Thankfully, thinks have worked out quite well for both Rory McIlroy and J.J. Spaun in 2025. Otherwise, this dig McIlroy sent Spaun’s way at this year’s Masters Par 3 contest may have never been relayed to us. Spaun would have simply had to live with the brutal dagger forever.
But the U.S. Open champion can have a laugh about it now, and he did just that on Golf.com’spar podcast with Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. In the clip, Stoltz asked Spaun if he has ever received any advice from McIlroy “before the start of a playoff.” Clearly, Stoltz had heard the story from someone else already.
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Naturally, your brain jumps to McIlroy and Spaun’s playoff at the Players Championship, which ended in crushing fashion when Spaun took too much club at the par-3 17th island green at TPC Sawgrass and flew one into the water. But McIlroy’s “words of wisdom” actually came as Spaun made his way back to the Masters Par 3 course in April to participate in a playoff with Nico Echavarria to determine the winner. Spaun knew what Stoltz was talking about right away.
“You f—ing … ” Spaun says in response.
Here’s the increible full story:
Perhaps the most “too soon” joke in “too soon” history. For those keeping track, the Masters took place just four weeks after the Players Championship. To be exact, the Masters Par 3 Contest took place just 23 days after the Monday playoff in Ponte Vedra. McIlroy wasted absolutely zero time. Sheesh.
But again, the good news is Spaun can chuckle it off now as he stares at his U.S. Open trophy. Bet a Masters Par 3 Contest trophy would have looked pretty good next to it, though.
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