DeChambeau scores decisive win in US Open

Mamaroneck, New York, Sep 20 (efe-epa).- US golfer Bryson DeChambeau won his first major tourney on Sunday in decisive fashion, sweeping to victory in the 120th US Open at Winged Foot, near New York City.

DeChambeau, the only competitor to finish the contest under par in the general classification (-6, 274 total) and in Sunday’s contest (-3), upset the predictions and his rivals’ expectations with enormous and accurate blasts with his driver and the scientific precision of his short game.

Scoring a 67 on his final round, DeChambeau put in a record winning score, two shots under the previous record, on an extraordinarily difficult and unforgiving course.

DeChambeau, 27, finished six shots ahead of 21-year-old Matthew Wolff, who had begun the round on Sunday two strokes to the good but saw his game deteriorate, finally carding a closing 280 for the match.

South African Louis Oosthuizen, a former US Open winner, shot a 282 for third place, and Harris English – who lost a ball on his opening shot, managed to recover to finish fourth with 283.

Xander Schauffele was fifth with 284.

Rory McIlroy had been hoping to take home a second US Open win, but his game also fell apart right from the start on Sunday with a double bogey on the first hole.

DeChambeau said after the match that he started thinking he might win the tournament on the 9th hole, but he told himself to just go shot by shot and focus on doing the best he could every step of the way.

In accepting the trophy, the California golfer – who had bulked up by 40 pounds and put on considerable muscle, thus enabling him to hit some incredibly long drives – said he was proud to join legendary golfers Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only three men in history to win an NCAA title, the US Amateur tournament and the US Open.

This has been an unusual year for golf with the suspension of the British Open and the postponement of the Augusta Masters until mid-November due to the coronavirus pandemic.

So far, the two big tournaments, played without an in-person audience, have been the PGA Championship (won by Collin Morikawa) and the US Open, both of which have been won by newcomers.