What kept being said about J.J. Spaun’s performance in practice rounds before the Ryder Cup started

Add as preferred source on Google

Of the players to win a major over the last two years, no one played fewer games over the first four sessions of the 2025 Ryder Cup than J.J. Spaun.

J.J. Spaun all but booked his ticket to the Ryder Cup with his US Open victory. His spot was confirmed after the first FedEx Cup playoff event.

Spaun’s fightback to win from a poor start on Sunday at Oakmont hinted that he had the right attributes for a battle on the Ryder Cup stage. Meanwhile, his duel with Justin Rose in Memphis saw some extremely impressive moments – and whetted the appetite for what was to come.

However, that was not enough for Spaun to play a prominent role on Keegan Bradley‘s team at Bethpage.

How J.J. Spaun was performing in practice ahead of the Ryder Cup

Only Ben Griffin played in fewer matches than Spaun for Team USA over the first two days. He was left out of both foursomes matches. The decision looked particularly baffling on Saturday morning, with Bradley persisting with Collin Morikawa and Harris English.

Of course, Bradley will have had a better idea than most of how each player was looking before the event got going.

But speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman insisted that he had only heard good things about how Spaun was playing in the practice rounds.

“This is where you start nitpicking at the lineups that the American team put together. I would have probably opted more for J.J., especially with the season that he had. When we look at who had the best seasons on the PGA Tour and in major championships, J.J. Spaun’s in the top five. Tommy Fleetwood‘s up there, Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Bryson,” he said.

“And to just get J.J. go out twice in these sessions, feels like a missed opportunity, especially with every report that I heard throughout the week was, ‘gosh, have you seen how well J.J. Spaun is hitting it this week?’ Well, wouldn’t that have been a pretty good asset in the morning.

“And a lot of people think J.J. doesn’t hit it that far. He gets it out there. He hits it plenty far enough. And the disadvantage that Scottie had in foursomes with Russell Henley‘s distance, I think could have been negated with somebody like J.J. Spaun playing with Scottie.”

Keegan Bradley’s Saturday morning pairings summed up a torrid time for the USA captain at Bethpage

While you could understand Bradley holding some of his rookies back on Friday morning, it is bizarre that he did not seem to learn from his mistakes for Saturday.

Spaun and Scheffler did lose their match together on Friday. But none of the American defeats that morning even made it to the 16th tee.

So Bradley persisting with Henley and Scheffler, and Morikawa and English seemed particularly odd. And he was punished, with both pairings losing for a second time.

Spaun proved a point by winning his match alongside Xander Schauffele on Saturday afternoon. The pair beat Jon Rahm and Sepp Straka on the final hole.

Spaun was drawn with Straka for a third time ahead of the Sunday singles. Should he manage to deliver a second point, Bradley will have yet another reason to kick himself over the decisions he made.