J.J. Spaun on the Dan Patrick Show Full Interview | 06/17/25

he just won the US Open he’s JJ Spawn getting ready to join us on the program i mentioned this yesterday that uh when we were at Pebble a couple years ago he came up and introduced himself and I thought the line was just so Oh there he is jj JJ Spun official introduction here jj Spun US Open champ joining us on the show do you remember how you introduced yourself to me at Pebble Beach a couple years ago exactly no but I do remember being there with you yeah you walked up and you said “I’m the other black guy on tour.” Yeah yeah i remember that now i remember that um congratulations um give me the second favorite shot that you hit at Oakmont the T-shot on 17 on Sunday but that was a the risk and the reward there was I mean we’ve seen guys die in the rough there around 17 but there was no hesitation no I mean that was the strategy all week long is to send driver up there and just try to get up and down and actually hit almost an identical shot in the practice round on Tuesday where I flagged it um to about 20 feet away uh but it’s a blind t-shot so you can’t see the green you can just see like the top half of the pin um and you know that was that was the one shot that got me the lead and uh you know led me to victory but also you’re listening for the the crowd’s reaction to it since you can’t see it you can kind of differentiate between oh that was a good shot that was a great shot that was an unbelievable shot exactly and that’s that’s exactly what happened um you know you can’t see anything but there’s tons of people up there big grand stands and I I you know once I hit it the ball kind of you can see it one hop um and then it disappears and all you hear is just this growing roar the stands and you know you can tell like a clap would be like okay that’s probably somewhere near the green and then all of a sudden you hear who and building up like it’s going in like I literally thought I was going to make the shot and then it was like the oh like it just missed so uh I knew it was relatively close before I got on the green how do you pay back Victor Hoblin for giving you the read on 18 um I got to give him a nice bottle of wine or something whatever he wants um that was a nice teach and I think that’s just one of those things that has to go your way to win not only a championship but a major championship and I’m just happy to have capitalized on that that little advantage how surprised were you that it went in though oh stunned i was I mean you can tell by my reaction that that putt going in you know my lab pot my lab putter was so hot I had to toss it you know um with that back n finish but uh I did you know I didn’t all I was trying to do obviously was get it to tap in i didn’t even want like a three-footer um but when I hit it I knew it was good pace i just didn’t know if it was the right line um it was raining and misty you couldn’t even really see the hole from that far away and you know I’m glad I didn’t have to tap in a little three-footer for the win do you retire that putter heck no Dan come on that thing’s been so hot for me my lab putter has been just like one of the best kind of components of my game that’s always been a part of my statistically my game where I’ve struggled um but I think it’s been a great equalizer now and it’s kind of helped keep rounds going uh whether it’s making a a clutch sixfooter to keep momentum going in the right direction during a round or or making a 64-footer to win the US Open talking to JJ Spawn US Open champ let’s uh clear up the overnight CVS trip uh for your sick daughter what what exactly happened and why can’t you send your caddy to CVS i know um it was a crazy sort of Sunday morning early Sunday morning where uh the the tournament had a a daycare provided for all the players and she must have caught some sort of stomach bug from one of the other kids running around in the same classroom as her and all we can hear in the other room next to us was her just kind of puking up stuff and uh crying so we kind of tended to her made sure she was okay but she wasn’t trying she couldn’t hold anything down she’s crying for water poor thing and she’s 2 years old and you know little does she know any sip of water kind of you know makes her feel worse but yeah I was up at 3:30 i was looking for 24-houries um you know did my best to to get her what she needed and you know fortunately you know we we got her some Pedialyte and we just tried to you know help her get on the mend and and she’s doing a lot better now though i smell a sponsorship there pedialite i do yeah how important was the rain delay it maybe that sounds strange to say but was it a a great opportunity for a reset it was huge um you know I think if if if things were going the other way where I was like really hot um starting off and kind of all of a sudden leading that would be kind of the last thing you want but it’s almost like you know being down 20 points going into the the halftime you know break NBA final to kind of regroup you know get a game plan reset um I even changed my clothes i was like I want to feel like a completely different person going out there because I had 10 holes to play i was still four shots back but it’s the US Open you know like people aren’t running away with this tournament the field kind of tends to come back but my team my caddy we all said “Hey if you were four back going into the back nine at the US Open on Monday knowing that you would take it so don’t worry about your start let’s just go back out there and and try to execute our game plan.” Okay but was there a point when you bogey five of the first six where you go “Well I had a good run.” Yeah I think on number number six when I couldn’t I I’ve made one par on a par five and it was still a grinding par but I’m hitting I’m hitting flag sticks spinning off the green hitting rakers rakes that are bounding just outside the bunker where I can’t even hit the ball i was just like okay I guess it’s not meant to be but you know maybe that kind of helped me have the right mental aspect to where you know if it’s meant to be it’ll happen if not then I’ll just take what it gives me congratulations a lot of fun um as Rich Learner said on the Golf Channel that you uh beat the best but you beat the beast as well that was Oakmont i love that thank you Dan i’m so honored congrats thanks Dan thank you JJ Spun US Open Champ i like how he changed his clothes during the rain delay almost like let me let me get out of this this isn’t good and let me just try something different i don’t know if he’s superstitious but you can’t change your clothes mid round anyway so you do need a rain delay so it’s not like he goes “Oh that’s what I normally do.” It’s uh pretty impressive though when you bogey what five of the first six and then you’re thinking uh I can’t win this how do I win this and then the rain delay and it just felt like there was a reset there and he’s won only one other time he did have that Monday playoff against Rory at the Players Championship this year but by all accounts has a great swing and you know he says you’re not going to retire that putter