PINEHURST, N.C. — Golf has a new hero: Bryson DeChambeau held off a ferocious back-nine charge from Rory McIlroy to prevail at dangerous Pinehurst on Sunday and claim his second U.S. Open title.
After an epic battle, DeChambeau and McIlroy were tied at six under par heading into the 18th hole, and after McIlroy missed a four-foot putt for par, DeChambeau had a chance, but it would take some magic from DeChambeau to make it happen.
After losing control of his driver and ducking under a tree, DeChambeau was forced to hit into a greenside bunker and then hit the best bunker shot of his life, landing the ball within four feet.
Unlike McIlroy, he made no mistakes and went on to win his second U.S. Open.
Another major without a trophy for McIlroy may be his most bittersweet of his 37 (and counting) tournaments since his last major win at the 2014 PGA Championship. He missed two putts within four feet in his final three holes, and McIlroy, watching DeChambeau’s putts fall from inside the scoring tent, looked understandably dejected as ever.
DeChambeau moved from the PGA Tour to LIV Golf two years ago and has suddenly become a crowd favorite, with cheers and chants of “USA!” ringing out at his every step. It remains to be seen how this will impact the ongoing split between the PGA Tour and LIV, but it’s clear that DeChambeau is now one of the top stars in golf.
How we got here
This week Scottie Scheffler was the No. 1 player, the No. 1 betting favorite and the No. 1 talk of the town. After his victory at the Memorial (his fifth victory in the past eight tournaments), Scheffler was approaching Scottie vs. the field status. The expectation was that Scheffler would work the field and course like he did at Augusta and maybe like he should have done at the PGA Championship at Valhalla. Then everyone would wonder if the Louisville police had prevented Scottie from winning a Grand Slam.
Spoiler: Scheffler won’t win a Grand Slam this year, but Louisville police have nothing to do with that. Scheffler ran headfirst into the other big story earlier this week: Pinehurst No. 2 itself, the course’s vicious combination of turtleback greens, sandy wiregrass rough and blast-furnace heat overwhelmed not only Scheffler, but other big names as well.
“The sport of golf can be like a mental torture chamber at times,” Scheffler said after Saturday’s round, “especially the U.S. Open.”
The U.S. Open, on the other hand, is literally open to anyone who makes it through the tough qualifying rounds, and it always produces some great stories of everyday people competing against the pros. One of the best this year was Colin Prater, a high school biology teacher from Colorado who qualified for the tournament. Prater didn’t last long, missing the cut by 12 strokes with a score of 79-78, but it was a memory he’ll cherish for the rest of his life.
While Tuesday’s media onslaught didn’t feature any major news, there were two important off-course stories. McIlroy announced that he and his wife Erica had annuled their divorce, but it’s unclear if this affected McIlroy’s play. Jon Rahm showed up to the media session with a bandaged toe, which undoubtedly affected his week. Later in the day, Rahm announced he was withdrawing from the tournament altogether.
With Rahm’s absence, the U.S. Open lost its 2021 champion and a significant star player, but it’s debatable how well a healthy Rahm would have performed in the second round at Pinehurst given his performance so far in the 2024 season. In fact, LIV golf is literally sandwiching the U.S. Open leaderboard from DeChambeau at the top to Phil Mickelson at the bottom. Not only that, but the USGA seems ready to invite more LIV golfers to the U.S. Open, regardless of whether the world rankings support it.
Cantlay and Oberg set the pace
Then, as is the case in big weeks, Thursday came along and all the anxiety outside the ropes vanished. The leaderboard was remarkably stable, with most of Thursday’s leaders remaining in their positions throughout the weekend and into Sunday afternoon. On a surprisingly forgiving Thursday, Cantlay set the pace, finishing at -5, the lowest round in Pinehurst U.S. Open history. A few hours later, McIlroy tied with Cantlay for a share of the lead. Ludvig Oberg finished one stroke back, and Mathieu Pavon and DeChambeau were two strokes behind the leader.
Oberg, a two-time major champion in his career, was the talk of the town on Friday, playing a solid round to take sole possession of the lead, but Cantlay, McIlroy, Pavon and DeChambeau were all within two strokes of him.
In another sign of golf’s generational change, Tiger Woods missed the cut again but this time went a step further, suggesting he might actually finish the U.S. Open. Mickelson also stumbled this week, leaving Pinehurst early but few spectators were there to watch him leave.
Saturday was a reminder of just how tough the U.S. Open is, and just how good DeChambeau is. Collin Morikawa had set the stage with a -4 round earlier in the day, finishing in the top 10 by sundown, but it was DeChambeau’s day as he hustled to -7 with the gallery going wild. Every drive or birdie from DeChambeau was met with a cheer of “USA!” and there were plenty of both on Saturday.
DeChambeau vs McIlroy
The first pairing on the final day of the U.S. Open started nearly seven hours before DeChambeau and Pavon. Scheffler, for example, finished just as the leaders walked onto the first green and left town with a score of +8. Perhaps Scheffler was happy to be done with the “mental torture chamber” that is the U.S. Open.
The USGA placed the U.S. Open trophy just to the right of the first tee so all players had to see it on their way to the tee, but none of the top players, not even the players who had previously won it, even glanced at it.
Most of the players walked from the putting green across the front of the clubhouse to the first tee, but DeChambeau emerged from a tunnel under the clubhouse, rose into the light and made his way through the crowd, which was lined up three rows on either side, like a heavyweight boxer entering the arena before a title match.
DeChambeau was one stroke behind the leader before he even had a chance to tee off. When McIlroy sank a 20-foot putt on the first green, the cheers of the crowd echoed toward the tee. With the leaders finally getting going, the U.S. Open reached a climax.
On the fourth hole, the second-hardest hole of the day, DeChambeau made his first bogey to fall six strokes behind, while Pavon made his second bogey to fall three strokes behind. Just one hole ahead of them, McIlroy struggled on the par-5 fifth hole, his beautiful 5-iron approach rolling off the green and into the wiregrass below. McIlroy’s long par putt just missed the green, and DeChambeau’s lead was back down to two strokes.
DeChambeau’s early game on Sunday was obviously less intense than it was on Saturday, but McIlroy, Cantlay and Pavon couldn’t put him under any more pressure than he already was, and McIlroy lost position with every chipping flourish and crucial putt with the same shaky approach.
But things got tense as the leaders approached the turn. McIlroy made a 15-foot birdie putt on the ninth hole to move to -5, while DeChambeau, at -6, struggled to make par with a 10-foot putt. The crowd cheered as the putt rolled in, and DeChambeau pumped his fist to have pulled within one stroke of McIlroy.
When DeChambeau made the turn, he was at -6, one stroke behind McIlroy, two behind Cantlay and four strokes ahead of three players.
On the 10th hole, McIlroy made a 26-foot putt for birdie to move to -6 and briefly pull into a U.S. Open tie.
But DeChambeau persevered, feathering a chip shot to within 4 feet on the same hole for his first birdie of the round and cutting the lead back to one point.
But McIlroy wasn’t done. He put DeChambeau back on track with a 22-foot birdie on the 12th hole, then a short birdie on the 13th for his fifth birdie of the day. Then DeChambeau bogeyed the 12th hole to give McIlroy the lead for the first time.
As McIlroy headed into the 13th hole with a two-stroke lead, the crowd cheered, “Rory! Rory! Rory!”
DeChambeau then answered McIlroy, hitting it to within 28 feet on the 316-yard 13th hole, his eagle putt was spot on but fell three strokes short, and then he made a birdie to close to within one.
And when McIlroy bogeyed the 14th, the two were tied again… but only for a moment.
DeChambeau had a chance for birdie on the 14th hole but missed it by 4 feet from the hole, then missed a comeback shot for par.
The pressure wasn’t just on DeChambeau in that moment, as just seven minutes later McIlroy missed a par putt from within 4 feet, tying the score again.
The match was not decided until the last hole.
Both players hit their drives into dirty rough. McIlroy, one group ahead, had another short putt for par but missed it. After not missing a putt within 5 feet this week, he missed two in his final three holes.
Behind him, DeChambeau was crouched under a tree branch, in a terrible lie/stance after another ill-fated drive. Unable to make a full swing, DeChambeau smashed his shot into a greenside bunker, still 55 yards between the ball and the hole.
Then he hit the shot of his life to come within four feet of winning the title, and this time there was no miss.
