JJ Spaun is it happy to be in England this week; is clear on this point.
“My family and I really vacation here in the winter,” he said after the second round of the BMW PGA Championshipflagship event of the DP World Tour. “So, any excuse to come to the United Kingdom, and England, especially, we try to make it happen. It’s nice that the schedule worked for me this fall to be here.”
That wasn’t just a throwaway line to appease the local press; Spaun and his family really love England.
“We go to the Cotswolds in mid-December for a couple of weeks and just love the English culture. We feel the Christmas spirit a lot when we’re there,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun, just my wife and my two children. We have a good time and hang out in pubs and relax.”
There is something bittersweet buried in Spaun’s initial descriptor – the way the program worked – who no doubt felt something else too. He’s in Wentworth partly because he won’t be in Chicago next week; was left out of US Presidents Cup Team.
Spaun finished 10th in the points table, but he did not end the summer in his best form; he failed to record a top 20 in his last five starts and then, most relevantly of all, withdrew from the Tour Championship with injury. That could have sealed his fate. However, Spaun’s snub came as a surprise.
“Yeah, I think it was disappointing to be let go,” he said. “I mean, I wasn’t really — I wasn’t expecting it, to be honest.
“But yes, I wanted to continue playing golf, whether it was here or at the Presidents Cup in Medinah. I always had this desire, if I didn’t get to Medinah.
Spaun played well at Bethpage Black in last year’s Ryder Cup, which marked his debut on the US team; he went 2-1-0 and was one of only three Americans with a winning record at the end of the week.
“Yes, I hang my hat on my experience with the Ryder Cup last year. I made it to the Tour Championship this year. I won in San Antonio (at the Valero Texas Open). I did everything I could. I was the odd man out.”
He’s not the only American snub you’ve had on Wentworth this week; Ryan Gerard, another potential member of the US team, held the 36-hole lead. Spaun sat sixth at the halfway point, with a little extra motivation to count on the weekend.
“Definitely. That’s the goal,” he said.
Then came the third round on Saturday. Spaun played what he called “JJ golf,” which essentially means going error-free, and his five-birdie, one-bogey effort was enough to push him to 12 under par, just one shot behind Manuel Elvira and Filippo Celli. classification full of jams going into the final round on Sunday. (Gerard slipped to T16.) And if there was a question of extra motivation…
