J.J. Spaun’s win at the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club was a four-day whirlwind that changed his life.

Spaun, who contemplated hanging up his competitive spikes last year, is now in all four majors for the next five years and has a 10-year exemption into the U.S. Open. The win also put Spaun on the cusp of securing a spot on the 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup team for this fall’s event at Bethpage Black.

Spaun is now close to a lock for captain Keegan Bradley’s team, and it’s fitting that a motivational tool by Bradley helped spur Spaun to his historic major victory.

“It means a lot,” Spaun told GOLF’s Subpar podcast hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stolz about virtually making the team. “I’ve dreamed of making the Ryder Cup, but I never thought I would actually be on it. But it’s just been a crazy year. I’ve been working so hard and also getting the reinforcement from not just my team but other players, even Keegan and [Kevin Kisner] and [Brandt Snedeker].

“It was more just getting that self-belief. But to be apart of these Ryder Cup dinners as perspective members, it’s really inspiring. It was actually cool, Keegan put like a printed out picture of the U.S. Ryder Cup bag with my name on it — and he did it to all the other guys that could potentially make the team at Oakmont — and he put like, ‘Bring you ego.’ Stuck it in my locker and every time I opened my locker, I saw it.. Every day. Open locker. See it there. It was just one of those things that kept kind of being pinged into my brain that was like, ‘alright, Ryder Cup. Let’s go. Bring your ego.’ I’m not an egotistcal person, but I think that more tapped into my self-belief.”

The tactic, which Bradley stole from Bill Belichick, helped propel Spaun to a major win that no one saw coming — one that now has him in line to tee it up for Captain Bradley’s team this fall.

As for the question of the hour — whether or not Bradley should be a playing captain — Spaun believes Bradley should play.

“I think he deserves to be,” Spaun told Knost and Stoltz. “I think it’s just going to boil down to what type of responsibility he’s going to have because it’s already a lot. He says he thinks about the Ryder Cup 24/7. Between being a dad, playing for himself on Tour. Being a captain is a huge responsibility. So personally, I think that if he doesn’t qualify, he should give himself the nod … Dude, he’s got all the experience. He’s playing great. It just boils down to how much of the captaincy responsibility he’s going to want. I think as a player, he’s earned it.”

You can listen to the complete Subpar interview with Spaun here or watch it on YouTube below.

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