Key events
Here is Ewan Murray’s report of the dramatic final day and JJ Spaun’s breakthrough victory at Oakmont:
Anyway, it’s been a long and dramatic final round, so that’s your lot. Congratulations to JJ Spaun, commiserations to Bob MacIntyre, and thanks to you for reading this live blog. Hope to see you again for the final major of the season at Portrush next month.
-1: JJ Spaun
+1: Robert MacIntyre
+2: Viktor Hovland
+3: Cameron Young, Tyrrell Hatton, Carlos Ortiz
+4: Jon Rahm, Scottie Scheffler, Sam Burns
+5: Ben Griffin, Russell Henley
JJ Spaun talks to NBC. “I don’t think I did keep my composure … I was trying to dig deep … honestly the weather delay we had changed the whole vibe for the day … a similar thing happened to me at the Players … I leaned on that experience … I kept pushing … bounced back … fought really hard on the back nine … it was nice to get a little teach from Viktor … when I hit it I thought it was a little short but right on the line … eight feet out it was looking really good … it was just one of those moments in major championships when that’s what happens to seal the deal and fortunately it was my time … I never thought I would be here holding this trophy … I never knew what my ceiling was … I’m just proud I’ve been resilient … I’ve tried to be the best golfer I could be.”
Then the Father’s Day bit. “It’s a dream weekend scenario … to have my two kids here is just awesome … the cherry on top!”
It’s time for JJ Spaun to pick up his prize. Well, not quite. First up, Justin Hastings picks up his silver medal for low amateur. Then the Jack Nicklaus Gold Medal is draped around JJ Spaun’s neck … and the trophy’s handed over. Into the air it goes. He gives it a kiss. And now for his first interview as the USA’s national champion …
That clinching putt of JJ Spaun’s, though! A huge left-to-right swinger over a ridge, 64 feet and eight inches. Throw in his other birdie putts on the back nine, made from 40 feet and five inches on 12, and 22 feet and one inch on 14 – plus that drive on 17 from 309 yards to 17 feet! – and my goodness but the 34-year-old Californian has earned this US Open on the back nine. And then some. What an outstanding response to the nightmare start of 5-5-5-5-5, a sequence that would have ruined many a player. Three huge putts covering a cumulative total of 127 feet and two inches! JJ Spaun, ladies and gentlemen, the 2025 US Open champion!
The disappointed duo of Sam Burns and Adam Scott finish their round in diminuendo fashion. A 78 for Burns, 79 for Scott. The final grouping dragging each other down. A total score of +17 between them today.
In the clubhouse, Bob MacIntyre looks understandably down, but still manages a huge round of applause and a WOW! He came so close to Scotland’s first men’s major championship since Paul Lawrie in 1999 – Catriona Matthew won the Women’s British Open in 2009 – but it wasn’t to be. A brilliant final round, though. He’s one of only two players who’ll finish in the top ten to have carded an under-par round today. Jon Rahm is the other. And what a weekend’s work: 69-68. It’ll stand the 28-year-old from Oban in good stead. Portrush, maybe?
“That was impressive, dude! Congrats!” That’s Victor Hovland’s message to his playing partner JJ Spaun after tidying up for his own par and a final round of 73. Spaun thanks his playing partner, then gathers his wife and daughter in his arms. Off to the marker’s hut he goes. The only player in the field to break par this week!
-1: Spaun (F)
+1: MacIntyre (F)
+2: Hovland (F)
+3: Young (F), Hatton (F), Ortiz (F), Burns (17)
JJ Spaun wins the 2025 US Open!
Spaun’s turn. He’s got two putts to win the US Open. He only needs one! He’s learned all he needs to off Hovland’s effort, and sends it swinging into the cup! His third monster birdie putt on the back nine. He’s won the US Open in such style … and dissolves into tears of relief and joy. What a performance! Especially after that 5-5-5-5-5 start! A fine 72 in the end. Back in 32!
Viktor Hovland sends the big uphill left-to-right curler gliding past the hole on the low side. That’s a fine effort, though he’s left himself a six-footer coming back. JJ Spaun watches and learns.
The rain continues to pour down. Spaun under his brolly. He prowls around his putt. So does Hovland, who’s up first. Meanwhile birdie for Sam Burns on 17, too little, too late.
JJ Spaun, from the centre of the 18th fairway, 202 yards out. He sets his long iron out to the left, and wants some fade that he’s not generated. The ball finds the green, but the front-left portion with the pin back-right. He’s got two putts for the US Open, but they’re from quite the distance: 65 feet. In the marker’s room, Bob MacIntyre is pictured laughing heartily. He probably knows Spaun’s more likely than not to make it, the way he’s been putting across this back nine … and he’ll get a read from Viktor Hovland, whose ball nestles nearby, just behind. But it’s far from a given!
Tyrrell Hatton’s left with a 30-foot par putt. It stops just short, and that’s a costly 5-5 finish. He drops his head sadly. No anger. A 72. When the pain subsides, he’ll be proud of his week’s work. He ends it at +3.
JJ Spaun splits the 18th fairway. Of course he does. How well he’s responded to that horrific 5-5-5-5 start. It would have broken lesser men. One more good swing, into the heart of the green, and the job should be done. But the rain’s started to come down again, which won’t help. Viktor Hovland meanwhile finds the first cut down the right. He’s still in with a shout, but he needs a birdie and some help from his playing partner.
JJ Spaun gives his eagle putt a chance of dropping. It slides three feet past, but he’s not missing the one coming back. He’s one par away from his first major championship! A very fine birdie for Viktor Hovland as well. His tee shot found Tyrrell Hatton’s downslope, but he elegantly swished to six feet, and in went the putt. It’s not quite over for Viktor yet. It is for Tyrrell Hatton, though, who of course doesn’t hole out from the middle of the fairway. And it’s over for Sam Burns and Adam Scott as well, as they respectively bogey and double-bogey 16. They’re +4 and +5.
E: Spaun (17)
+1: MacIntyre (F)
+2: Hatton (17), Hovland (17)
Tyrrell Hatton finds a fairway bunker down the right of 18, and can only hack back out onto the fairway. That’s cost him any chance of birdie … unless he holes out from 150 yards, but c’mon. Close but no cigar.
Neither Adam Scott nor Sam Burns can find the green at the par-three 16th. Burns, halfway down a bank, is able to hack his second on, but nowhere close. Scott tries to get too cute and dunks his first chip into more thick rough a few yards in front of him. He can’t get particularly close with his next chip, and these two are beginning to run out of road.
JJ Spaun looks to have rediscovered himself at exactly the right time! Those two monster putts for birdie at 12 and 14. Now he’s just bombed his drive at the short par-four 17th to 17 feet! He’ll have a good look at an eagle that would almost seal the deal. A birdie may be enough anyway.
… and it’s slipping away from Tyrrell Hatton, too. His tee shot at 17 goes towards the bunker guarding the front right of the green, but stops on the downslope in front of it. His first chip slams into the bank on the other side of the trap. His second only just squirts out onto the fringe. He knocks his third chip to kick-in distance, but the damage has already been done. Bogey, and at +1 he’ll now need something special up the last.
Sam Burns is bubbling now. He fluffs his chip from the back of 15, necessitating another go. He can’t get close with his second effort, and two putts later he’s carding his third six in five holes. He’s now +3, as is Adam Scott, who makes a careless three-putt bogey, racing his first effort from 72 feet seven past. It’s slipping away from the final pair.
68 for MacIntyre
Bob MacIntyre carefully rolls his 32-foot putt up towards the hole. It stops a roll short. He tidies up for a 68, and he’s the new clubhouse leader! Could it be enough for Scotland’s first major championship since Paul Lawrie’s Open win in 1999?
+1: MacIntyre (F), Hatton (16), Spaun (15), Burns (14)
+2: Scott (14)
+3: Young (F), Ortiz (16), Hovland (15)
+4: Rahm (F), Scheffler (F)
Sam Burns thinks he should get a free drop on 15, up against the first cut, on some extremely sodden turf. There’s water coming up whenever he practice-swings nearby. But the referee, concentrating more on where Burns is planting his feet rather than the position of the ball, doesn’t agree. So Burns is forced to play it. An explosion of moisture sprays into the air as his iron descends, the ball hysterically hooking into the thick rough on the left side of the green. He slashes the turf again, half with emotion, half to make his point known. He’s livid, clearly fuming with the decision. You can understand his reactiony. Oakmont has taken on a hell of a lot of water, and that could prove very costly.
JJ Spaun’s downhill par putt on 15 rolls wide of the left lip. Never dropping. Bogey. A dropped shot too for Viktor Hovland, who went to school on Spaun’s putt but learned nothing. They’re +1 and +2 respectively. Meanwhile on the par-three 16th, Tyrrell Hatton aims a dart at the flag back-right, and sets up a ten-foot birdie opportunity. But he doesn’t hit the putt, which dies left. And up on 18, Bob MacIntyre finds the centre of the green in regulation, hitting two nerveless strokes down the middle. He’s pin high and left with a 32-footer across the green for a closing birdie.
This is getting tense now. Cameron Young launches his tee shot at the drivable par-four 17th in the heart of the green. He nearly makes his big 50-foot right-to-left swinger for eagle, but birdie isn’t half bad. He’s +3. His playing partner Robert MacIntyre makes one too: his tee shot comes up short of the green, but he putts up from 65 feet to four, and tidies up. He’s +1, and unless JJ Spaun can make a 12-footer for par on 15 – he’s done well to whip his third into the green from the thick stuff down the right – he’ll have a share of the lead with one hole of his round to play.
Adam Scott does well to bundle his third shot at 14 into the heart of the green. It rolls on, 20 feet past the flag. He can’t make the par saver, and that’s another shot gone. He’s +2. Sam Burns pulls his six-foot birdie putt wide left, and looks disgusted with himself. He remains +1. Meanwhile on 15, JJ Spaun compounds one mistake with another, launching long from the rough on the left only to send it into further filth down the right.
Scheffler shoots 70
Scottie Scheffler can’t get up and down from distance. He’s never quite been on top of his game this week … and yet he kept scrapping until the very end. And at the moment, his hopes aren’t technically extinguished, because he’s joined Jon Rahm in the clubhouse lead at +4.
Adam Scott meanwhile is plugged in the face of a fairway bunker to the right of 14. He does well enough to gouge it out, but the ball disappears into thick rough just in front of the trap. Meanwhile up on 15, Carlos Ortiz gets a hot bounce through the green, then a flyer as he chips back out. Having already been forced to play sideways from rough down the left of the fairway, he’ll need to make a 12-footer to limit the damage to bogey.
Sam Burns sends his tee shot down the middle of the short-ish par-four 14th. He’s in a divot, though, but no matter … because he sends his wedge over the flag and spins it back to six feet! He’ll have a chance to join JJ Spaun at the top … and might even do-se-do with him, because the leader sends his tee shot at 15 into thick, waist-high rough down the left.
We have a new leader! It’s JJ Spaun, who pours in a 35-footer across 14! To recap: the 34-year-old Californian, who came runner-up to Rory McIlroy at the Players, started his round today 5-5-5-5-5. Four bogeys. But now he’s made two big birdie putts in three holes! Carpe-diem capers!
E: Spaun (14)
+1: Ortiz (14), Hatton (14), Scott (13), Burns (13)
+2: MacIntyre (16), Hovland (14)
+3: Scheffler (17)
+4: Rahm (F), Young (16)
Scottie Scheffler has done so well to get himself back into contention … but now he’s in danger of undoing his good work by flaying his tee shot at 18 into the thickest rough down the right. He’s forced to chip back out, and nearly sends his ball into similar bother on the other side of the fairway. Fortunately it stops in the first cut, but he’s got work to do if he’s to save his par and post a new clubhouse lead.
No luck for Sam Burns on the par-three 13th. His tee shot snags in the rough just behind the bunker guarding the front right. Another 12 inches, and that would have landed on the short stuff and scampered towards the pin. As it is, he’s left with a treacherous chip, with not much green to play with. He nearly holes it. But the par stops the rot after consecutive sixes. Par for Adam Scott too, and both men remain at +1.
A word about Carlos Ortiz’s par on 14. The 34-year-old Mexican nearly drained a 47-footer across the green, but the ball stopped the width of one dimple short. He smiled and shared a laugh with his playing partner Tyrrell Hatton nonetheless. Ortiz has absolutely no record to speak of in the majors at all – nine appearances, seven missed cuts, his best finishes ties for 52nd and 55th – which may be why he’s enjoying every moment of this ride today. It’s lovely to witness.
… and the world number one, Scottie Scheffler, who was 50-1 at the start of the day according to Sky Sports, is now just two behind that group! Because he birdies the short par-four 17th to move to +3, and this final round is some delightfully unhinged nonsense!
Sam Burns chips back onto the 12th green and uses the right-to-left camber to bring his ball to a halt, eight feet behind the hole. He looks to have nailed his par saver, but he’s undone by too much pace, the ball not sliding right to left as it should. It lips out, and suddenly everyone in the field is over par. Two putts for Adam Scott and it’s a five-way tie at the top.
+1: Ortiz (14), Hatton (13), Spaun (13), Scott (12), Burns (12)
A huge unforced error by Sam Burns from the middle of the 12th fairway. A wedge in from 125 yards that squirts off to the left and dunks into the thick greenside rough. Squirt might be the operative word there, actually, because he swipes the ground in frustration, a spray of water just below the surface coming up. Adam Scott meanwhile is on the green in regulation after firing a long iron into the heart of it.
JJ Spaun’s third into the par-five 12th only just gets over the bunker guarding the front-left of the green. His ball creeps over the fringe and onto the putting surface. A stroke of luck … and given what happened to him with the flagstick on 2, he deserves some. And he takes advantage of it, steering in a left-to-right slider from 40 feet to make his first birdie of the day! Good luck calling this, because quite frankly, anything could happen from here on in.
E: Burns (11)
+1: Hatton (13), Oritz (13), Spaun (12), Scott (11)
+2: MacIntyre (14), Hovland (12)
+4: Rahm (F), Scheffler (16), Young (14), Lawrence (14)
A glorious tee shot by Tyrrell Hatton at the par-three 13th! He takes a shy at the flag, tucked behind the bunker on the right, and lands his ball four feet from the cup. He rolls in the putt for a precious birdie. He’s +1. And there’s one as well for Bob MacIntyre at the short par-four 14th. A drive down the middle, a chip from 86 yards to eight feet, one putt. He’s +2. A late-evening British invasion!
The rain has stopped. So maybe we’ll still finish tonight. Fingers crossed again. And toes.
Adam Scott walks in his 15-foot bogey putt! That could be a huge act of damage limitation! Sam Burns chips up to kick-in distance, but that’s a double, and now there’s nobody at all under par for their week’s work.
E: Burns (11)
+1: Ortiz (12), Scott (11)
+2: Hatton (12), Hovland (11), Spaun (11)
+3: MacIntyre (13)
+4: Rahm (F), Henley (17), Scheffler (15), Young (13)
Adam Scott, one foot high above the other as he balances on the tousle-haired hillock behind 11, chunks his chip. Down off the bank but only into more thick rough. Then Sam Burns, also with one foot high above the other, as he teeters on the upslope above the bunker at the front, flies the green with his chip. Then Scott’s second attempt rolls 15 feet past the hole, while Burns’ chip back races 25 feet past! This is jaw-dropping havoc! In our metaphorical clubhouse, Jon Rahm, +4, cigar and ball of malt on, goes off in search of a leather armchair in front of a roaring fire.
Trouble for Sam Burns at 11. He comes up short with his approach, which wouldn’t be too costly had his ball landed in the bunker. But it sticks in the thick grass just above it. It’s not plugged, but he’ll have no stance. He’ll most likely be standing in the trap with the ball high above his feet, gripping down on the shaft. Mind, that’s nothing compared to the problems facing Adam Scott, who screams “SIT!” the moment he swings his wedge. He air-mails his approach over the green and onto a mound of the tallest, thickest rough behind. The rain, sheeting down, is the least of the worries for the final pairing right now.
They’ve got the rollers out on the 13th green. They’re clearing the water that’s collected for now, but this surely can’t be feasible for too much longer … unless the rain stops, which it doesn’t look like doing any time soon.
If recent history is any guide, this US Open is Adam Scott’s to lose. Because here’s how some of the leaders have done on the back nine so far this week.
-6: Scott
-5: Hovland
-2: Burns, Spaun
-1: Hatton
