PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA | As the weeks and months and years go by and the story of Bryson DeChambeau’s one-stroke victory in this U.S. Open at Pinehurst is told, echoing through the ages the way legends do, it will come back to two things:
One, a brilliant 55-yard shot by DeChambeau from a fairway bunker on the 18th hole that ran up the eternal alley that carried Payne Stewart’s legendary putt into the hole 25 years ago and this time left DeChambeau with a 4-foot par putt on the same path to win his second U.S. Open in five years.
“The shot of my life,” DeChambeau called it.
And, it will be remembered for the heart-stabbing loss Rory McIlroy inflicted upon himself, missing a pair of putts from inside 4 feet on the final three holes in what may be the most crushing near-miss in his major-championship career, and that’s an increasingly soul-searing list.
One man’s happiness is another man’s heartache.
For all DeChambeau and McIlroy had to do to survive Pinehurst No. 2, which played brilliantly in its gradually browning condition over a memorable weekend, it felt more about the two men than about the golf they played.
DeChambeau’s transformation, from an arrogant and often annoying physics nerd with bulging forearms and an attitude to match into one of the game’s most popular players, has been extraordinary.
It’s always been tough to figure out what to think of DeChambeau. Even as he was stalking another U.S. Open trophy in the early-summer heat and dust at Pinehurst, some were still wondering why they feel differently about him than before.
Some still do, but at Pinehurst as thousands watched and wondered how it would end, the embrace of DeChambeau was as warm as the June temperatures that tickled 90 degrees.
For anyone of a certain age, it’s reminiscent of how fans initially disliked Jack Nicklaus, only to come around to him once they realized whom they were watching. That’s not to say DeChambeau is a modern-day Golden Bear, but in the age of YouTube and TikTok, he’s the right guy at the right time.
DeChambeau is the game’s greatest showman at the moment, a churning mix of bravado, newfound self-awareness and stage presence. Until an agreement peacefully ending professional golf’s civil war is found, DeChambeau is the best thing to happen to a sport that needs to pull people in rather than push them away.
McIlroy could have enhanced his already exalted status had he been able to win after leading by two strokes with five holes remaining, but the game is filled with stories that could keep a blues bar going for weeks.
“For him to miss that putt [on 18], I'd never wish it on anybody. It just happened to play out that way,” DeChambeau said, his diplomacy unable to disguise the reality of McIlroy’s wrenching failure.
It’s fair to say DeChambeau helped create the fracture that exists in pro golf, but he is also a fist-pumping, head-turning reason to get it fixed.
“Let’s let bygones be bygones,” DeChambeau said Sunday evening.
He may not have Scottie Scheffler’s consistent excellence (the world No. 1 finished a flat T41 at Pinehurst), but DeChambeau evokes emotions because of who he is and how he plays.
Some of it is awkward, and his attempts at humor and his gut-level reactions sometimes come across like someone who thinks he dances better than he does, but DeChambeau is an original.
The pro game has too many stone-faced automatons. DeChambeau is a shot of tequila.
He also added his name to one of golf’s short lists, joining Bobby Jones, Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to win the U.S. Amateur and multiple U.S. Opens.
The fact that DeChambeau won again on Father’s Day can’t be ignored, considering how the passing of his father two years ago was part of his metamorphosis that continues. DeChambeau was in a dark place, and he’s come out on the other side, trying to shine the light on others while basking in the glow of his own achievements.
“I'm not perfect. I'm human. Everyone's human. Certainly those low moments have helped establish a new mind frame of who I am, what's expected, what I can do and what I want to do in my life,” DeChambeau said Sunday evening, a flat cap honoring his idol Payne Stewart hanging off the silver U.S. Open trophy sitting at his right hand.
Within moments, McIlroy was spinning the tires in his courtesy car as he hurried away from Pinehurst without comment while the cheers for DeChambeau were still echoing off the pines.
DeChambeau started the final round with a three-stroke lead, but given Pinehurst No. 2’s diamond-cutting edge, every swing was dangerous. McIlroy was the perfect pursuer, the most beloved player in the game and, as Patrick Cantlay, Matthieu Pavon and others fell away or started too far behind, it became a duel that stands shoulder to shoulder with Stewart’s victory over Phil Mickelson here 25 years ago.
When McIlroy walked off the 13th green, he led by two strokes and the “Rory, Rory, Rory” chants could be heard 400 yards away where DeChambeau was trying to shake off a three-putt bogey.
“When they were chanting ‘Rory’ after he made birdie on 13, I knew I had to drive the green. I knew I had to make birdie on that hole. It was going to be tough,” said DeChambeau who drove the par-4 green and two-putted for a birdie that sliced his deficit in half.
As theatrical moments go, the staging was perfect.
McIlroy was standing over his tee shot on the par-4 14th hole when DeChambeau’s drive bounced onto the 13th green a few yards away, causing McIlroy to back off.
As DeChambeau scaled the hill to the 13th green, he glanced over to see McIlroy walking off the 14th tee. McIlroy, who seemed to play with a Zen-like calm until he missed from inside 3 feet for par at the 16th hole, glanced back at DeChambeau.
It went back and forth, both players missing short putts, but the beauty wasn’t in the pursuit of perfection but in the fight. McIlroy may be forever haunted by his short miss at 16, his pulled tee shot that wound up near a tuft of wiregrass off the 18th fairway and his gasp-inducing miss from inside 4 feet on the 72nd hole.
Three bogeys over the final four holes. The golf course was difficult, and the moment was immense. McIlroy failed to meet the moment. Call it what you will, but it could haunt him.
When DeChambeau settled into the fairway bunker 55 yards short of the hole at No. 18 late Sunday afternoon, McIlroy still had reason to believe. DeChambeau’s tee shot had come to rest under a tree and near a root, and the best he could do was move his second shot to a place from which he could try to save par and, at worst, make a bogey to go into a two-hole playoff.
Stewart made par after a bad drive by holing a 20-foot putt. DeChambeau did it by hitting a long bunker shot that may define his career as much as his prodigious power does. Unlike McIlroy, DeChambeau didn’t miss the putt he needed on the 18th green.
DeChambeau said the right things about McIlroy’s heartbreak and how what happened to make McIlroy more intent the next time, citing his own 72nd-hole loss to Xander Schauffele in the PGA Championship last month as an example.
Maybe so, but as he raced away, McIlroy seemed further away from a fifth major than he did before this U.S. Open began.
DeChambeau, meanwhile, finds himself in a new place of his own creation.
He tipped his hat to the grandstands roaring their appreciation on the 18th green, he raked a greenside bunker after posing with the U.S. Open trophy for photographers and, spotting a youngster wearing a flat-cap like he once wore, DeChambeau smiled with him for another trophy photo.
“It’s a dream come true,” DeChambeau said.
Somewhere, Rory McIlroy could understand.
E-MAIL RON
Top: After winning the 124th U.S. Open, Bryson DeChambeau celebrates with fans at Pinehurst.
Sean M. Haffey, Getty Images