you thought the same.

“I never knew how good I could be,” Spaun said.

Now he knows. We all know. Good enough to be a major champion.

Spaun, after shooting a front-nine 40, rallied with a heroic back-nine 32 to win a war of attrition at Oakmont and his first major championship. He could’ve won with two putts at the 18th green, but needed just the one. Spaun finished 1 under, the lone golfer under par after 72 treacherous holes. Robert MacIntyre, at 1 over, finished runner-up.

In an era of major championships that’s been dominated by the very top of the sport – Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, John Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas, to name just a few – Spaun is a throwback. A sum-of-their-parts underdog who caught fire, and belief, at the right time to unexpectedly add their name to history. He isn’t the sexiest name who could have won, nor the most consequential to history. But his win defined this U.S. Open – a test of determination.

Spaun began the day one shot back of Sam Burns, but within an hour, what seemed to be a promising opportunity had turned into a nightmare. Spaun bogeyed the opening hole, missing the fairway well right and dooming any hope of a par. He left himself in the ideal position at the second hole, in the middle of the fairway with a 94-yard pitch up the hill. But he hit the shot too perfectly as it skipped just in front of the hole, clanked on the flagstick and bounded back off the green. What would’ve been a tap-in birdie became a deflating bogey. He followed that with another bogey at the third, and another at the fifth, and another at the sixth. Spaun stumbled to a pair of pars at the seventh and eighth holes as a deluge of rain hit and led to the most important development of the afternoon – a rain delay.

There, Spaun’s short game coach, Josh Gregory, approached and delivered a needed message. Gregory told him he would’ve killed to be here four days ago, to leave what happened in the past and embrace the challenge.

“It’s Father’s Day, life’s really good. You have two beautiful babies, and you have a chance to win the U.S. Open,” Gregory said.

Then his full swing coach Adam Schriber chimed in, giving him a pep talk that bordered on a scolding.

“No regrets,” he told Spaun.

He might lose. In fact, he was likely going to. But he was going to lose while holding nothing back.

It’s a mindset that’s relatively new to Spaun, who, for the longest time, didn’t want the ball. He actively avoided it. At THE PLAYERS, he spoke of the crippling “crawl-into-a-hole-and-die” embarrassment that overcame him anytime was in contention. It’s what zapped him at the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Championship as he shot 8-over 78 to lose. And what left the debilitated many times over whenever he even sniffed the outside of contention.

That left more scar tissue than he cared to admit. Even having won a PGA TOUR event – the 2022 Valero Texas Open, Spaun considered quitting the game. He called his San Diego State head coach, Ryan Donovan, and asked him if he knew of any good golf clubs that needed a golf pro. Late into the 2024 season, on the outside of the top 125, he came to grips with the idea that his time on the PGA TOUR might be over.

“I was just afraid of feeling embarrassed,” Spaun said Saturday at TPC Sawgrass.

Then the darndest thing happened the next day. He experienced what could have been the most embarrassing defeat yet. In a playoff with Rory McIlroy, he put his tee ball in the water at the iconic island par-3 17th. The one unforgivable mistake that you just can’t make. One that will live in his head longer than it lives in any of ours.

But there was no embarrassment. He was emboldened.

“That made him believe I can be one of the best in the world,” Gregory said. “That validated it and this will take him over the hump.”

With that mindset in tow, Spaun returned to Oakmont after the rain delay fearless. He made pars on Nos. 9-11, then struck at the par-5 12th, holing a 40-foot birdie to push himself back to 1 over.

Spaun added another birdie at the 14th, though he gave it right back with a dropped shot at 15. But his steady play was enough to keep him rising up the board as Burns and Scott made a mess behind him. He recalled a story Max Homa told him, in which Tiger Woods told Homa that you don’t need to do anything crazy to win a major. Just hang around and they will come to you.

Suddenly, at 1 over at the 17th hole, Spaun found himself in that position as a co-leader. Then came the shot of his tournament, a 309-yard drive that settled on the green at the drivable par 4. He two-putted for birdie to take the outright lead, then did what he did on the 18th.

“That’s a little bit of luck, a little bit of great. What a special dude,” Gregory said.

Maybe Spaun will use this as a catapult to bigger and better. Maybe he won’t. In his mid-30s, he’s playing the best golf of his life.

He’s ranked inside the top 10 of strokes gained, led with elite approach play and above-average putting and driving. He’s now ranked eighth in the Official World Golf Ranking. He’s in a good position to qualify for the Ryder Cup. That was on Schriber’s mind as he stood outside of scoring, waiting for Spaun to emerge.

“We ought to get that Ryder Cup now,” he said. “They said they won’t pick us, they said you got to get in the top six, that they wouldn’t take rookies.”

Spaun’s making a great case for that team and to dream bigger dreams. He wasn’t groomed to be a professional golfer. He wasn’t put through the top academies or a regular on the top junior circuits. He wasn’t a highly recruited college player, nor did his arrival on the PGA TOUR make waves.

His growth has been incremental and not always steady, but his resilience led him to this moment.

“And now here I am with the U.S. Open trophy,” Spaun said.