DeChambeau knocks out Winged Foot for U.S. Open title!!

Photo courtest USGA/Chris Keane

Bryson DeChambeau 1, United States Golf Association 0.

When the USGA holds a U.S. Open at Winged Foot, the prevailing feeling is, the winning score is likely to be over par, with conventional wisdom saying Winged Foot is one tough course.

However, since DeChambeau became a professional golfer, he’s hardly been conventional and he proved it the last four days, finishing 6-under (the only player under par) to win the 2020 U.S. Open by six shots.

“As difficult as this golf course was presented, I played it beautifully,” said DeChambeau. “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.”

Matthew Wolff, the 54-hole leader, finished second at even-par, with Louis Oosthuizen two shots back at 2-over. Harris English (3-over) and Xander Schauffele (4-over) rounded out the top five.

DeChambeau rolled to the win over-powering the course, blasting the ball as far as possible down the hole, even if it meant landing in the treacherous Open rough. With most mere mortal professional golfers, the Open rough is penal and often involves just trying to advance the ball a bit down the fairway.

Not the same for the bulked-up DeChambeau who went after his shots in the rough with the ferocity of his tee shots and found the green quite a few times.

He hit only 23 of 56 fairways during the tournament, but still lapped the field. In the final round Sunday, he was the only player to shoot under par, making only the fourth time in the history of the open and the first since 1955 that the winner was the lone person in red numbers.

His performance makes one ponder about the discussion the USGA will have when it comes to course set up for next year’s Open at Torrey Pines.

“Mark Broadie was talking to Chris Como, and they were both talking about how (the USGA) just made the fairways too small this week to have it be an advantage for guys hitting the fairway,” explained DeChambeau. “So, what I mean by that — let’s take an example of you going like a yard wide. Nobody’s got the fairway. Okay, length’s going to win. You make the fairways too wide, length’s going to win. There’s like this balance between widths of fairways and where they want to play it and where they’re going to try to make you play it.”

But as much as DeChambeau overwhelmed the course, he was as overwhelmed by the moment.

“It’s one of those things that doesn’t really hit you,” said DeChambeau. “It’s not going to hit me until tonight, but I will say that my parents have given so much up for me. I mean, there were times that I went to school without any lunch money, and we had to make bologna sandwiches and didn’t have anything to eat. We had some very, very difficult times, but every single day, they always wanted the best for me, and they always gave me the opportunity to go golf, go practice, and go get better.”

By Dennis Miller