The 27-year-old English golfer won by a single stroke, holding off top players Will Zalatoris and Scottie Scheffler to finish 6-under par in Sunday’s final round of the tournament held in Brookline, Mass.
There, in a fairway bunker everyone tells everyone to avoid, stood Matt Fitzpatrick, a golf savant and stat freak and fastidious note-taker and Englishman from steely Sheffield.
A U.S. Amateur champion in 2013. The U.S. Open champion Sunday.
In a three-way battle at Brookline that came down to the wire, Fitzpatrick seized control with a great break and an even better shot on the 15th hole for a two-shot swing. He was just as clutch from a fairway bunker on the 18th that set up par for a two-under-par 68.
Victory was not secure until Will Zalatoris, who showed amazing fight after every mistake, dropped to his knees when his 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th just slid by the left side of the cup. Zalatoris, who closed with a 69, was a runner-up in the second straight major.
Masters champion Scottie Scheffler never recovered from back-to-back bogeys to start the back nine that cost him the lead. He had a 25-foot birdie chance on the 18th that just missed and left him one behind with a 67.
Fitzpatrick and Zalatoris were tied going to the 15th hole when the Englishman hit his tee shot so far right that it went into the gallery and found a decent lie on grass that was dead and trampled. Zalatoris missed by only a few yards and was buried in deep grass.
He hit a five-iron from 220 yards to 18 feet below the hole. Zalatoris went into the front bunker, blasted out to within 25 feet and made bogey. Fitzpatrick took a two-shot lead when his birdie putt went into the cup with such perfect pace it didn’t even touch the pin he leaves in the cup.
Zalatoris again bounced back, taking on a tough pin at the par-three 16th to within seven feet for birdie to cut the lead to one shot. Both missed 12-foot birdie chances on the 17th, and then Fitzpatrick missed a fairway at the wrong time, pulling it left into a bunker with a steep patch of rough right in front of him.
It looked like a playoff was eminent — the previous three U.S. Opens at Brookline were all decided by a playoff — and then Fitzpatrick fearlessly hit a fade with a nine-iron that carried the gaping bunker in front of the green and settled 18 feet away.
He narrowly missed and could only watch as Zalatoris missed his last chance.
The tournament took place amid a moment of turmoil in the normally genteel sport. The debut of the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Golf series this month has sowed division in men’s professional golf.
LIV Golf, funded by the Saudi Arabia government, has lured top players with huge cash-prize incentives and guaranteed payouts. In response, the PGA Tour suspended 17 players who chose to compete in the new series.
The Saudi-backed LIV Golf tees off, and the PGA Tour quickly suspends 17 players
Despite the tensions hovering over the sport, players on both sides of the divide came together for the Open, which is run by the U.S. Golf Association.
USGA CEO Mike Whan said last week that he could see the possibility that would make it harder for LIV players to compete in future U.S. Opens.
In the end on the 18th, it took a good break, a signature shot and some guts at the end.
We look forward to seeing how Matt shapes up at St Andrews in a few weeks time.
My Goat Sports 