OAKMONT, Pa. – J.J. Spaun’s closing pursuit of major glory began at 3 a.m. Sunday in, of all places, a CVS in downtown Pittsburgh. Spaun’s almost 2-year-old daughter, Violet, had woken up with a stomach bug, and mere hours into Father’s Day, dad duty called.

Robert MacIntyre thought he had done it and it would have been oh so apt if he had won in conditions more suited to an Oban shinty match than a US Open finale. Yet despite a brilliant and nerveless 68,