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DeChambeau Earns U.S. Open Win

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PINEHURST – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Bryson DeChambeau parred the final three holes to complete a 1-over-par 71, and that was enough for a one-shot victory at the U.S. Open in North Carolina, winning the championship for the second time in five years.

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DeChambeau, who began the day with a three-shot lead, finished at 6-under 274, benefitting from Rory McIlroy’s late putting failures.

McIlroy, who gained the lead on the back side, bogeyed the last hole by missing a par putt from about 4 feet. Then DeChambeau, playing in the last group, clinched it with a par putt after blasting out of a greenside bunker on his third shot.

DeChambeau became the second former Southern Methodist University golfer to win a U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, with this title coming 25 years after Payne Stewart’s memorable championship.

McIlroy’s 69 was tainted by bogeys on three of the last four holes, and he finished as the U.S. Open runner-up for the second year in a row. McIlroy, who won the 2011 U.S. Open, was trying to secure his fifth major championship and his first since 2014.

U.S. Open: Ready for Hollywood

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LOS ANGELES – Defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick earned his first PGA TOUR title at the 2022 U.S. Open, becoming the first player to do so in a major since Danny Willett at the 2016 Masters Tournament. The last player to successfully defend a major championship title was Brooks Koepka at the 2019 PGA Championship.

Koepka is also the last player to win the U.S. Open in back-to-back years (2017, 2018). Fitzpatrick, who won the RBC Heritage earlier this season, enters the week at No. 28 in the FedEx Cup standings.

The 2023 U.S. Open is the first major championship held at The Los Angeles Country Club and will be contested on the North Course. The first edition of the Los Angeles Open, now known as The Genesis Invitational, was held at LACC (North) in 1926, and the event has been held there a total of five times (1926, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1940). The last major championship played in the Los Angeles area was the 1995 PGA Championship, held at The Riviera Country Club, the host venue of The Genesis Invitational.

2021 U.S. Open winner Jon Rahm enters the week as the FedExCup leader with four wins this season, including the Masters Tournament. With a win this week, Rahm would become the first player to win five times in a season since Justin Thomas in 2016-17 and the first to win multiple majors in the same year since Jordan Spieth in 2015 (Masters, U.S. Open). With 3,042 FedExCup points so far this season, Rahm has the fifth-highest total in a single FedExCup Regular Season since the inception of the FedExCup in 2007. He is 17 points behind No. 4 (Tiger Woods/2013) and 1,127 behind No. 1 (Jordan Spieth/2014-15).

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The 2011 U.S. Open winner and reigning FedEx Cup Champion Rory McIlroyhas won four majors (2011 U.S. Open, 2012 PGA Championship, 2014 Open Championship, 2014 PGA Championship) but none since the start of the 2014-15 season. McIlroy has 18 Top-10s in majors since his most recent title, the most of any player in that span.

McIlroy is making his 48th start in a major and 33rd since winning the 2014 PGA Championship.

There are four players in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking that have not won a major: No. 4 Patrick Cantlay, No. 5 Viktor Hovland, No. 6 Xander Schauffele and No. 7 Max Homa. Those four players have combined for 25 PGA Tour titles and have all won at least twice since the start of the 2021-22 season.

 

Hadwin Leads at U.S. Open

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BROOKLINE – Adam Hadwin recorded a 4-under (66), his lowest score in a major championship, and leads the U.S. Open by one stroke after 18 holes while Rory McIlroy, winner of last week’s RBC Canadian Open, stands T-2.

The last player to win on Tour and win a major the following week was, indeed, McIlroy, at the 2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and PGA Championship the next weekend.

Five of the six players at T-2 or better (all but McIlroy) earned spots in the U.S. Open via Final Qualifying.

Defending champion Jon Rahm, 2022 PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas enter the second round T14 (1-under 69s)

FedEx Cup leader and World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler opened with even-par 70 (T-26).

U.S. Open Leaderboard | After 18 Holes

Adam Hadwin 66 (-4)

Callum Tarren 67 (-3)

David Lingmerth 67 (-3)

Rory McIlroy 67 (-3)

Joel Dahmen 67 (-3)

M.J. Daffue 67 (-3)

The Country Club is Ready

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BROOKLINE – Early tee-times at 6:45am in the ‘burbs of Boston, and the beautiful golf course at The Country Club. From Newton to Chestnut Hill to Brookline, the traffic will be horrendous. More importantly, the golf will be great.

Theoretically, a connected sports fan could be watching the U.S. Open in the morning, zip over to Fenway Park for the 1:35pm afternoon start, then head over to the North End, grab a bite of pasta and catch the Boston Celtics vs Golden State Warriors in Game 6 of The NBA Finals. Rough day for a Boston sports fan, eh?

On the links, 2021 U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm will tee-off at 7:18am as he is the first player from Spain to be in title defense of any U.S. Open championship.

The last players to win on Tour, then win a Major was Rory McIlroy in 2014 when he won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and then the PGA Championship. As winner of last week’s RBC Canadian, McIlroy can do it again at the U.S. Open.

Vermont-born, Massachusetts-reared and New York-schooled (St. John’s),Keegan Bradley threw out the first pitch at Fenway Park on Tuesday night before the Red Sox vs Oakland Athletics game. Bradley won the PGA Championship in 2011. When he stepped to the mound at historic Fenway, he threw a strike and was on the field for a $25,000 presentation to First Tee of Massachusetts by the USGA.