Viktor Hovland missed a miracle on 18th, only to 'assist' J.J. Spaun's putt to win U.S. Open

As rain drizzled over him, Viktor Hovland stood 70 feet, 3 inches away from the hole on the 18th green at Oakmont Country Club knowing he needed nothing short of a miracle to win the 125th U.S. Open.

Hovland had five bogeys during the final round, yet the 27-year-old Norwegian birdied No. 17 to stay in contention. He was two strokes back but figured a final birdie could make things interesting.

“I was aware of it but almost didn’t have enough time to think about it,” Hovland said. “It was a 50-footer, 60-footer, whatever it was. It was a tricky putt, and I read it to the best I could and tried to give it a good putt. There were still a lot of things that had to go my way.”

Even so, Hovland took six practice strokes, wiped off his putter and calmly took his best shot at winning his first major championship.

As the ball rolled slowly uphill and headed for the hole, the fans in the grandstands broke the silence and screamed for it to get in the hole. The ball stayed ever so slightly to the right and almost five feet past the cup.

“I needed a birdie or I thought maybe hole one out on the last,” said Hovland, who won $1.46 million for finishing third at 2-over 282. “That would have been nice. I gave it a good go.”

What Hovland gave was a perfect read on the green for his playing partner, J.J. Spaun, whose ball had landed nearby but almost 6 feet closer to the pin. Instead of playing it safe with his 1-stroke lead over Robert MacIntyre, Spaun was inspired to go for the jugular.

Spaun’s shot rolled along a similar path, only it dropped into the cup. Spaun celebrated with his caddie and pumped his fist as the gallery went wild, with fans chanting “USA!” from the grandstands.

“He thanked me for the assist in the scoring,” Hovland said. “I don’t know how much that really matters. To make that putt is just an absolute joke.”

How Spaun went from punchline to punctuation in the span of 16 holes is absolutely amazing, the storybook ending this U.S. Open at Oakmont needed after Mother Nature and the course took turns torturing the field.

The greens were fast before the rainstorm that caused a 96-minute delay, and soggy afterward. The interruption benefited nobody more than Spaun, who needed a reprieve from the disaster he dealt with on the front nine, where he bogeyed five of the first six holes.

Hovland had a front-row view of the meltdown, especially the gut punch Spaun endured on No. 2. Spaun hit his sand wedge off the flag stick, and had to watch it roll 50 yards back along the fringe.

Television cameras captured the stunned stare on Spaun’s face, his jaw dropped in disbelief. It would have been hilarious if it wasn’t so heartbreaking.

“That’s the U.S. Open for you right there,” Hovland said. “That’s pretty tough. It looked like it was going to have a lot of spin, but there was no doubt when it hit the pin that it was coming all the way back. I think he’s forgotten about that one now, though.”

Hovland called Spaun’s comeback “unbelievable.”

“After his start, it just looked like he was out of it immediately,” Hovland said. “To watch him hole the putt on 12 down the hill there was unreal. And then he makes another one on 14 that was straight down the hill. And then the one on 18, it’s just absolutely filthy there.”

Hovland is learning how to let go of his own letdowns.

At Oklahoma State, he became the first Norwegian to win the U.S. Amateur in 2018 and the first golfer since Matt Kuchar in 1998 to win low amateur at both the 2019 Masters and U.S. Open. Hovland broke Jack Nicklaus’ low-amateur record score of 280 at the U.S. Open by two strokes, then won the Ben Hogan Award as the best college golfer.

Hovland appeared to be an emerging star, and 2023 served as a breakthrough. He tied for seventh at the Masters, lost to Brooks Koepka by two strokes to tie for second at the PGA at Oak Hill and won the BMW by shooting a course-record 61 on Sunday. Then he changed everything from his coaches to his swing in search of something he couldn’t uncover. He went two years without a win before scoring birdies on Nos. 14, 16 and 17 to win Valspar by one stroke in March. Hovland came to Oakmont with a newfound sense of confidence, changing his strategy and sense of self.

“I’ve been working on that a little bit,” Hovland said. “I’ve been tearing myself down a little too much. Even though I do know I need to work on some stuff and get back to where I used to be in a way mechanically, but in the interim, I can still perform at a really high level, and there’s a lot of good stuff. Just got to take that with me and be a little bit kinder to myself.”

But Hovland couldn’t overcome three missed 5-foot putts Sunday, so he realized that it might have been too late of a run.

“You can’t be doing that,” Hovland said, “if you’re going to win a major championship.”

If there’s any consolation, Hovland can take pride in progressing in the right direction despite not having his best stuff and not feeling very comfortable on the final day of championship play. His play remained steady, even as Sam Burns and Adam Scott crashed behind him.

Hovland faced the longest odds on the final hole and didn’t know which was worse: Barely missing a tricky putt on an impossible shot or watching J.J. Spaun sink one that was an “absolute joke.” Hovland can take comfort in giving it a good go, even if it didn’t go his way.