From $825 In One Season To $4.3 Million In A Week - JJ Spaun's US Open Win Proved Just How Lucrative Perseverance Can Be

On Sunday evening, JJ Spaun sunk a miracle 65-foot putt to win the US Open by two strokes and achieve a life-long dream of becoming a Major champion.

In the preceding decade or so, very few people would have predicted that moment would ever occur - least of all, the man himself.

Go back further, and the odds were stacked against Spaun from the start. Growing up in California, he received no formal golf lessons but showed real promise and eventually went on to play golf as a walk-on for San Diego State University.

Having built his golf game organically, Spaun enjoyed a fantastic college career before turning professional in 2012 and starting life on the PGA Tour Canada. Fast forward to 2025 and Spaun used all of that grit and determination to stick with it and earn himself a place in golfing history forever.

Looking back on his entire journey to this point, Spaun said: "I grew up watching golf. I was a young kid, wanted to play golf. I loved golf. It was a passion for me growing up. I always played with my parents growing up. One thing led to another.

"I wasn't really groomed to be a professional golfer. I didn't get put through academies. I didn't play the AJGA. I played local stuff. I did qualify for my first big USGA event, which was the US Junior, actually. I did that two times when I was like 16 and 17.

"That's kind of when I realized my potential. I just kept going, like one foot in front of the other. Junior golf, college golf, turning pro, and now here I am with the US Open trophy."

While Spaun's path to the pros was far from the usual route taken by many of his peers, it certainly hardened his mentality for once he reached the paid ranks.

The man who would go on to follow in the footsteps of so many of the game's greats by winning a Major has found the overwhelming majority of his professional career to be a really, really tough slog. Thankfully for Spaun, he is made of strong stuff.

A post by Monday Q Info's Ryan French on X highlighted Spaun's history in the game, year by year, and how he had rarely enjoyed much success but toiled extremely hard to reach this point.

French stated that 2013 and 2014 were tough for the 34-year-old as a result of picking up just over $12,000 across the two seasons. In 2014, specifically, Spaun picked up just $825 in prize money after missing six of seven cuts.

But then, in 2015, it all fell into place via a win and an extended run of high finishes which helped him break the PGA Tour Canada's single-season earnings record.

Another golden year with another excellent win on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2016 resulted in promotion to the PGA Tour, and it appeared as though Spaun would be one of the next big names to dominate for years to come.

However, the Californian finished between 62nd and 99th on the FedEx Cup points list over the subsequent three campaigns before ending 185th in 2019 and losing his card. He immediately won it back through Q-School but continued to struggle before the PGA Tour season was brought to an abrupt halt via Covid in 2020.

Following a reprieve due to the curtailed term, Spaun bounced back in 2022 and claimed his maiden PGA Tour victory at the Valero Texas Open. Having ensured his position for a couple more seasons at least, Spaun failed to kick on and ended 62nd and 98th in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

Despite showing no obvious signs that he had what it took to compete at the very top of the PGA Tour on a regular basis, he was 169th this time last year, 2025 has turned out to be Spaun's best season ever and he now sits as the 8th best player on the planet.

Through 17 starts, he has made 14 cuts, seven top-25s, five top-10s, two runner-up finishes - one of which was at The Players in a Monday playoff defeat to Rory McIlroy - and now a US Open victory.

So how did he do it? How is Spaun so mentally resilient that he continued to put the bad weeks behind him, keep building on what he'd learned and catapult himself into the upper echelons of the sport.

After his US Open win, he said: "Last June, I was looking like I was going to lose my job, and that was when I had that moment where, if this is how I go out, I might as well go down swinging. That’s kind of how my coach tells me about my golf shots or my golf swing on the course.

"If there’s a challenging shot, he’s like, at least you go down committing to the shot. Don’t bail one out right because you feel uncomfortable, just go down swinging. You might as well put the swing you want on it, and if it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. That’s kind of the mantra I’ve been having all year.

"I've always kind of battled through whatever it may be to kind of get to where I needed to be and get to what I wanted. I've done this before. I've had slumps kind of at every level.

"I've always kind of, I went back and said, You've done this before. You've been down before. You got out of it. There's kind of like a little pattern, so hopefully I don't do that pattern again. This is a pretty all-time high for me."

The latest chapter in Spaun's rags-to-riches story ended in true blockbuster style with a 65-foot bomb on the 72nd hole at Oakmont to win the US Open.

For a man who has played second fiddle so often throughout his career, he could scarcely believe that it was finally his moment to stand in the spotlight.

Spaun said: "It's definitely like a storybook, fairytale ending, kind of underdog fighting back, not giving up, never quitting. With the rain and everything and then the putt, I mean, you couldn't write a better story. I'm just so fortunate to be on the receiving end of that."