Playing with Scottie: What Spaun Learned (and Why It Matters)

J.J. Spaun details a purposeful Round 1 at the Procore Championship—less about chasing a trophy, more about reps and chemistry ahead of Bethpage. Playing near Scottie Scheffler’s wave, Spaun says Keegan Bradley wanted the team to get comfortable playing together. On course, a tricky wind and awkward tee shots made driving a test (“this place is up there with Sony for hitting fairways”), so he scraped it around and leaned on patience as late-day poa annua turned bumpy.

He also breaks down Sam Burns’ putting (“deliberate routine, pick a spot, go”—confidence + tempo), reacts to Scottie’s sub-70 streak ending at 70 (“first go-round here—he’ll be fine”), and shares his best Ryder Cup advice: “Everyone’s nervous. You’ll settle in—remember you do this for a living.” As for Bethpage? “Game 7 World Series” vibes—grandstands, noise, and fuel for Team USA.

Highlights

Team focus: reps, camaraderie, comfort with potential partners

Course keys: find fairways, accept quirks, manage bumpy poa late

Wind + awkward lines → don’t force it; grind and scrape

Sam Burns’ putting: routine, tempo, confidence = makes

On Scottie’s 70 and the streak: new course feel, no concerns

Bethpage mindset: first-tee nerves are normal; embrace the roar

Will you how important is it? Uh I mean it’s just one day but most of your guys have played pretty well Router Cup guys. How important is that? And were you looking at that at all as you were playing today? How everybody was doing? Yeah, I I I mean yeah, our group played pretty solid. Um you know, we want to sort of keep some form or knock some rust off, whatever you want to call it this week. And I think just the goal is to to stay sharp and and do the best we can. How much do you how much have you played this guy? I didn’t look it up. Have you had an opportunity to play with him very often? I play with him Sunday at Memphis. I have probably a handful of times. So, but did this week help? Because Keegan kind of talked about just you guys spending time together. Yeah. Black. Hopefully that’s we’ll change that to good luck. Um, sorry. Oh, yeah. So, no, I haven’t played with Scotty much, but it was nice to kind of and I think that’s what Keegan’s goal is to just get everyone familiarized with each other. Like, he obviously knows I haven’t played with them very much. So, you know, granted what the pairing has end up being, you know, we want to get comfortable playing with each other. So, um, but I’ve played with him pretty recently and I’ve played well. So, it’s just good to play with him and and learn from him, but also, yeah, feel comfortable in your own skin. How’d you play today? because it looked like kind of middle early back nine you weren’t sure where the ball was going or maybe didn’t like where it was going. Yeah, I just there’s when when we get this win this this course for me driving is always kind of a struggle. I’ve played here every year. Um and I feel like it’s up there with Sony as far as being able to hit fairways. But yeah, it’s just, you know, it’s just one of those places where you can’t really put too much pressure on getting it in the fairway because you can still scrape it around and grind. And that’s kind of what I did today. But um yeah, just a lot of awkward T- shots for me coming in on this course with this wind direction. Go ahead, Nick. JJ, you mentioned at the start there the benefits of playing this week, building camaraderie, getting rep getting reps and things like that. Are there any drawbacks to playing this week? Um the only thing I could think of is if like some of us didn’t play good and that maybe, you know, knocked some of the confidence you have. Um, and that’s the only thing that I would think would be a drawback is just like if you played really poorly and you let that get to you. But, you know, you can’t really, you have to chalk it up to kind of like a warm-up week and just kind of keep the competitive juices flowing. And, you know, maybe guys have things that they wanted to work on, you know, before Paige that they’re maybe testing out this week to see how it feels under competition. So, I think it’s more of that versus, you know, trying to win and proving proving something, I guess. How much are you thinking about the first hole at Beth Paige come that Friday or Yeah, quite a bit. Um, you know, I just I just know it’s going to be pretty nerve-wracking, but luckily luckily it’s a driver, so it’s on a tee and just swing away. And uh, you know, I I felt pretty uncomfortable at the US Open, but I hit really good T- shots there coming down the stretch. So, I’m just going to really hone in on that. But the captains are going to do such a good job getting us settled in and and giving us some words of encouragement before we go to that first te. So, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve heard so far? Uh, best piece of advice probably that everyone’s going to be nervous. You know, I feel like I’ve been expressing like the nerves anxiety of going out there and playing and they’re like, “Dude, everyone’s nervous.” Like you can’t you you you’re not the only one that’s nervous. So, um, you know, it’ll be, you know, you know, tough couple holes maybe to start out. Who knows? But, um, you know, eventually you’ll get the hang of it and realize you play golf for a living and you’re really good at it and that things will settle down. You’ll get comfortable in your own skin. When you I mean, I think a lot of you guys kind of, you know, kind of watch each other and glean what what each other do well, right? Um, when you look at Sam Burns and his putting, what do you see with an analytical eye? you know, whether it’s technical things he does or it’s confidence thing. What do you make of him as a putter? Yeah, he’s obviously a really great putter. Russell’s a really good putter. I think they’re just very deliberate in their routines and their deliveries. um they’re very they’ve got a good tempo like with routine like they don’t kind of second guess or they kind of pick their spots and go and um but I think I think the the thing with those grade of putters is just how how often the ball goes in the hole and that just kind of breeds more you know putts going in. So that’s kind of what they do. Does he does he give off a vibe of being a very confident putter when as you watch him operate? Yeah, totally. Uh he he knows he’s gonna start the ball on the online line. He knows he’s gonna have good speed. It’s just whether it goes in or not. We didn’t ask Scotty because he wouldn’t have known and probably didn’t definitely didn’t care. But u today ended a streak of 21 consecutive sub 70 rounds. Does that impress you at all for him? Yeah. No. No. Because he’s the best player in the world. I expect him. But I mean what did he shoot today too? So he barely missed it. 70. Yeah. Yeah. I mean and this is his first goound here. So, it’s very goofy. Like, I I don’t think I liked this place the first couple times I came here, but you kind of learn how to play it. You you kind of know where to miss. And those greens, especially in the afternoon, are not great. You know, this just poppy and they’re they’re pretty fast. So, uh he you know, just barely missed a few putts that would have kept his streak going, but he’ll be fine. I think you will, too. What do you anticipate the be like at that? We talked about probably never experienced before. In your mind, what does it look like? To me, it’s it’s just to me I’m thinking more of like a game seven World Series game. like just the grand stands everywhere and like you’re literally teeing off from home plate and you got everyone screaming and you know wanting you to hit a good shot and uh I think you know it that that kind of brings that home soil kind you know kind of uh edge as far as you know guys are going to be chirping the other team or you know not players but the um this the spectators and stuff and that’s kind of what you see at you know other sports events and you know I think it’s going to be pretty crazy As an as an LA kid, what what comes to mind if someone were to ask you to describe what a New York fan is like? Like in in your mind, what what do you think of in terms of reputation of New Yorkers? Yeah, I know. I can’t Marshall jersey. Yeah. Uh I feel I feel for them, you know, they just need to work on their fielding a little bit, but uh that hurt. But I mean, it’s it’s carried into this season, too. So, I mean, unfortunately, but I mean, they they’re a great team. They’ll figure it out. Thanks, Fergie. Nice touch. Please don’t put that out. That thing wasn’t even working. That’s in the cloud now, too. Yeah. Can’t get rid of that. Appreciate it. Thanks.