'Shot of my life' helps lift DeChambeau to second US Open title

PINEHURST – Bryson DeChambeau, needing to get up and down from a bunker at 18 to win, delivered one of his greatest shots on June 16 and sank a tension-packed putt to clinch the US Open.

Having already escaped disaster once at Pinehurst’s final hole, DeChambeau blasted a 55-yard bunker shot to four feet and rolled in the clutch putt to capture his second Major.

“That bunker shot was the shot of my life,” said the 30-year-old American, who had also won the 2020 US Open. “I’m so happy I got that shot up-and-down on 18. It’s a dream come true.”

Playing partner Matthieu Pavon, a Frenchman who finished fifth, was even more impressed as he watched DeChambeau’s shot hold firm on a lightning-fast sloped green that had sent balls rolling away from the hole all week.

“He just played like unbelievable,” Pavon said. “At that time with the pressure he had at that moment, it is just one of the best shots in golf history.”

DeChambeau, who plays on the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour, had everything on the line after Rory McIlroy squandered a two-stroke lead with three bogeys in the last four holes, the last on a four-foot par putt miss at 18.

DeChambeau, runner-up at the PGA Championship in May by a stroke, did not want to be denied again.

“Oh, man, I didn’t want to finish second again. PGA really stung,” he said. “I wanted to get this one done.

“As much as it is heartbreaking for some people, it was heartbreak for me at the PGA. I really wanted this one.”

He got it thanks to patience and perseverance, with some boost from his caddie, Gregory Bodine, in a moment DeChambeau said he would always remember.

“My caddie telling me you can do it on 18 out of that bunker. Greg telling me, You got this shot. I’ve seen way harder shots pulled off from you,” DeChambeau said.

“G-Bo just said, ‘Bryson, just get it up-and-down. That’s all you’ve got to do. You’ve done this plenty of times before. I’ve seen some crazy shots from you from 50 yards out of a bunker.’

“And I had an amazing up and down at the last.”

When McIlroy opened the door to victory for DeChambeau, he was in the left weeds trying to hit despite a root.

“I was actually concerned I might hurt myself getting out of that,” DeChambeau said. “I was trying to run it left of that bunker, run it up the green, give myself a 2-putt.

“I had no backswing. I’m just like, OK, I have to hack it. Hopefully it will go down the line, but it didn’t. It cut and it went into the bunker, one of the worst places I could have been.

“There’s a lot of luck that has to happen and go your way out there. I knew if I could give my 100 per cent effort on every single shot, I’d give myself a good chance.”

Television cameras captured McIlroy watching as DeChambeau sank the winning putt.

As the crowd roared and DeChambeau began to celebrate, McIlroy stared ahead for a few seconds then turned and walked away with caddie Harry Diamond.

They were seen a few minutes later entering the Pinehurst parking lot, packing bags into a car and driving away.

It looked like the sort of defeat that can haunt a player, an epic failure on the level of Greg Norman’s final-round flop in a 1996 Masters loss to Nick Faldo.

McIlroy, 35, even spoke to reporters at the PGA Championship last month a day after his divorce plans were made public. The Northern Irishman, whose last of four Majors had come in 2014, said this week those plans are off.

It was left to DeChambeau to bolster McIlroy in the runner-up’s absence.

“Rory is one of the best to ever play,” DeChambeau said. “Being able to fight against a great like that is pretty special. For him to miss that (last) putt, I’d never wish it on anybody. It just happened to play out that way.

“He’ll win multiple more major championships. There’s no doubt. I think that fire in him is going to continue to grow.  He’s a strong-minded individual. Rory is going to do it. I’d love to have a lot more battles with him.”

DeChambeau also admitted some intimidation at falling behind McIlroy so late.

“I have nothing but respect for how he plays the game of golf because, to be honest, when he was climbing up the leaderboard, he was two ahead, I was like, ‘Uh-oh, uh-oh,’“ he said.

“But luckily things went my way today.”

Pavon addressed the pressure McIlroy, or any player in his situation, would feel in that supreme tension-packed moment.

“At the end of the day we’re all human,” Pavon said. “Rory has been chasing another major since many years. He is one of the best players in the world, a true champion. It shows you how tough it is.

“The more you want it, the tougher it gets, and the highest expectation you have for yourself, the tougher it gets, the more pressure you got into.

“Maybe this is a little bit of pressure that got him today for sure, but Rory is just a massive champion. I’m sure he will fight back and really soon.”

Also helping DeChambeau find his focus were memories of his late father and Payne Stewart, whose 1999 US Open victory at Pinehurst just months before his death was in his thoughts all week.

“Every time I got over the ball, just focus. You’ve done this before. You can do it again,” DeChambeau said.

“In the back of my mind, my dad pushing me. Payne was in the back of my mind, as well. I wanted to do it for them.” AFP