JJ Spaun uses Players confidence to shoot lowest-ever US Open opening round at Oakmont

J.J. Spaun was the early clubhouse leader at the US Open. Picture: Charlie Riedel/AP

JJ Spaun knows what it takes to drag Rory McIlroy into deep waters. On opening day at Oakmont, as his Sawgrass foe was slowly pulled below the surface, the softly-spoken world No.25 was the only man finding buoyancy. It turns out McIlroy played his part.

Spaun, the 34-year-old Californian with just one PGA Tour win to his name, is in the midst of a career year. On Thursday he turned in the most sparkling major round of his life, riding a wave of focused and faultless play to lead the US Open by two shots as the afternoon wave set out to chase his clubhouse lead.

Spaun’s bogey-free 66 matched the lowest-ever opening round for a US Open at the hallowed Pittsburgh course. It’s been that kinda year. And it all began where it could have ended.

Spaun held the 54-hole lead at golf’s fifth major, the Players, earlier this year and was paired with McIlroy for a Sawgrass Sunday. When so many with such little experience of those kind of pressure situations would have wilted, Spaun stood tall and dragged McIlroy all the way to a Monday playoff. A runners-up cheque was consolation but the experience was all the more valuable.

“The Players was a kind of spring into the self-belief because it wasn't like I faked it,” Spaun said after coming in from his productive morning which featured four birdies and 14 pars. "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.

“I didn't win, but it was great for me to kind of lean back on that experience and know that I can perform on the biggest of stages and handle it with the pressure.” 

Spaun did that Thursday to soar well clear of an early chasing pack featuring less than a dozen players in the red. A chip-in birdie on his first hole gave him a fast start and he added three more before the turn then parred all the way home, wobbling only briefly.

“It set the tone for how the day was going to go. You're not really expecting to chip it in. It was a nice little wake-up call at 7.10 in the morning or whatever it was,” added Spaun, whose scrambling par from the Church Pew bunker on the 3rd was perhaps most impressive.

“It definitely makes me feel good, makes me feel confident that I'm leading the tournament. But there's plenty more golf left. This course is only going to get tougher. I'm trying to feel like I have nothing to lose. That was my mantra at The Players going into Sunday with the lead.”