PINEHURST, N.C. — Bryson DeChambeau swept up a pile of sand in his hand and placed it in the U.S. Open trophy for safe keeping. A short time earlier, he’d punched his second shot at the 18th hole into a sandy lie in the North Carolina Sandhills, 55 yards from the hole location where one of his childhood idols, Payne Stewart, had rescued par in dramatic fashion to win the national championship 25 years earlier.
The long bunker shot is widely considered the hardest shot in golf. But not for DeChambeau, who thought back to all the times as a kid at Dragon Fly Golf Club in Madera, California, where he dropped the ball in the worst possible lies and lived for the challenge of getting the ball in the hole in the fewest shots possible. And then there was the voice of his caddie, Greg Bodine, reminding him that he’d seen him get up-and-down from worse spots.
“I’ve seen some crazy shots from you from 55 yards out of a bunker,” Bodine said.
“You’re right; I need a 55-degree, let’s do it,” DeChambeau said.
“You’ve done this before. You can do it again,” became his mantra and he thought of his dad, Jon, who had passed away in 2022 from diabetes, and how he always pushed him towards greatness, and how Stewart had served as a source of inspiration all those years ago, had been the reason he wore a Ben Hogan style cap and attended Southern Methodist University like Stewart whose image was embroidered on the 18th hole flag.
“I wanted to do it for them,” he said.
DeChambeau summoned a brilliant bunker shot that hit in the upslope of the green and fed toward the back-right hole location as if guided by satellite. His ball stopped 4 feet below the hole and the putt rolled straight and true.
“That bunker shot was the shot of my life,” DeChambeau said.
It closed out a final-round 1-over 71 at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club’s No. 2 Course and a one-stroke victory over Rory McIlroy, who missed two short putts and made bogey on three of the final four holes, enduring more major championship heartache in pursuit of his first major in nearly 10 years.
“I don’t know how you get through this thing,” said NBC’s Brad Faxon, who doubles as McIlroy’s putting coach. “It’s really tough.”
Welcome to the club 2x @usopengolf champ @b_dechambeau pic.twitter.com/Pl4YD1HD5Z
— Brooks Koepka (@BKoepka) June 16, 2024
On a sweltering afternoon with only a lazy breeze, DeChambeau began the day with a three-stroke lead but he didn’t make…
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