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From the USGA’s notes after Bryson DeChambeau’s 2020 U.S. Open win:

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.

Xander Schauffele off a fourth-straight excellent U.S. Open performance, sounds conflicted about where things are headed as he saw Bryson DeChambeau overpower Winged Foot.

Q. What are your thoughts on Bryson just in general and what he's done in transforming his body?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: Yeah, he's a man of his word. I said it last night, if there's anyone that I was worried about, it was him. Everyone talked about hitting fairways out here. It's not about hitting fairways. It's about hitting on the correct side of the hole and hitting it far so you can kind of hit a wedge instead of a 6 iron out of the rough. Yeah, he's sort of trending in the new direction of golf, and he said he wanted to do everything he's doing, and yeah, happy for him. He's playing unbelievable.

This answer was especially fascinating:

Q. Going back to what you said before about Bryson,do you feel like he's revolutionizing the game?

XANDER SCHAUFFELE: No. If you look at just people that have dominated, it's always been distance. Obviously, Tiger had the mix of touch and feel and everything. If you look back at he was sort of the first guy to really hit it far with those clubs. Jack hit is really far as well. All the greats hit it pretty far for the most part. It's no longer sort of a touchy-feely game. The only way to make a golf course really hard is to firm up the greens and grow the rough. It's going to make it hard for everyone, and you'd rather be the guy in the rough with a lob wedge than with an 8 iron or 7 iron. Revolutionize? Maybe he's just exposing our game in terms of, if he keeps hitting it further and further, I don't see why he wouldn't be able to win many more U.S. Opens.

If they’re hitting drives like this with a helping breeze, Winged Foot’s 9th might be drivable in 2028, 2031 or whenever Winged Foot hosts the U.S. Open again.

From the 2020 U.S. Open final round where all three players made “eagles” after video game length drives.

Bryson DeChambeau, the “short” one of the group at 374.4:

Matt Wolfe, outdrove himself from Saturday’s 377 yarder and gave himself a wedge approach Sunday after this 388.5 yard tee shot.

And without the aid of a cart path, lucky bounce or any other known assistance beyond strength, launch optimization and some roll, a 418.8-yard drive from Dustin Johnson.

This 2020 U.S. Open post-final round comment from Rory McIlroy has been getting mostly negative reviews and I believe, incorrectly so. McIlroy posted a final round 75 to finish T8 at Winged Foot.

Q. Your golf followed from Tiger's and Tiger's followed from Faldo, Watson, and back to Nicklaus, very kind of straight line. Then you see this guy doing it completely in his own way, and I'm wondering what that says to you about the guy and about the game.

RORY McILROY: So I think -- about the guy, I think it's brilliant, but I think he's taken advantage of where the game is at the minute. Look, again, whether that's good or bad, but it's just the way it is. With the way he approaches it, with the arm-lock putting, with everything, it's just where the game's at right now.I'm not saying that's right or wrong. He's just taking advantage of what we have right now.

DeChambeau’s approach should raise questions about whether this is where the game should head. But you have to admire how he’s taken advantage of technology and put his body on the line in ways no one ever has. McIlroy seems to be saying that with his where the game “is at the minute.”

Which is also code for: where the game is because the governing bodies did not adequately anticipate many things that are happening.

Matthew Wolff struggled in Sunday's final round and lost to a red-hot Bryson DeChambeau. Still, he finished second in his first appearance at the U.S. Open. At 21, he's just getting started.

Georgia Hall earned her first LPGA Tour victory in the United States on Sunday when she beat Ashleigh Buhai on the second hole of a playoff at the Cambia Portland Classic.

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.