{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
MAMARONECK, NEW YORK | For Matthew Wolff, the disappointing end to his U.S. Open felt like more than the end of a golf tournament.
“It’s the longest week of golf that I’ve ever played,” Wolff said after starting the final round with a two-stroke lead only to finish solo second, six shots behind champion Bryson DeChambeau.
With a chance to become the second-youngest U.S. Open champion, Wolff (above) found himself on the wrong side of what was an up-and-down four days.
After opening with 66 on Thursday, Wolff shot 74 on Friday. He rocketed to the front on Saturday by shooting 65 while hitting just two fairways then Sunday happened with Wolff gradually losing ground to DeChambeau.
“I really didn't feel that nervous out there,” Wolff said. “Maybe at the start I did, but at the start I played pretty well. I don't think it was nerves that were holding me back. I just think it wasn't meant to be.
“It’s the U.S. Open. There’s a lot of breaks out there that probably could have ... a foot or a couple inches more, and I have a different lie, or it stays up on a ridge or things like that, are three, four shots. If I’m that much closer to Bryson coming down the stretch, I’m sure he feels a little bit more pressure.”
Having started with that two-stroke advantage, Wolff found himself one behind DeChambeau going to the sixth tee. After watching DeChambeau eagle the par-5 ninth, Wolff matched him to stay within a stroke going to the final nine.
A poor tee shot on the par-3 10th left Wolff in a miserable spot, leading to a bogey. When DeChambeau birdied the 11th, the lead was three and a sense of inevitability was beginning to settle in. Because he hit just 19 fairways in four rounds, Wolff found himself playing from the thick rough regularly.
“This is my second (major), and the only major I had played was the PGA last season,” Wolff said of a season that was only a month ago. “It’s a lot different. The PGA was set up pretty tough, but double digits under par won that week, and there were a lot more people under par,” said Wolff, who finished T4 at the PGA Championship.
“The U.S. Open is just – I mean, it's a whole different story. I think the firmness of the greens and the rough length and just the course in general … Winged Foot is an unbelievable test and an unbelievable golf course, but it was miles, miles harder than Harding Park, and it definitely showed it, not only today, but throughout the week.
“Even when the weather was good, the scores were still high. I think the biggest thing I'm going to take from it is just I have to stay really patient because there’s a lot of times out there that I kind of hung my head, and that could have been the difference between two, three shots.”
Ron Green Jr.