OAKMONT, Pa. — One by one, they made their way over the bridge, down the stairs and into the scoring area. Their shoes and ankles were covered in mud. Their polo shirts soggily suctioned to their bodies. Their eyes glazed over from the things they’d seen. My goodness, these men wanted to win the U.S. Open with every bit of their being, to finally win a major championship and make this ugly, rainy day worth the battles behind them.And then they watched those dreams fade away, as J.J. Spaun made his a reality.Tyrrell Hatton was mid-interview as the putt rolled in, seeing a television screen out of the corner of his eye. The often aggravated, ornery Englishman slowed his words as he saw it, and his scowl turned to a smile of calm joy.“He’s holed it,” Hatton said. “Unbelievable. What a putt to win. That’s incredible.”Viktor Hovland was there on the green, still fighting with hope as it went in. His dreams were shattered right in front of him, yet Hovland immediately put his putter down and clapped with pure appreciation. He even slapped the man’s hand like a first-base coach celebrating a home run.Robert MacIntyre was leaning back in a scoring area chair, hoping to the golfing gods for a J.J. Spaun disaster. He was the clubhouse leader with a chance to steal the U.S. Open until Spaun took the lead. If Spaun could just bogey 18, they’d go to a playoff. MacIntyre watched too as it fell, and the 28-year-old Scot lifted his arms and exaggeratedly clapped his hands high in the air. Pure respect. Well Done. “Wow,” he mouthed to himself.Because everybody who witnessed what J.J. Spaun did on that 18th green Sunday at Oakmont understood they had just seen what this whole damn thing is about. They saw the reasons to still believe. The payoff for all the pain. The fact that maybe, just maybe, anybody can win a U.S. Open. And that mattered so much more than feeling sorry for themselves.What happened was Spaun — a journeyman, a grinder, a stocky, 5-foot-8, 34-year-old golfer who nearly lost his PGA Tour card a year ago — came out of a rain delay four shots behind the lead after a disastrous start. And Spaun just played. Played so well that he went to that 18th green at the toughest course in America with cold, foggy rain beating down, needing just a two-putt for a major championship.Instead, Spaun went ahead and made the 64-foot, 5-inch putt to win the whole thing by two shots.