DECHAMBEAU DE CHAMP
Long hitter uses his power to tame famed Winged Foot, win U.S. Open
MAMARONECK, N.Y. — What was supposed to be a typical U.S. Open produced a most unconventional champion.
Bryson DeChambeau wasn’t the least bit concerned by the narrow fairways or the ankledeep rough that shape Winged Foot into historically the toughest of all U.S. Opens. With his extra 40 pounds of muscle and mass, he wanted to pound it into submission with his driver, even if his errant shots wound up buried in deep grass.
That’s how he plays the game. And for skeptics who said that wouldn’t work in a U.S. Open at Winged Foot, just look at that shiny silver trophy he kissed and the record score he posted in a six-shot victory Sunday.
This victory was as much about validating his out-of-the-box approach to the game as it was about winning the tournament.
‘‘One hundred percent, no doubt,’’ DeChambeau said. ‘‘For me, it’s about the journey of whether I can [make] every shot more repeatable than everybody else. I was able to do that this week. That’s why I won by six.’’
Part of this course’s fame comes from the ‘‘Massacre of Winged Foot’’ in 1974, when the winning score was 7 over par. This was a massacre, all right. DeChambeau rolled in a seven-foot par putt and thrust his powerful arms in the air when he capped off a 3-under-par 67 on a course that didn’t allow another round under par. He completed 72 holes at 6-under 274.
Two shots behind Matthew Wolff at the start of a chilly day, DeChambeau caught him in four holes, passed him in five and pulled away along the back nine.
‘‘I don’t really know what to say because that’s just the complete opposite of what you think a U.S. 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.’’
Call him a mad scientist in a tam o’shanter cap. Call him a game-changer in golf. But any description now starts with U.S. Open champion.
Wolff, who was trying to become the first player since Francis Ouimet in 1913 to win the U.S. Open in his first attempt, closed with a 5-over 75. He made a 10-foot eagle putt on the par-5 ninth to stay within a shot, but that was his only hole under par. Wolff finished at even-par 280, a score that would have won four of the previous five U.S.
Opens at Winged Foot.
It didn’t stand a chance in this one, however.
‘‘You can’t take Bryson out because, obviously, he won,’’ Wolff said. ‘‘But shooting even par for four rounds at Winged Foot is pretty exceptional.’’
That describes DeChambeau’s performance. He shot four rounds at par or better, the first player to manage that at Winged Foot.
DeChambeau’s victory really began last October, when he closed out his 2019 season in Las Vegas and said with a mischievous grin, ‘‘I’m going to come back next year and look like a different person.’’ He added 40 pounds through intense workouts and a diet of 6,000 calories a day.
The COVID-19 pandemic shut down golf for three months, leading to the U.S. Open being postponed from June to September. It also gave DeChambeau more time to execute his plan of swinging faster and harder, stretching the limits.
He didn’t find many fairways, but he seemed to miss in the right spots most of the time. That was key for a player who hit only six fairways Sunday and 23 out of 56 for the week.
At the end, skepticism turned into admiration — with a healthy dose of disbelief.
‘‘It’s a game we’ve never really seen before,’’ said Harris English, who closed with a 3-over 73 and finished fourth.
Kealia Watt scored two goals and added an assist, and the Red Stars beat Sky Blue 4-1 in an NWSL Fall Series match Sunday at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview.
Sky Blue took the early lead on Ifeoma Onumonu’s goal in the sixth minute. But the Red Stars went on to score four unanswered goals.
Watt scored her first goal some four minutes after Onumonu’s to tie the game, before Zoey Goralski and Vanessa DiBernardo scored to give the Red Stars a 3-1 lead at halftime.
Watt got past sliding Sky Blue goalkeeper DiDi Haracic, who came in as a second-half substitute, for a second goal in the 57th minute. Haracic replaced Kailen Sheridan.
Watt’s goals were her first with the Red Stars after coming to the team via a trade with the Houston Dash in the offseason.
In her second consecutive start for the Red Stars, Sarah Leubbert left her mark. She finished with a passing accuracy of 90%, with a 77.8% accuracy in the opposing half. She tallied her first professional assist in the second half on Watt’s goal.