Post Game

BY TONY DEAR • CG EDITOR

The rapid rebirth of Bryson DeChambeau at Pinehurst

Same-day game stories with all the pertinent facts and figures had to be filed, of course, but if you were writing a reflection piece about the U.S. Open it was probably best to think on it for a few days before committing pen to paper (or rather, fingers to keyboards). The dust took a while to settle following what was an extraordinary championship, one that will surely be talked about for as long as the game is played.

New storylines and exciting moments came at you with a regularity and, at times, ferocity, that left you a bit breathless and wondering what might happen next. The days leading up to the tournament were filled with discussion about the brilliance of Donald Ross’s original design of Pinehurst No. 2 and especially its scary, turtle-back greens which hadn’t actually been Ross’s idea at all but were, in fact, the result of decades of aggressive top-dressing. There was renewed praise for Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw’s comprehensive 2011 restoration of the course, but both acclaim and critical views for the USGA’s set up of it.

John Bodenhamer, former Executive Director of the Pacific Northwest Golf Association and now the USGA’s Chief Championship Officer responsible for how the U.S. Open course is prepared, took Pinehurst’s playability to the very edge and, depending on your preferred criteria for identifying a champion, either managed to keep the course appropriately challenging or over-extended it.

Fans of one title contender in particular who watched their man’s ball trundle up the 5th green’s false front in the final round before it teetered on the brink and eventually retreated into an awful lie 25 yards short of the putting surface will probably tell you Bodenhamer laid it on a bit thick. Those who recognize the U.S. Open is notorious for such calamities, however, and know the difference between sweet success and ignominious failure can hinge of the roll of a single dimple probably shrugged their shoulders while thinking “Yeah, it’s the U.S. Open. It happens. Carry on.”

This U.S. Open ultimately wasn’t about Ross, Coore, Crenshaw, Bodenhamer or Rory McIlroy (the player involved in the 5th green controversy), however. And it certainly wasn’t about Tiger Woods who missed the cut by two or the world’s No. 1 player, Scottie Scheffler, who did make it to the weekend but finished it in a tie for 41st.

It will, instead, be remembered for the brilliant play, impressive mental fortitude, and genuine joy of a player who, just two years ago, was loudly criticized for joining LIV Golf, adding bulk beyond what was considered sensible, and his role as a scientific mastermind one minute and falling to the ground apparently in agony after being taken down by a gallery rope the next.

Bryson DeChambeau’s journey from being ribbed to respected, even loved, happened surprisingly quickly. This rapid turnaround began to be characterized, perhaps, by the speed with which he congratulated Xander Schauffele following his win at the PGA Championship in May.

We’re not psychoanalysts here so we can’t be sure to what we can attribute the now two-time U.S. Openwinner’s reformation. But we are most assuredly here for it, and hope it endures. Like it or loathe it, LIV Golf has clearly been good for the 30-year-old native of California (now residing in the Dallas suburbs) whose final round 71 at Pinehurst may have been his only over-par round of the week but which concluded with an up-and-down from the bunker in front of the 18th green that will surely go down as one of history’s best. Buoyed on by his caddie Greg Bodine, a co-founder of Evergreen Golf in Redmond, DeChambeau hit a 55-yard explosion that carried about 35 yards and rolled out to four feet. He confidently holed the putt for a slender one-stroke victory over McIlroy, who had bogeyed three of the last four holes.

Like the vast majority of golfers worldwide, we sincerely hope the shellshock of this defeat doesn’t stall the Northern Irishman’s career and that he’ll bounce back quickly and emphatically. For now, though, we’ll continue enjoying video of DeChambeau’s bunker shot on loop and look forward to the next installment of the DeChambeau show.