These players’ championship is outsiders, for whom Golffans should come up

TPC Sawgrass has a way to put together entertaining leaderboard year after year. Household names such as Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas usually have real estate there. But also long shots and dark horses, proof of the brilliant volatility that this course offers.

One of these outsiders is JJ Spaun, who began on Saturday with 10 Unter-PAR and a shot of the tour on Saturday in Solo. He also plays in the penultimate pairing with McIlroy and thus puts on the dichotomy, since the Northern Irishman is perhaps the most popular player in sport who is not called Tiger Woods.

But Spaun is the man that everyone should come up with for this weekend – the perfect outsider whose life could change with a win on Sunday.

The Spaun, who comes from Los Angeles, played a collegial in the US state of San Diego, where he received the award of the Mountain West Conference player of the year in 2012. Then he turned professionally and played through the PGA Tour Canada and the Korn Ferry Tour before achieving 2017 PGA Tour membership in 2017. But he hasn’t won since then.

He therefore had to get in touch with the practice range and work countless hours a day to keep his PGA tour card for another year. This also includes many exercise rounds, many of which came with Curt Byrum from NBC Sports.

All this hard work left Spaun a year ago before the Fedex Cup playoffs. But he continued to have a solid fall that was highlighted by a T-6 at the Zozo Championship in Japan. He then expanded to a great route from 2025 in the first first months of 2025. He also finished second in the Cognizant Classic and had an excellent opportunity to win the Sony Open in Hawaii. But a bogey on the Par-3 17th, in which he met a poor bunker shot, kept him a shot from the playoff won by Nick Taylor. It was a brutal blow because he had the 54-hole lead. His second career -PGA Tour title would have to wait.

But his relative success and its strong game in 2025 cost themselves free of charge.

After Spaun posted a 4-below 68 player on Friday on Friday at TPC Sawgrass, he went from the golf course and felt quite guilty because of himself. Not because he did something wrong or got away with happy breaks, but because he is a family man in my heart-a person who loves his wife Melody and daughters Emerson and violet more than anything. This week his ninth event of the year marks, which means that he is on the move more often-a challenging reality with which the 34-year-old spaun has struggled to deal with it.

“It is difficult. I don’t know how to deal with it,” said Spaun on Friday.

“I try to talk to you as much as possible, FaceTime, but if you have a little one who always asks where you are and how much they miss you and come home, it’s hard. Fortunately, my family knows that Daddy has a job, and I have to do that. Hopefully it will pay off when everything is said and done, and we can have a good time together. “

Fortunately for melody, she has help from nannies and a supportive extensive family. But her husband is only at home for a week this season, proof of the challenging life of being a mediocre PGA tour professional.

He was also a lot away last year and played at 28 events, with none of the four major championships. In the previous year, Spaun increased it 32 times, including a missed cut at the PGA championship in Oak Hill – the last major in which he previously played.

“I only have so many tasks with my family and my children and only want to be a father and balance life and family life,” said Spaun.

“You hear a lot of people who say when they have children for the first time, and I didn’t really think that. I was still like golf, golf, golf. But now that my oldest is four years old and there is a lot of emotions when I go and when I come back. So it moves into the right perspective, which is really important. “

Despite the challenges of being traveling so often, he knows that he has great support from home. Having a permanent family that can be ranked on has helped him in 2025, although Spaun achieved more frequent aviation miles than he could count.

And that’s why you should go roots for the rest of this championship.

A victory at TPC Sawgrass would take a long way for him and his family. He would not only take home a check of 4.5 million US dollars -Spaun has never earned more than 3 million US dollars in his career. A victory would also give him the urgently needed security and many advantages. The players will receive a PGA Tour membership for the next three years in the next five seasons and invitations to the Masters, US Open, PGA Championship and the Open. Having the privilege of playing in the four majors solidifies the schedule of a player and enables Spaun to spend more time at home and not play every week as he does now.

It would also give him more time to bring his family to his beloved Disneyland, where he holds a passport.

However, it is not the case that Spaun has to fight for the PGA Tour membership in 2026. In his strong start in 2025, he sits pretty in the Fedex Cup ranking. He is currently 15th and is the second in the Aon-Niebste 10, which means that he has a way into the remaining events with big money signatures. But he is still the outsider this week, a role in which he enjoys in the middle of the championship.

“I have the feeling that this is the mentality I have this week. I really feel freed. As if I had nothing to lose, ”said Spaun.

“I am in a great place to take a run under 50 top 30 by the end of the year. Just keep playing golf and just try to have the feeling that I have nothing to lose. “

He may have nothing to lose, but Spaun has to win everything – and more valuable than anything, a victory at TPC Sawgrass would allow him to spend more time with his wife and daughters, which would be the greatest advantage of everyone.

Jackkohollo is a golf tabary for playing SB Nation. Follow him on X @Jack_milko.