US Open champion looks set to link-up with fellow 2025 Major winner Scottie Scheffler on day one at Bethpage
JJ Spaun celebrates US Open success
JJ Spaun is finding comfort with Scottie Scheffler as he predicted a crazy Ryder Cup.
The US Open champion dropped a huge hint about the opening-day pairings at Bethpage after being grouped with the World No.1 for the first two days of the Procore Championship.
Spaun and Scheffler were put alongside Russell Henley for the first two days at Napa with captain Keegan Bradley admitting that he’s already “90 cercent” set on his combinations for New York.
Scheffler and Henley have previous having chalked up success together at last year’s Presidents Cup win over the Internationals.
However, Spaun also looks like getting an opportunity to partner with the game’s best player after Bradley’s decisions.
The Major winner is settling into the role and said: “I haven’t played with Scottie much, but it was nice to and I think that’s what Keegan’s goal is, to just get everyone familiarised with each other.
“He obviously knows I haven’t played with him very much, so granted with the pairings we’ll end up being, you want to get comfortable playing with each other.
Scottie Scheffler
“I’ve played with him pretty recently and I’ve played well, so it’s just good to learn from him, but also feel comfortable in your own skin.”
Spaun is excited about making his debut against Europe and reckons it’ll be like a baseball game as opposed to a golf event as the New Yorkers get rowdy.
He said: “I’m thinking more of like a Game 7 World Series, the grandstands everywhere, you’re literally teeing off from home plate and you’ve got everyone screaming and wanting you to hit a good shot.
“I think that brings that home soil kind of edge as far as guys are going to be chirping the other team. Not players, but the spectators and stuff and that’s kind of what you see at other sports events. I think it’s going to be pretty crazy.”
Despite his new-found status as a Major champion, Spaun doesn’t hide the fact he will be a bag of nerves on the first tee at Bethpage.
But he’s taking comfort from the fact the other 11 of his illustrious team-mates are feeling equally queasy about the moment as he revealed the best piece of advice he’s so far received in build-up.
Spaun answered: “Probably that everyone’s going to be nervous. I feel like I’ve been expressing the nerves, anxiety of going out there and playing and they’re like: Dude, everyone’s nervous. Like, you’re not the only one that’s nervous.
“So it’ll be a tough couple of holes maybe to start out. Who knows? But eventually you’ll get the hang of it and realise you play golf for a living and you’re really good at it and that things will settle down and you’ll get comfortable in your own skin.
“But the captains are going to do such a good job getting us settled in and giving us some words of encouragement before we go to that first tee.”
Bradley believes, like Luke Donald’s Europeans at Wentworth, the Napa event is key in terms of keeping the competitive edge amongst his line-up.
And Spaun says results aren’t important as he added: “Keep some form or knock some rust off or whatever you want to call it this week and I think just the goal is to stay sharp and do the best we can.
“The only thing I can think of is if some of us didn’t play good and that maybe knocked some of the confidence you have. That’s the only thing that I would think would be a drawback if you played really poorly and you let that get to you.
“But you really have to chalk it up to a warm-up week and just keep the competitive juices flowing. Maybe guys have things that they wanted to work on before Bethpage that they’re maybe testing out this week to see how it feels under competition. So I think it’s more of that versus trying to win and proving something, I guess.”