Champion Bryson DeChambeau tied for fifth in greens in regulation (46), despite tying for 26th in fairways hit (23).
DeChambeau’s total strokes gained of 7.90 is the fourth-highest by a champion since 1960. Johnny Miller (10.77 in 1963), Arnold Palmer (9.29 in 1960) and Jack Nicklaus(8.19 in 1967) were higher.
This was just the third time since 2000 that the champion was the only player in red figures (Tiger Woods in 2000 and 2002).
If the fairways hit number stood out, it was historic but also not that far off from a couple of recent wins.
From Ryan Herrington at GolfDigest.com:
Consider this: Since 1981, no U.S. Open winner had hit fewer than 27 fairways, according to Golf Channel. Here’s a listing of the champs with the fewest fairways hit in the last 40 years.
Angel Cabrera, 2007, Oakmont, 27 (ranked 48th for the week in accuracy)
Tiger Woods, 2008, Torrey Pines, 30 (ranked 56th)
Webb Simpson, 2012, Olympic Club, 31 (ranked 13th)
Scott Simpson, 1987, Olympic Club, 31 (ranked 42nd)
Interestingly, while DeChambeau hit the fewest fairways compared to the four others, he ranked T-26 for the field on the week, which is the second to Webb Simpson.
As for the rest of his game, the short game performance isn’t getting enough attention. For four rounds at Winged Foot:
Also, 245 is in play if he can get to the gym and his arteries can take it. From Bill Pennington’s New York Times game story:
DeChambeau is 6-foot-1 and 235 pounds — he gained 40 pounds this winter in an attempt to swing more forcefully — but on Sunday evening he was asked if he wanted to become bigger before the Masters.
“Yeah, I think I can get to 245; it’s going to be a lot of working out,” he answered.