Beefed up DeChambeau wins first major title
Call him a mad scientist in a tam o’shanter cap. Call him a gamechanger in golf. Any description of Bryson DeChambeau now starts with US Open champion.
In a breathtaking performance yesterday at Winged Foot, on a course so demanding no one else broke par, DeChambeau blasted away with his driver and had short irons from the ankle-deep rough on his way to a 3-under 67.
When his 7-foot par putt fell on the 18th, DeChambeau thrust those two powerful arms into the air. This was validation that his idea to add 40 pounds of mass, to produce an incredible amount of speed and power, would lead to moments like this.
Two shots behind Matthew Wolff going into the final round, he passed him in five holes, pulled away to start the back nine and wound up winning by six shots.
Wolff, trying to become the first player since Francis Ouimet in 1913 to win the US Open in his debut, closed with a 75.
Just under a year ago, DeChambeau closed out his 2019 season in Las Vegas and said, ‘‘I’m going to come back next year and look like a different person.’’
He lived up to his word among sceptics who wondered if the smash factor would work at a major, especially one at Winged Foot where the keeping it in the short grass was tantamount. DeChambeau pledged to keep hitting it as far as he could, even if that meant being in the rough.
And it worked. He hit only three fairways on Sunday, six yesterday, and 23 for the week.
Scepticism turned into admiration, with a healthy dose of disbelief.
‘‘I don’t really know what to say because that’s just the complete opposite of what you think a US Open champion does’’ Rory McIlroy said.
‘‘Look, he’s found a way to do it. Whether that’s good or bad for the game, I don’t know, but it’s just not the way I saw this golf course being played or this tournament being played.’’
Louis Oosthuizen birdied the
18th to finish alone in third.
In the five previous US Opens at Winged Foot, only two out of
750 competitors ever broke par over 72 holes, and that was in the same year of 1984 when Fuzzy Zoeller and Greg Norman finished at 4-under 276.
DeChambeau finished at 6-under 274, a score no one saw coming.
He left nothing to chance, staying on the practice range until past 8pm – the club turned lights on for him – in cold weather while he pounded driver after driver, trying to find enough accuracy to take him to a title.
The US Open was still up for grabs for a fleeting moment around the turn. DeChambeau and Wolff each got out of position on the eighth hole and made bogey. DeChambeau was at 3 under, one shot ahead of Wolff. Ahead of them, Oosthuizen and Xander Schauffele were lurking at even par.
Still to play was the back nine, where so much has gone wrong at Winged Foot over the years.
Not this time. Not for DeChambeau.