J.J. Spaun learnt the hard way that in trying to become the perfect golfer, he let his mental game down. The three-time PGA Tour winner won the Valero Texas Open in San Antonio earlier this year, a title he’d hoped would put to rest any doubts about his major championship pedigree. Instead, at the BMW Championship, the U.S. Open champion admitted the win didn’t do what he needed it to.
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Spaun’s honesty at the presser went beyond a routine media session. Asked what he hoped to accomplish this year and how much he had checked off, he explained that his only target was winning again, to prove that his breakout stretch wasn’t “lightning in a bottle.” He got that win in San Antonio after a rough start to the year. He still went looking for more.
“And then it still wasn’t enough,” Spaun said.
That single line is the crux of what Spaun described at BMW. He entered the season without his usual approach.
“I’ve never been a goal setter, I just kind of went about my process and however I played was what I got,” he explained.
Instead, he set expectations this year: have a strong year, get a win, stay in contention. The victory came within months. The feeling of victory never followed.
Spaun tied that experience to comments made earlier this year by Scottie Scheffler at the Open Championship, where the world No. 1 spoke about the fleeting nature of winning, a moment of satisfaction that quickly resets right after a trophy is lifted. Spaun echoed that sentiment directly, noting that success leads back to the start, over and over, without giving the payoff athletes expect.
Asked whether goal-setting itself had become the problem, Spaun didn’t hesitate.
“Yeah, waste of time,” he admitted.
His original plan was simple on paper: win once, feel like the career was complete, then answer the critics. The win happened. The feeling of completion never did. That’s the gap Spaun kept circling back to at BMW, more than anything about his swing or his putter.
Spaun is a major champion carrying a season that, on paper, answers every question about whether he belongs at the top of the sport. He’s still the one raising the questions himself.
He didn’t offer a fix. If anything, he suggested the fix was the problem, that swapping his old go-with-it approach for a checklist of goals is what left him unsatisfied even after getting the win he wanted. Whether he drops the goals next year or keeps chasing a bar that won’t stop moving, his own words leave that open.
Getting back to the BMW Championship, at the time of writing, Spaun shares the top spot with Wyndham Clark. He opened at Bellerive Country Club with a stellar 6-under 64, which included 7 birdies, including a turkey (hat trick), and 1 bogey. Round 2 was equally impressive: 4-under 66, giving him a 10-stroke lead, including 7 birdies (4 consecutive) and 3 bogeys. Hopefully, his current mindset will lead him to his second win of the season.