Golfing News & Blog Articles

No one can question Bryson DeChambeau's methods now. He overpowered Winged Foot and the field to win his first major championship.

Jim Furyk joined Arnold Palmer and Bruce Fleisher as the only players to win their first two PGA Tour Champions starts.

September 20, 2020

NorCal’s Bryson DeChambeau Wins U.S. Open

Clovis native Bryson DeChambeau is now a U.S. Open champion.

DeChambeau, who honed his skills as a junior on the Junior Tour of Northern California, shot a final-round 3-under 67 Sunday at Winged Foot to win the title by six shots.

He joins Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players to win an NCAA individual title, a U.S. Amateur title and a U.S. Open.

“It’s just an honor. I don’t know what else to say,’ DeChambeau said. ” It’s been a lot of hard work. Mr. Nicklaus has been always awesome to me. He gave me a sponsor’s invite. Tiger has always been great to me. I can’t say thank you enough to them for them helping me push me along to be a better person and a better golfer, as well. But to be in the likes of the names of that company is special. I’ll forever appreciate that.”

They pulled off a fall U.S. Open and there were many more winners than losers at Winged Foot.

Winners

Bryson DeChambeau – You’ve taken enormous risks, listened to no shortage of doubters and now are a worthy, convincing major championship winner. Most impressive is the accomplishment coming on a course supposedly rigged against your aggressive style of play. Plus, no run-ins with the rules or officials, and you gave credit to your parents for the sacrifices they made. Classy win.

Matthew Wolff –  Just two majors and already a second place and a T4 at age 21. Oh and an ebullient style when so many players look so joyless.  

Westlake Golf Course – Wolff’s home away from home is also where Chris Como, DeChambeau’s distance-boost coach, got his start in the game. What a day for Thousand Oaks. Check out Sean Martin’s story here on the little course that is producing so many characters.

Bryson DeChambeau was the only player under par in the final round at Winged Foot as he cruised to a U.S. Open victory.

Mel Reid shot a 7-under 65 on her 33rd birthday Saturday to take a two-stroke lead over defending champion Hannah Green into the final round of the Cambia Portland Classic.

Ernie Els missed a chance to build a big lead during the second round of the PGA Tour Champions' Pure Insurance Championship at Pebble Beach on Saturday, but he holds a 1-stroke lead over Dicky Pride, with Jim Furyk and four others 2 shots back.

Lee westwood after round 3

Think about all the effort put into juicing the roughs with fertilizer, fine tuning the lines a bit to make the players lay up so the ball doesn’t have to be regulated and the excitement at seeing them punished!

Not happening. At least, not for the 2020 U.S. Open leaders.

The most stout rough we’ve seen in some time is not meaning a darned thing at Winged Foot, as Matthew Wolff takes a two stroke lead into Sunday. Two, also happens to be the number of fairways hit in a 65 that featured two very makeable birdie misses. Wolff has hit 12 fairways after three rounds leaving him tied for 58th. The bottom portion of the fairways hit ranking:

In second place sits Bryson DeChambeau, whose found 17 of 32 fairways, placing him T31 in that category.

Matthew Wolff is 21 years and attempting to win the U.S. Open in his very first appearance. He will chase it in silence. It worked for another 20-something last month when Collin Morikawa won the PGA Championship. Is it about to happen again?

While there are no spectators on the property at Winged Foot Golf Club, that didn't stop those nearby with a view of the course from heckling Patrick Reed on Saturday. Reed had bigger problems, though, as he shot a 77 to fall 8 shots off the lead.

Matthew Wolff hit only two fairways Saturday and still matched the lowest score ever at Winged Foot in a major, a 5-under 65 that gave the 21-year-old Californian a two-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau going into the final round of the U.S. Open.

Matthew Wolff hit two fairways and twelve greens en route to a sensational third round 65. He leads the U.S. Open at Winged Foot by two over Bryson DeChambeau in what figures to be a wild Sunday race.

Who you got?

Who Will Win The 2020 U.S. Open?Matthew Wolff (-5)Bryson DeChambeau (-3)Louis Oosthuizen (-1)Xander Schauffele (E)Hideki Matsuyama (E)Harris English (E)Rory McIlroy (+1)Someone elsepollcode.com free polls

Patrick Cantlay hit what he thought was a perfect pitch shot at the 15th hole in Saturday's third round of the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. But you never know when bad luck will hit. And it hit Cantlay hard.

The short par-4 sixth features such a simple design and yet remains one of the world’s best short par-4’s, even with the fairway shrunken down to counter advancements by today’s physics majors.

Through two rounds of the 2020 U.S. Open, notice how No. 6 played depending on the hole location. The more players tried to drive it, the worse they played it. (3.806 v. 4.028 scoring avg difference).

Yet only a few who laid up in round 2 made birdie, perhaps due to the tricky angle from the fairway center. (The fairway has been moved in on the right.) Those who got their tee shot just in front of the green fared best:

A close up view from round 2 where the best lay-up spot is now rough:

Jump back in time to one of the 1929 U.S. Open’s 36-hole playoff rounds documented by The American Golfer. You can see how much wider the course was and see the role rough plays today for those laying up in what was once fairway. You can also see that Bobby Jones hit a 300-yard drive, to which O.B. Keeler told spectators that it was all in the agronomy. Al Espinosa bogeyed the hole after a tee shot into the fairway bunker.

Defending champion Hannah Green shot a 6-under 66 on Friday at Columbia Edgewater for a share of the lead with Cydney Clanton in the Cambria Portland Classic.

Jim Furyk birdied four of the last six holes for an 8-under 64 and the first-round lead Friday in the PGA Tour Champions' Pure Insurance Championship.

Two of golf's biggest personalities, Patrick Reed and Bryson DeChambeau, are at the top of the leaderboard. Winged Foot is playing impossible, meaning anyone has a chance. Things are going to get even more interesting at the U.S. Open.

These guys know how to mash it! Even the golf ball!

Round three of the 2020 U.S. Open features two of the game’s elite, First Team All-American mashers of terra firma in the vicinity of their golf ball.

I bring good news: if their past run-ins with the golf laws are any indication, drama looms this weekend at Winged Foot.

Patrick Reed(-4), was called out on live TV pushing rough down behind his ball in a major, and digging a canal in the Bahamas and has a lawyer trying to silence those branding him a cheater. He’s also hitting just 38% of fairways and half the greens, so there is a sustainability question heading into the weekend.

Bryson DeChambeau (-3) came to the forefront of rules official bad dreams with incidents along the way, but nothing like this year’s combo package at Muirfield Village. While most of the footage has been taken down after takedown requests by the PGA Tour, though there remains a couple here where Bryson handles a ruling with absolutely no class. The scenes of him turning his driver into a spatula, however, sleep behind a password.

Patrick Reed shot an even-par 70 at Winged Foot on Friday to take a one-shot lead over Bryson DeChambeau after the second round of the U.S. Open.

It’s easy to poke fun at the old guard USGA and their stodgy ways. But every now and then some stodginess would do wonders for the American spirit.

Take the group of loudmouths sandwiched together during our pandemic in New Rochelle-adjacent COVID-19 hotspot. They’re not wearing masks but screaming their brains out and to cap off this coronavirus sundae, are anchored by NCAA hooligan and world famous restaurant regular Rick Pitino.

He even made the USGA post round notes in another leg of the USGA’s Barstool transformation:

Current Iona men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino watched some of the action from a home behind the third green. Pitino coached the University of Kentucky to the national title in 1996, and also led Providence College and the University of Louisville to the Final Four during his career.

Yes he did. Also, he and his friends—including tournament volunteers—are sandwiched together and should think about following state guidelines because they are on national TV.