Bryson DeChambeau launches the ball into the tarmac from the 18th hole of Pinehurst. He went to heaven to devote himself to his father, who died two years ago. And Payne Stewart, the golfer who lost his life in a plane crash after winning the US Open in 1999 on that stage and who for years honored her with a plaque cover.
Then he did some jumps with his band, Then Sergio Garca, a golfer like the American who plays live golf, congratulated him. The golfer from Modesto (California) really celebrated his first major by conquering the US Open. He has already won another one, one in 2020, but in the September secrecy of the pandemic. No audience. And he was not the same. Having fought for victory at the Masters, VI, and the BGA Championship, where he took second place, now it was L who took the picture.
The other side was Rory McIlroy (69 strokes). Leaning over a high table collecting cards, I regretted this moment. Having cut off the three advantage strokes with which DeChambeau started the day, he saw how to get rid of the victory. She made three bogey putts on the last four holes. Two , 16 and 18, are missing five-foot putts. A harsh end for norrelands, which has not won big for 10 years. The club that made him build an option with birdies from nine meters, five in 13 holes, destroyed his illusions in the first, at least, two-hole playoff at the US Open, up to indito. The last stretch was those 18 holes that Woods flooded in 2009 with Chris DeMarco.
DeChambeau (71 strokes) finished level in the final round with three bogeys and two birdies. He also missed an easy putt, at 15, from a meter, When the ball settles the hole , but he played the nine holes with tremendous consistency. He had more birdie chances than his opponent and on the 18th, after sending the ball into the bunker with a second hit, he knocked out a final wedge to put it at a distance of one and a half meters. “Probably the best shot of my life,” she later admits. “I remember it all my life.”
His victory vindicates Liv, a circuit that has so far added only one major championship with one of its fighters , the 2023 PGA Championship with Brooks Koepka. The tour, supported by the capital of the Saudi public fund Saud fund, needed a victory to expose its quality with facts. Just as Koepka held Lev last year, this year when John Ram was expected to do it, the scientific golfer, the leader of the Breakers in the alternative league, does it.
DeChambeau, in addition, also claims his personality. During the pandemic I worked on creating a bodybuilding physique in which I thought I would gain distance. What they achieved, despite winning the US Open, was bloating and the discovery of several cases of intolerance in the diet, to gluten… Since then, he has not had a brilliant career either, being caught only in the latter part of 2023 with two victories in live golf, in Greenbrier and Chicago. In the first of them with a final card of 58 strokes.
It also gives an overwhelming truth. The last six disciplines have been won By six different American players, a dominance that has not happened since the era between 1974 and 1977, when nikalos, Watson, Irwin and co.achieved 13 in a row.
It also happened at Pinehurst, a tour that came out strengthened from this edition. Without a strong rough as it is usually modeled at the US Open, With wide aisles, the technology in the hands of the best players on the planet managed to win six strokes below the level. Only eleven players came out of the tournament level. But she has some hellish tough greens.
Sergio Garca, the best major since winning the 2017 Masters
Sergio Garca made par on the final day, overcoming three consecutive bogey from 2 to 4, to be twelfth, his best performance in a major since his victory at the Augusta Masters in 2017. The result is not enough for him to repeat automatically at the US Open, but it is a moral boost for the fireball leader. David Puig (78 on Sunday) took the fifteenth place, but with the Olympic ticket under his arm.
