Bryson DeChambeau edged Rory McIlroy by one shot at Pinehurst.
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PINEHURST, NC — You’re tempted to say Bryson and Rory were playing a cat-and-mouse game Sunday afternoon in Pinehurst, but you’ve seen the men, and watched their Father’s Day golf. It was like cat-and-cat. Big hitters on a big ball field. It is no coincidence that they both grew up in Tiger.
And, while we’re at it, let’s throw out the whole Bryson slimming thing. Please. He played on the wrong side of the gallery ropes every Sunday, and thousands of fans could see, up close and personal, that he still had those clamdigger hands, leftover from all those eggnog milkshakes. They were covered in light sweat, in the heat and humidity of the North Carolina Sandhills. Bryson DeChambeau still looks like he can take your entire place out with one punch, if he’s used to being violent. Fortunately, Bryson lives by this credo: make par, not war.
As for Rory, he can match Tiger Woods in the weight room, taking him pound for pound, pretty much, their backs on the bench. Remember the Turkish Olympic weightlifter, Pocket Hercules, as the TV commentators called him? Rory reminds that man. A beautiful body of golf for a cat and a cat. If only golf tournaments were based in the gym. Maybe Tiger was throwing everyone off, showing up in the players’ parking lot with a gym bag and a sleeveless ticket.
Sunday Golf — Goliath v. Goliath! – it was interesting. PGA Tour star v. LIV golf star. (Where’s your credibility?!) But that question is a commentary weighed down by current events. What were they both? indeed to do was to play immortal.
So there was Rory McIlroy in the penalty shootout, coming out at 2:10 pm And there was Bryson DeChambeau in the final, 11 minutes later. Yes, they were playing for the winner’s check, $4.3 million. And something more permanent than that. They were playing to join the two-man club, to join the ranks of men who have won the US Open twice. McIlroy won the Open in 2011 at Congressional. Bryson DeChambeau won the 2020 Winged Foot Open. They wanted a second drawing.
Ernie Els is a member of the group. Win one Open, Ernie told me Sunday afternoon, as golf goes, it’s an accomplishment that will follow you for a lifetime. “Then you win the second Open and guys will look at you differently,” he said. “Win it twice, it means you are doing something special. You are not a fluke. The second win means a lot about how much you love the game, the sacrifices you will make, and the pain you will go through to do it.” Pleasures are physical and mental. Pain too.
Lee Trevino has his name on the trophy twice. So are (limiting this list to the living) Andy North, Curtis Strange, Lee Janzen, Retief Goosen and Brooks Koepka. While we’re at it, let’s have a moment for the late man, Payne Stewart, who won the ’91 Open at Hazeltine National and the ’99 Open here. Four months later he was dead, the plane ride was terrible. On that basis, what is a missed putt?
But we’re all golfers here. When you miss that putt? That’s all.
Golf both. Golf has always been both. You have to be cat and mouse. Woods’ path to 15 majors began with drives that were 30 yards longer than the field average. He reached 15 by making almost every reasonable putt within four feet he ever stood on. Hundreds and hundreds of short putts. He got there around the hole with lag putts and a chipping game and a putting game and a bunker game like nothing the game has seen. He had every shot, every move.
This is a brutal way to cut into the scene, Rory’s miss from 30 inches on the 16th hole. The tournament was open. “I would never wish that on anyone,” DeChambeau said. They say every gun makes someone happy, but let’s believe them. We believe it because nothing can take away the spirit of what golf should be all about.
With his bogey there, McIlroy moved from 7 under and leading the tournament to 6 under and tied with DeChambeau, standing at nearly 200 yards at the moment. Sad, sad, sad, sad, sad. It’s sad to watch, it’s painful to think about, but it’s also a very effective reminder that to win the US Open you have to . . . do it all. That’s why the US Opens is golf’s greatest test. Ernie will tell you that. So is Phil Mickelson. If we can do a deadline session here, Sam Snead can, too. They never got one, let alone two.
Lesson, lesson no. 2 here at Pinehurst is really nice. One of the best courses in the world, tourism and architecture expert Zac Blair will tell you. It’s a shame that the Next Open here, if kept to the traditional June schedule, will always be uncomfortably hot and humid. But the course is special, brown, rugged, bouncy. When McIlroy launched a towering shot on the par-3 15th, he gave it a two-knee bend and a simmah-down-now with his right hand. It was the highest 7 bell that went through. A punch 6 on the front edge might be a better game but golf doesn’t give you two cracks at it. He went from 8 under to 7 under there, with DeChambeau either watching or listening the entire time. The sounds of the crowd carried a warm breeze, just like it did in Augusta. The whole spectacle was more painful than exciting, but more than anything else it was a powerful reminder or what it means to play immortal.
When McIlroy missed the 15th green, resulting in a bogey, he had no idea that the missed 30-inch putt was on the desk. When he made that bogey on 16, he had no idea he would need four shots from 123 yards on the final hole for another bogey. Cat v. Cat, finally, opened the small things. Small shots. Making this choice, not that. No criticism here. It was golf. It’s golf.
“It’s very demanding, trying to win the second Open,” Lee Janzen told me Sunday afternoon, with the match underway. “Rory on 5: two good shots, good putt and he made a [bogey] 6. I look at the way today’s generation plays amazingly and I wonder how I won. I think others who are well past their playing days feel the same way. It is difficult to win any event. The main thing [harder yet]. I didn’t think I needed to win for a second to win any situation, but when it happened, I knew. It’s rare. I know many great players who have never won a major or only one. I appreciate the respect people give me, for winning two.” Two US open. One in Baltusrol, one in Olympic. It makes your heart race, just thinking about it.
And now Bryson DeChambeau knows. You know the feeling that comes with winning two US Opens, one at Winged Foot, the other at Pinehurst No. 2. That’s some pairing, and we’re not talking about what wine you’ll have with your entrant.
Next month, at Royal Troon, DeChambeau will try to win his first British Open. Rory McIlroy will try to win his second British Open. Maybe another version of this story will be written again, but with a different ending. It’s hard to leave here unimpressed with Bryson DeChambeau’s skill and ability, his energy and thoroughness and his imagination. But if you don’t feel for Rory, you’re not breathing. His second Open was within his grasp.
“It’s hard to watch today if you’re a Rory fan and a lot more fun if you’re a Bryson fan,” Ernie said when it was over. “It was a high quality game. Kill or be killed.”
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com
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