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When Sunday dawned in Westchester County, New York, it was a good bet the U.S. Open would come down to Bryson DeChambeau and Matthew Wolff at eerily silent Winged Foot. Then, with back-to-back eagle putts from distance at the ninth hole, the pair in the final grouping made it clear it would be match play the rest of the way, with a maiden major championship the cherished spoils that would go to the victor.
It quickly became clear DeChambeau had the muscle to get the job done. By the 11th hole he’d added two more strokes to what had been an advantage of only one at the turn. Implementing the powerful equation that he drew up for a U.S. Open win, the 27-year-old Californian coasted home with confidence.
He joined Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in the very exclusive club of men who have won our national championship after claiming U.S. Amateur and NCAA individual titles early in their careers. In posting the only under-par score of the final round and of the tournament, DeChambeau delivered a mighty statement.
For the newest U.S. Open champion, it was a validation of the reinvention of both his body and his game. DeChambeau bludgeoned Winged Foot, Ron Green Jr. says, giving a heavy-handed demonstration of modern golf.
Runner-up Wolff, playing in this major for the first time, reached the final round with legitimate designs on what would have been his own historic victory. His experience on Sunday taught him the U.S. Open “is a whole different story.”
Earlier in the week, three of the game’s biggest names generated even less energy than the gallery-less fairways that were devoid of boisterous New York fans. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth – multiple major winners all – missed the cut by a combined 19 strokes.
With many of the European Tour’s top players competing in suburban New York, 21-year-old South African Garrick Higgo used a final-round 65 to win the Open de Portugal, matching countryman George Coetzee’s victory last week on the Iberian Peninsula.
After making bogey on the 72nd hole of the Cambia Portland Classic to drop into a sudden-death playoff, England’s Georgia Hall redeemed herself with a par on the second extra hole to defeat Ashleigh Buhai for her second LPGA victory.
In this week’s installment of the Divot, Jim Nugent marks his return to play by noting his appreciation of the familiar rhythms of a weekend outing with friends, He says his rusty swing mattered not a bit.
Sam Dolson
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