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 holding a season’s pass as an adult.
But Spaun’s biggest fairytale 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 to take 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 a 69 on Sunday and finished the event at 13 under.
Spaun entered this week with just 11 career top-10 finishes and was a 150-1 shot to win, but he watched as a number of other players flamed out and calmly drained a number of mid-sized par putts to stay in the lead.
The 242nd-ranked player in the world coming into the event, Spaun played defensive down the stretch — hitting iron off the tee on the risk/reward 17th hole and making par with a four-foot putt. He made things interesting on the final hole, pulling his drive left down a hill on a par-5, but Spaun played safely out of the rough and avoided any major mishaps.
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.
By virtue of an impressive 66, Matt Jones finished tied for runner-up with Kuchar at 11 under, although he’d finished nearly two hours before Spaun did. Canadian Adam Hadwin was third at 10 under, tied with Troy Merritt and Charles Howell III.
Among the others who made noise on Sunday were Keegan Bradley — who shot a 66 to get into the conversation early at 9 under, before the pack kept pulling away from him — and former Texas star Hossler, who was tied for the lead to start the day but scrambled all day and finally fell out of contention with a double-bogey on the 14th hole.
