Oakmont (United States) (AFP) – J.J. Spaun was starting to feel intimidated by Oakmont horror stories heading into his first experience of the iconic layout at this week’s US Open. Spaun, however, took his nervous energy and channeled it into a bogey-free four-under-par 66 on Thursday to equal the best US Open first round ever fired at the famously challenging course.
“I didn’t really feel like I’m going to show a bogey-free round four-under. I didn’t really know what to expect especially since I’ve never played here,” Spaun said. “But yeah, maybe sometimes not having expectations is the best thing, so I’ll take it.”
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The 34-year-old American began on the back side, made birdies on four of the first eight holes, then closed with 10 pars, some of them grinding long putts or rescues from rough to ease his worries. “All you’ve been hearing is how hard this place is, and it’s hard to not hear the noise,” Spaun said. “I was actually pretty nervous. But I actually tried to harness that, the nerves, the anxiety, because it kind of heightens my focus, makes me swing better, I guess.”
“I get more in the zone, whereas if I don’t have any worry or if I’m not in it mentally, it’s kind of just a lazy round or whatever out there. I like feeling uncomfortable. I ended up feeling pretty comfortable towards the end of the day, but there’s a long way to go still.”
Spaun won his only PGA Tour title at the 2022 Texas Open and this year was second at the Cognizant Classic and Players Championship, losing a playoff to second-ranked Rory McIlroy. “I didn’t win, but it was great for me to lean back on that experience and know I can perform on the biggest of stages and handle it with the pressure,” Spaun said. “There’s going to be a lot of pressure this week, too, and hopefully I can rely on those experiences.”
“I’ve been consistently right there. And everyone knows that the more you put yourself there, the better you’re going to have results and the better you’re going to play, eventually turn one of those close calls into a win. Leaping atop the leaderboard early on day one never hurts, either.”
“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,” Spaun said. “I’m trying to feel like I have nothing to lose. That was kind of my mantra at The Players going into Sunday with the lead. It was like, I feel like I have nothing to lose.”
“So I’m going to roll with that again this week and hopefully it’ll turn out more in my favor. Not bad for a guy who was fretting over his swing last week. I felt like I was a little off after Memorial,” Spaun said. “I tried tweaking some things at home, and kind of went down the rabbit hole and just kind of threw it out the window.”
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