Call him a mad scientist in a tam o'shanter cap. Call him a game-changer in golf. Any description of Bryson DeChambeau now starts with US Open champion, the AP reports. In a breathtaking performance Sunday at Winged Foot, on a course so demanding no one else broke par, DeChambeau blasted away with his driver and had short irons from the ankle-deep rough on his way to a 3-under 67. When his 7-foot par putt fell on the 18th, DeChambeau thrust those two powerful arms into the air. This was validation that his idea to add 40 pounds of mass, to produce an incredible amount of speed and power, would lead to moments like this. Two shots behind Matthew Wolff going into the final round, he passed him in five holes, pulled away to start the back nine and wound up winning by six shots.
Wolff, trying to become the first player since Francis Ouimet in 1913 to win the US Open in his debut, closed with a 75. Just under a year ago, DeChambeau closed out his 2019 season in Las Vegas and said, "I'm going to come back next year and look like a different person." He lived up to his word among skeptics who wondered if the smash factor would work at a major, especially one at Winged Foot where the keeping it in the short grass was tantamount. DeChambeau pledged to keep hitting it as far as he could, and it worked. He hit only three fairways Saturday, six Sunday, and 23 for the week. Skepticism turned into admiration, with a healthy dose of disbelief. "I don't really know what to say because that’s just the complete opposite of what you think a US Open champion does," Rory McIlroy said. "Look, he’s found a way to do it."
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