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THE famed roar of the Seattle crowds was silenced as the US Open at Chambers Bay witnessed one of the most thrilling finales in its 121-year history.
A day that started with four players tied at the top of the leaderboard finished with the famed trophy changing hands over the final holes as players surged and then imploded before reaching a dramatic conclusion on the final hole.
While much of the talk all week was about the state of the course resulting in several injuries and Jason Day suffering from vertigo, the greatest criticism was reserved for the greens.
Henrik Stenson, never one to keep an opinion to himself, in a statement that will resonate with children around the world who ‘don’t like their greens’, likened the putting surface to broccoli while Justin Rose called them ‘outdoor bingo’ where you never know what number will come up next.
In what is great news for Bahrain, England’s Ian Poulter, who famously criticised the Royal Golf Club’s Montgomerie course when he played here, let rip, complaining: “This was the surface we had to putt on. It is disgraceful that the USGA hasn’t apologised about the greens. They were simply the worst, most disgraceful surfaces I have ever seen on any tour in all the years I have played.”
To prove some of the difficulties, Tiger Woods missed the cut at the US Open for the first time since 2006 after finishing the second round 16 over par at Chambers Bay.
However, much of this will be forgotten thanks to the tournament ending that will mark this public course as one of the greatest US Open’s in history.
Another remarkable feature of this specific event was the length of the course, which, at 7,695 yards, became the longest in Open history. However, it was reduced to 7,384 yards on the final day, which resulted in some spectacular scoring, allowing some of the formerly quiet ‘big names’ of golf to briefly challenge.
Some holes even changed the number of shots required to achieve par, the 18th in particular, with some interesting remarks from players that, with the benefit of hindsight, become somewhat ironic.
US Masters champion, Jordan Spieth, complained: “This is the dumbest hole I have ever played in my life.” First-round leader, Dustin Johnson, described it as being ‘lots of fun where you can really use your imagination’.
It was these two players who arrived at the final hole of the championship tied for the lead with Louis Oosthuizen the clubhouse leader on four under par having recorded a remarkable six birdies in the final seven holes to sneak up on the other contenders.
Playing in the penultimate group, Spieth played first, having blown a three-shot lead on the 17th after he sent a 6-iron 40 yards to the right of the green into thick rough. He responded to this disappointment in the manner of a true champion, smashing his drive down the middle of the fairway before an immaculate approach left him a tap-in for birdie to take the clubhouse lead.
Undeterred Johnson, playing in the final pairing, birdied the 17th before two fantastic shots left him a 12-foot putt for an eagle and the championship. Having had to wait for Jason Day to finish a disappointing round he prowled the green like a fisherman looking for the right line before sending his putt high to the left of the hole, leaving himself a simple ‘four-footer’ to take the match into a play-off. Horrifically, he again missed to the left meaning he joins an unwanted group of players to have lost a winning position in four Majors which have included bizarre rule-breaches to complete blow-ups.
Johnson had led at the halfway point by two shots until three dropped shots in four holes meant that Spieth shared the lead with Branden Grace, whose own challenge imploded on the 16th when he hit his tee shot out of bounds onto railway tracks.
Johnson’s playing partner, Australian Day, who shared the overnight lead, never looked comfortable on Sunday as he continued to battle the effects of the vertigo that had troubled him. He deserves great credit for doing as well as he did given the additional challenges he faced.
He countered three bogeys with two birdies on his front nine but a double-bogey six on the par-four 13th effectively ended his challenge and he finished with a four-over 74 and level-par total.
The tone had been set for the day by Rory McIlroy who led a charge with six birdies in his opening 13 holes including a truly remarkable 72-foot putt. That lifted the 2011 US Open champion to 2-under although he was unable to maintain the forward momentum. However, to finish in the top 10 was remarkable given that he only just made the cut after two rounds.
Another former Masters champion, Australian Adam Scott, had a charge of his own, sinking four birdie putts in his first 11 holes before securing additional gains on the 16th and 18th to reach the clubhouse on 3-under par. Scott’s fellow Aussie, Cameron Smith, finished tied for fourth after an eagle on the 18th, proving what was possible on a day of low-scoring.
Spieth, who stunned the golf world with a wire-to-wire victory by four shots at the Masters in April, became the youngest player to win back-to-back majors since Gene Sarazen in 1922 (US Open and PGA Championship). At the age of 21 he replaces McIlroy who was 22 when he won for the first time at this event.
More remarkably, he is only the sixth man in history (Craig Wood, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods are the others) to win the Masters and the US Open in the same year.
That makes him halfway to golf’s elusive Holy Grail; the modern Grand Slam. The next major is The Open at St Andrews on July 16-19, followed by the US PGA Championship in Wisconsin on August 13-16. Spieth will go head-to-head with the current holder of both these titles, McIlroy, not only for the right to be called the best golfer in the world, but also for a place in history.
