A cold and bitter final round around TPC San Antonio saw a few changes on the leaderboard as J.J. Spaun took home the victory thanks to a brilliant finish, where he went birdie-eagle on 16 and 17 to post a five-under-par final round and win by one stroke on 17-under.
Spaun, who won this competition in 2022, quietly saw himself get amongst the top of the pack with a brilliant back-nine performance. Spaun rolled in a birdie at the 10th, 14th and 16th before taking advantage of the short par-4 17th, landing his tee shot within 10 feet of the hole and securing his eagle to go ahead of then leader Matt Wallace who had finished more than an hour earlier with a 68.
Spaun made par at the last and sat patiently to see if the rest of the field could match his score. No-one could, and Spaun confirmed his third win in 252 starts on the PGA TOUR.
“My strategy was not to spiral,” Spaun said. “I think at The PLAYERS I did a really good job of kind of accepting where my game was and just knowing, like, you don’t have to have you’re A game to win,” he added.
“That’s kind of what I did this week,” Spaun continued. “I didn’t have my A game, but I just accepted what I was able to use this week. Went out there and just tried to get the ball in the hole. And whatever outcome I had, whether it was a shot or a hole, I just accepted it and moved on.”
Spaun, the 2025 U.S. Open champion, has been feeling some pressure since securing his first major win.
“There’s just so much that comes with winning big events like that, a U.S. Open or any other major,” he said. “I put a lot of pressure on me to start the year, a lot of expectations. I went into the last few weeks starting at THE PLAYERS trying to be freed up, and put less pressure on myself, and it’s been trying. But sticking to that mantra has really helped me.”
With his win, Spaun secured 500 FedExCup points and rose 91 spots in the rankings to 24th.
There was a three-way tie for second place, as Matt Wallace, Michael Kim and 54-hole leader Robert MacIntyre all finished on 16-under.
MacIntyre also eagled the short par-4 at 17, but couldn’t make birdie at the last as he hooked his second shot from the wet fairway and even after getting relief from temporary immovable obstructions, MacIntyre could only hit wedge to 30 feet and make par.
MacIntyre may had been feeling the effects of his early start, as he was one of many who had to return in the early hours of Sunday morning to complete 12 holes from his third round, as weather delays tormented the majority of Saturday’s round.
MacIntyre was in the final pairing alongside Sweden’s Ludvig Aberg and the 26-year-old’s birdie-birdie finish was not enough for him to challenge Spaun, as he posted a two-under-par 70 to finish in T5 on 15-under alongside Andrew Putnum to secure his third straight top-10 finish.
The PGA TOUR now heads to it’s first major of the year as the long anticipated return to Augusta begins on the 9th of April, where Rory McIlroy will hope to be the first person to retain a Masters title since Tiger Woods in 2002.
Leave a comment