VIRGINIA WATER, England (AP) — J.J. Spaun responded to his disappointment of being left off the U.S. Presidents Cup team by winning the BMW PGA Championship on Sunday, making four birdies on the last five holes for a 5-under 67 and a two-shot victory in his debut at the European tour's flagship event.
Spaun, last year's U.S. Open champion at Oakmont, made it three Americans winning at Wentworth in the last six years. It was his second victory of the year, having won the Texas Open in April.
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Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland on the 18th green on day four of the PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club in Virginia Water, England, Sunday Sept. 20, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
Manuel Elvira of Spain on the 18th green on day four of the PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club in Virginia Water, England, Sunday Sept. 20, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
J. J. Spaun of United States plays onto the 18th green on day four of the PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club in Virginia Water, England, Sunday Sept. 20, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
J. J. Spaun of United States lifts the trophy after winning the PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club in Virginia Water, England, Sunday Sept. 20, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
J. J. Spaun of United States lifts the trophy after winning the PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club in Virginia Water, England, Sunday Sept. 20, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
“I played with a huge chip on my shoulder,” Spaun said of being overlooked as a captain's pick for the Presidents Cup next week outside Chicago. “I definitely had something to prove this week, but everything happens for a reason.”
As well as he finished, Spaun needed plenty of help from Manuel Elvira.
The 30-year-old Spaniard made a 9-foot eagle on the par-5 17th to tie Spaun for the lead and head to the par-5 closing hole needing birdie to win. Elvira chose iron off the tee, leaving him 254 yards from the green. He decided to lay up, but hit that into a bunker. He hit his next shot over the green, dumped a chip into a bunker and finished with a double bogey for a 70.
“Devastating that I hit the wrong shot at the right time on the lay up and left myself the toughest shot in the fairway bunker, and wasn’t able to pull it off,” Elvira said.
Elvira wound up in a four-way tie for second with Rory McIlroy (68), Adam Scott (68) and PGA champion Aaron Rai (66).
All of them were in the mix in the final hour at Wentworth until Spaun raced to the top. It started with a tee shot to 3 feet on the par-3 14th. He holed a pair of 15-foot birdie putts on the 15th and 16th, and then two-putted for birdie on the 18th to post a 17-under 271.
Spaun loves bringing his family to London, though the 36-year-old Californian wasn't planning on coming to the BMW PGA Championship this year because of travel getting to the Presidents Cup.
U.S. captain Brandt Snedeker used the final two picks on Jacob Bridgeman, who won at Riviera earlier in the year, and 21-year-old Jackson Koivun, who won in his third start as a pro in July.
It was surprising to Spaun, particularly since he was one of the rare bright spots for the Americans in his Ryder Cup debut the previous September, going 2-1-0. Spaun had to withdraw from the Tour Championship last month because of a shoulder injury.
He looked healthy as can be against a strong field with so many top contenders.
“Extra motivation, I think that's the will power you have,” Spaun said. “Being left off the Presidents Cup team was very disappointing. I wanted to prove that I deserve to be on the team. I took care of my business.”
McIlroy couldn't quite get over the hump. He was in a four-way tie for the lead at 15 under going to the 18th, but he drove into a bunker, had to lay up and missed an 8-foot birdie chance from the fringe that effectively ended his chances.
“I had my chances out there,” McIlroy said. “Wish I had some of those putts back, but I have to be encouraged with where my game is at.”
His runner-up finish — his best result since winning the Masters — allowed McIlroy to cut into Patrick Reed's lead in the Race to Dubai as he chases an eighth season title in a bid to tie Colin Montgomerie's record.
Spaun now has four career victories, three of them in the last 15 months that will move him just outside the top 10 in the world.
“I blossomed into this player I never thought I could be,” he said. “I've always wanted to be a global player. I'm really happy my schedule worked out the way it did.”
See AP’s full golf coverage here
Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland on the 18th green on day four of the PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club in Virginia Water, England, Sunday Sept. 20, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
Manuel Elvira of Spain on the 18th green on day four of the PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club in Virginia Water, England, Sunday Sept. 20, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
J. J. Spaun of United States plays onto the 18th green on day four of the PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club in Virginia Water, England, Sunday Sept. 20, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
J. J. Spaun of United States lifts the trophy after winning the PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club in Virginia Water, England, Sunday Sept. 20, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
J. J. Spaun of United States lifts the trophy after winning the PGA Championship at Wentworth Golf Club in Virginia Water, England, Sunday Sept. 20, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
Russia's first wartime parliamentary election was due to end Sunday, virtually devoid of opposition to President Vladimir Putin's policies and all but certain to cement the Kremlin’s dominance. The last day of the election came as Ukrainian forces fired more than 1,000 drones at Russia overnight, including hundreds that were launched toward Moscow.
The vote began Friday, and authorities encouraged online balloting to boost turnout among its 111 million eligible voters.
For the first time, the election included residents of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow illegally annexed after the war began but still doesn’t fully control. Voting is also taking place in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
Authorities in Kyiv denounced the voting in the Russian-held areas as illegal and urged foreign governments not to recognize the result. The European Union on Friday called the action a “blatant violation of international law.”
The Kremlin wants the parliamentary election — the first since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — to showcase popular support for the war and legitimize its action. It has sought to avoid political risks by stamping out any dissent.
A massive state media campaign and tight control over the election in the absence of genuine opposition all but assure the Kremlin will keep tight control of Russian politics amid mounting economic costs and increasing Ukrainian drone attacks deep inside the country.
Voters cast two separate ballots, filling half of the Duma’s 450 seats by selecting political parties listed on the ballot. The rest are contested in single-seat constituencies, with voters choosing individual candidates.
Preliminary results are expected within hours of voting ending in the country’s west.
The main Kremlin party, United Russia, is widely expected to retain its overwhelming control of the lower house, the State Duma. Several smaller parties of the “systemic opposition” that vote in sync with Putin's views on all key issues also are expected to maintain their presence.
The liberal Yabloko party, the only registered political entity that dared to publicly criticize the war, was removed from the ballot last month by Russia’s Supreme Court, and only has a few dozen candidates in the single-constituency races. Additionally, some anti-war politicians were imprisoned or forced to flee abroad ahead of the campaign.
Yabloko and the Communist Party, which has criticized some aspects of government policy but carefully avoided any criticism of Putin, said many of their observers were turned away from polling stations.
Russia didn’t invite observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, with the Russian Foreign Ministry accusing the body of “double standards” for its criticism of Russia. OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Pere Joan Pons said that the decision was a breach of Russia’s commitments as a member state of the organization.
Yabloko reported that one of its observers lost consciousness while being arrested by police at a St. Petersburg polling station on Saturday, after officials accused him of trying to “disrupt the elections” and called police.
The parties reported violations including sealed ballot boxes being opened, doors to polling stations not being secured overnight, and a refusal to issue paper ballots. The claims could not be independently verified.
At one polling station in the Russian-held part of the Donetsk region, voters dropped their ballots in a box as an armed Russian soldier stood nearby and watched.
Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia’s Central Election Commission, said Sunday that the electronic voting system in Moscow was targeted by cyberattacks. She blamed one of the “systemic parties” — meaning one of those taking part in the vote, without specifying which one.
SotaVision, an independent Russian news outlet, said Sunday that voters were reporting glitches in the electronic registry systems at polling stations across Moscow. People were not issued paper ballots and instead were asked to vote via an electronic terminal, the outlet said on Telegram.
Leonid Volkov, a close associate of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, suggested the supposed breakdown of the system used to issue paper ballots in Moscow may have been deliberate, aimed at pushing voters toward electronic voting.
“Demand a paper ballot!” he wrote on X on Sunday.
Lines formed outside polling stations as many voters refused to vote electronically.
Having urged supporters to spoil party-list ballots, Yabloko party leader Nikolai Rybakov cast a ballot in St. Petersburg on Sunday, covered in bright green writing declaring “For freedom," “For peace,” and “Yabloko.”
Russia’s exiled opposition, including the widow of Alexei Navalny, Yulia Navalnaya, called on anti-war Russians to cast their votes at noon on Sunday.
Thousands of Russians living in Armenia took part in the vote, lining up outside the Russian Embassy in the capital, Yerevan. Some of them joined the “Noon for a Peaceful Russia” anti-war demonstration, holding anti-war and anti-Putin posters.
Mark Podberezin, a journalist, said members of the election commission in Yerevan made remarks that felt like “outright intimidation.” He said he had heard comments "along the lines of, ‘You’ll have to return to Russia sooner or later, keep that in mind.’”
Lidiya Klimenko said she did not think her vote would have any real impact. The most useful thing to do, she said, was “to see other people who are also against the war, to be together in a shared cause.”
In Germany, voters cast their ballots at the Russian Embassy in Berlin. Andrei Pivovarov, a dissident and former head of the Open Russia group, addressed a protest gathered outside the building.
The election's last day came against a backdrop of a major wave of Ukrainian attacks. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that its forces shot down a total of 1,110 Ukrainian drones across Russia, as well as over the annexed Crimea and the Black Sea.
Two people were killed and 20 wounded across the wider Moscow region, local Gov. Andrei Vorobyov said.
The election follows a summer of Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on oil refineries that triggered a widespread fuel crisis. Warehouses belonging to online retailers Wildberries and Ozon also were attacked. Those attacks have exacerbated economic problems and brought the war home for millions.
People line up to vote at a polling station during the parliamentary election in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrey Bok)
A voter looks through a ballot during the parliamentary election in Moscow, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
Russian political activist Andrei Pivovarov speaks during a protest in front of Russian embassy as people cast their vote for the Russian parliament election in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Russian citizens line up outside the Russian Embassy to join an anti-war demonstration to protest the ruling United Russia party and Moscow's ongoing invasion of Ukraine in Yerevan, Armenia, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026, during the final day of Russia's parliamentary elections. (AP Photo/Anthony Pizzoferrato)
Yabloko party leader Nikolai Rybakov casts a ballot with a writing in Russian reading "For freedom" during the parliamentary election in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
A voter casts a ballot in the parliamentary election in Moscow, Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
