US Golf Open 2020- DeChambeau stomps out Winged Foot opposition

By David Shefter, US Golf Association

Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and, now, Bryson DeChambeau.

They are the three golfers who have captured an National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) individual title, a United States Amateur and a United States Open.

DeChambeau joined that esteemed fraternity last month at Winged Foot Golf Club in New York with a performance for the ages on what many consider one of the game’s most demanding championship tests.

DeChambeau carded a final-round of three under par 67 to earn a decisive six-stroke victory over 54-hole leader and wunderkind Matthew Wolff, who was vying to become the first US Open rookie to win the title since 20-year-old amateur Francis Ouimet in 1913.

“It's just an honour,” said DeChambeau, who also is the 12th player to have won a US Amateur and a US Open.

“I don't know what else to say. It's been a lot of hard work. Mr Nicklaus has been always awesome to me. Tiger has always been great to me. I can't say thank you enough to them for helping push me along to be a better person and a better golfer, as well.

``To be in the likes of that company is special. I'll forever appreciate that.”

The west course at Winged Foot has a well-earned reputation for doling out punishment in its previous major championship hostings.

Three of the four previous US Opens held in the post-World War II era produced over-par winning scores, including the famous “massacre at Winged Foot” in 1974 when Hale Irwin triumphed with a seven-over total of 287.

Sixty of the 61 competitors who completed the latest championship on a chilly and breezy late-summer day battled the west course to even par or much worse (75.03 stroke average for par 70).

DeChambeau, whose analytical, scientific approach to the game is accompanied by an aggressive “bomb-and-gouge” mentality, took on this bully with a full arsenal of brains and brawn.

The 27-year-old from Clovis, California, became just the fourth player in the championship’s past 100 years to be the only player to better par in the final round and hoist the trophy. The trio before him were World Golf hall of fame inductees Gene Sarazen (1922) and Byron Nelson (1939), and Jack Fleck, who denied Ben Hogan a fifth title in 1955 at The Olympic Club.

DeChambeau is the only player in the six US Opens contested at Winged Foot to post all four rounds at par or better, and was the only competitor to finish in red figures for the week (six-under 274).

“Surreal. It sounds amazing, but surreal,” said DeChambeau of being a US Open champion.

“It's been a lot of hard work. It's one of those things that doesn't really hit you. It's not going to hit me until tonight.”

The seeds for this championship began early in the week when DeChambeau laid out his bold strategy, though some critics derided his intentions. Winning at Winged Foot from the rough, they said, couldn’t be done.

Then on Saturday night under floodlights on the practice facility, DeChambeau hit driver after driver, and three-wood after three-wood. He hit balls until just past 8pm when the rest of his competition was either eating dinner or setting their alarm clocks.

While he only found six fairways on Sunday, DeChambeau put on an exquisite display of iron play and putting, hitting 11 of 18 greens and registering 27 putts.

Starting the day two strokes back of Wolff, DeChambeau tied the 2019 NCAA champion when he rolled in a 14-foot birdie putt on the par four fourth and then took the lead for good when Wolff failed to convert a 10-footer for par at the par four fifth hole.

It appeared Wolff was ready for a second-nine battle after he matched DeChambeau’s 37-foot eagle on the par five ninth with his own eagle from 10 feet to stay within a stroke. But on the second nine, Wolff began to wilt, coming home in four-over 39 to DeChambeau’s one-under 34 that included seven consecutive pars from No 12.

Wolff finished with a 75 to post solo second, while Louis Oosthuizen (281), Harris English (282) and Xander Schauffele (283) rounded out the top five.

Schauffele said of DeChambeau: “If there's anyone that I was worried about, it was him.

“Everyone talked about hitting fairways out here. It's not about hitting fairways. It's about hitting on the correct side of the hole and hitting it far so you can kind of hit a wedge instead of a six iron out of the rough.”

DeChambeau added: “I did it. As difficult as this golf course was presented, I played it beautifully. Even through the rough, I was still able to manage my game and hit it to correct sides of the greens, except on 14 today, and kept plugging away. My putting was immaculate today. My speed control, incredible. That's why we worked so hard on my speed control. You see me out there on the greens with the device trying to control my speed.”

Wolff had hoped to complete one of the great stories in the annals of the US Open. Sunday’s final round came exactly 107 years to the day of Ouimet’s stunning 18-hole playoff victory over British stalwarts Harry Vardon and Ted Ray at The Country Club outside of Boston.

Like Ouimet, this was Wolff’s first US Open start, and just his second major since leaving Oklahoma State college and turning pro 16 months earlier.

Wolff won last year’s 3M Open and tied for fourth in last month’s PGA Championship to earn his exemption into this all-exempt field.

Rounds of 66, 74 and 65 put him in position to win, only to see it unravel in the final round. He isn’t the first 54-hole leader to suffer Sunday blues in the US Open. Forty-six years ago, a 24-year-old Tom Watson carded a 79 at Winged Foot. Kenneth Ferrie, who shared the lead with Phil Mickelson, shot a 76 in 2006 at Winged Foot. Aaron Baddeley had an 80 at Oakmont in 2007 and Dustin Johnson shot an 82 at Pebble Beach in 2010. Watson (1980) and Johnson (2016) would eventually capture U.S. Open titles.

Wolff, who used to be coached New Zealand Open winner Matthew Lane, said: “I played really tough all week. I battled hard. Things just didn't go my way. But first US Open, second place, is something to be proud of and hold your head up high for. I'm just excited to learn from this experience, and it's definitely not the last time that I'm going to be in this spot.”

Bryson DeChambeau with his US Open trophy in front of the clubhouse at the Winged Foot golf course in New York. Photo credit: US Golf Association.