J.J. Spaun Goes Bogey-Free, Takes Early 2025 U.S. Open Lead

The Andrew Landry Award at the 2025 U.S. Open goes to J.J. Spaun. The last time the national championship visited Oakmont Country Club, it was Landry who raced out to a 4-under 66 first-round lead. Spaun, a diminutive fella like Landry, posted his thrilling bogey-free 66 out of the gate in the early wave on Thursday. Like Landry, Spaun is a rank-and-file PGA Tour member. Each player has picked up a win at the Valero Texas Open, but neither is a regular Tour contender. Landry rolled into the 2016 U.S. Open in the 600s in the world ranking and through qualifying. Spaun, who was in jeopardy of losing his card last year and contemplated another career move, enters in much steadier form, including that flash at The Players.

A relative unknown topping the early leaderboard is not foreign at the U.S. Open. Before Landry at Oakmont, there was Nick Dougherty in 2007. Spaun may proceed to separate more each of the next three days, but the most likely scenario is a regression to the mean. Spaun is an average putter on Tour this year, ranking 84th in strokes gained. On Thursday, he made seven putts from seven to 16 feet — all but one to save par (the other a birdie at No. 17). Putts from that range, especially to save par, will be all the difference in the coming days.

It was a fun tightrope walk to follow up close on his second nine, the brutal front side here at Oakmont that was set up with some incredible pins from Nos. 2-7. It had NBC’s Curt Byrum, who was calling Spaun’s group and knows him well in the Phoenix area, shaking his head with one save after another, from the 16-footer at No. 6 to the eight-footer at No. 8, his last real bogey scare of his day. There will be a regression on the putting, but Spaun has shown a skill throughout this year to hang around, much like Landry did into the weekend in 2016. Spaun had never really seen the course before this week, only played in one previous U.S. Open, never posted a bogey-free round in a major, and said he didn’t really see this kind of round coming. So a win is an entirely different proposition.

This piece originally appeared in the Fried Egg Golf newsletter. Subscribe for free and receive golf news and insight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.