USA TODAY International Edition
J. J. Spaun win 1st trip to Masters
SAN ANTONIO – Growing up in Southern California, J. J. Spaun’s fondest childhood memories came at Disneyland, a place he remembers roaming as a preschooler and later enjoyed while maintaining a season pass as an adult.
But Spaun’s biggest fairy- tale moment came in Texas on Sunday when the former San Diego State University star – who turned pro nearly a decade ago – emerged from a jam- packed leaderboard to capture his first PGA Title, holding off Matt Jones, Beau Hossler and others in the Valero Texas Open.
In his 147th Tour start, Spaun followed a double bogey on the opening hole with solid, if unspectacular play, holding steady in a stiff Texas breeze while others faded. With the victory, he earned his first berth to the Masters, which starts this week in Augusta, Georgia. He shot 69 on Sunday and finished the event at 13 under.
As for the opening double bogey, it marked the first time a player made double on the first hole and held on for victory since Tiger Woods did so during the 2008 U. S. Open at Torrey Pines.
Spaun, who lives in Arizona, said he wasn’t frazzled after the miscue and, if anything, it might have helped him a bit.
“Honestly, it didn’t bother me as much as you would think. If anything it kind of calmed me down,” he said. “I didn’t hit a bad shot until the second shot – that was kind of a bad shot, but I knew there was still a lot of golf and I’d rather double the first hole than the last hole. So I just knew that if I say patient and kept plugging away that who knows? If I put myself in contention with nine holes away, that’s all I could ask for.”
Spaun entered the tournament with 11 career top- 10 finishes and was a 150- 1 shot to win, but he calmly drained a number of mid- sized par putts to stay in the lead and watched as a number of other players flamed out. That followed a number of brilliant hole- outs throughout the week that put him in contention.
The 242nd- ranked player in the world coming into the event, Spaun played defensively down the stretch – hitting iron off the tee on the risk/ reward 17th hole and making par with a 4- foot putt. He made things interesting on the final hole, pulling his drive left down a hill on a par- 5 but played safely out of the rough.
Matt Kuchar, who was two down on the final hole, went for the green on the par- 5 and dropped his second shot in the water. Making his 500th start on Tour, he finished second for the 14th time to go with nine victories.
By virtue of an impressive 66, Matt Jones finished tied for runner- up with Kuchar at 11 under, though he’d finished nearly two hours before Spaun did. “It was a good weekend,” Jones said. “I had a good round going Thursday and let it slip, and then Friday I just played poorly and made a couple of mistakes, and those mistakes are what cost golf tournaments out on this Tour because everyone’s so good.”
Canadian Adam Hadwin was third at 10 under, tied with Troy Merritt, Hossler and Charles Howell III.
Among others who made noise Sunday were Keegan Bradley – who shot a 66 to get into the conversation at 9 under, before the pack kept pulling away from him – and Hossler, who was tied for the lead to start the day but scrambled all day and fell out of contention with a double bogey on the 14.