Souhan: Champion J.J. Spaun’s dramatic finish saves U.S. Open from itself

In addition to his well-earned winnings, the USGA should give J.J. Spaun a massive bonus.

Spaun’s green-mile winning putt to win the U.S. Open on the 18th green at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania on Sunday instantly became the only moment anyone will remember from this tournament.

Because it was the only moment worth remembering.

The 125th U.S. Open provided constant reminders of how golf is falling behind other sports.

The rest are getting better. Golf is going backward.

The NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Final have been spectacular dramas featuring spectacular athletes and incisive coverage.

Baseball isn’t what it once was, but the pitch clock at least has made it more watchable.

The WNBA and women’s college basketball have reached new peaks.

The only established, major, sports that are moving backward are men’s college basketball and men’s professional golf. Men’s college hoops are in decline because of the transfer portal, early departures and the irrelevance of the regular season. Golf’s woes are more self-inflicted.

Start with the obvious — the PGA Tour golfers who accepted massive bribes to join LIV Golf shredded the tour that made them rich to begin with, and damaged the legitimacy and attractiveness of the average tour event.

The silliness of the LIV Golf formats also seems to have damaged the competitiveness in majors of their stars. LIV has produced two major championships since the Saudi-funded tour was born in 2021 — Bryson DeChambeau at the U.S. Open last year, and Brooks Koepka at the PGA Championship in 2023. For the most part, LIV golfers — including the perpetually whiny Tyrrell Hatton on Sunday — look uncomfortable playing under major pressure.

They also outed themselves as people who could be bought. Americans who took money from the Saudi regime are going against the wishes of many families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and who believe that LIV Golf is an attempt at “sportswashing” the regime’s image.

When a great player like Scottie Scheffler, or a great story like Rory McIlroy, wins the Masters, golf’s problems momentarily fade.

This U.S. Open was so boring for so long this week, contemplating the state of the sport became a desirable distraction.

Harvey Penick, the legendary golf instructor who wrote golf’s “Little Red Book,” once had a member of a golf club brag that no one could break par at his course. “Why?” Penick said. “What’s wrong with it?”

Oakmont is a difficult course under the best conditions. Give the USGA the right to make it even more difficult, and what you get is a slog that feels like an episode of “Survivor.”

This tournament was like watching Olympic sprinters carrying backpacks filled with bricks.

Rough should be tricky, not impossible. World-class players should be separated by the skill with which they can play difficult shots, not by hack-and-hope luck.

As the tournament droned on, we were given a reminder that golf was, not long ago, much more interesting.

That reminder occurred when the Golf Channel interviewed Johnny Miller.

As a player, Miller was a mad scientist. As an announcer, he separated himself from all others with honesty, genius and bluntness.

Miller wasn’t afraid to criticize players, and he had the résumé to justify his opinions. He could explain in intricate detail why a player hit the ball a millimeter low on the clubface, or what might have led to a player choking under pressure.

When Miller spoke, you knew his voice, and you knew to listen.

This weekend, I never knew who the announcers were, nor did I care. They might as well have been AI-generated voices created to avoid offending anyone, especially the players.

To be clear, golf as an industry and sport isn’t in trouble. There’s too much money in the game, and it’s too popular as a participatory sport, to ever be in trouble.

Golf also is blessed with the very nature of its competition — a boring tournament can be saved by someone like Spaun doing something spectacular on the 72nd hole.

But the pro game isn’t as interesting as it used to be, or should be.