PINEHURST, N.C. — Bryson DeChambeau, this skilled conductor who owned every inch of golf’s grandest stage, pumped his fists and played to the crowd again. He had turned in a virtuoso performance that came down to the final notes Sunday, a U.S. Open classic in most every way, with a masterful champion — an artist disguised as a brute — hoisting the trophy at the end.
DeChambeau outdueled Rory McIlroy in a battle of heavyweights that wasn’t decided until the final hole. McIlroy began the day three shots behind but led by as many as two Sunday. The pair traded blows, and DeChambeau managed an adventurous par on the 18th hole to seal his win. A final-round 71 put him at 6-under-par 274 for the tournament, besting 155 other golfers as well as a punishing course that rewards few and crowns fewer.
“I wanted to get this one done, especially at a special place that means so much to me,” he said.
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McIlroy posted bogeys on three of his final four holes, none more catastrophic than the one on the 18th green — he missed from 3 feet 9 inches — that dropped him to 5 under. DeChambeau, meanwhile, hit an errant drive on No. 18 but soon followed his worst tee shot of the tournament with what he called the best shot of his life. After his second shot found the sand, he blasted out of the bunker from 54 yards to within four feet.
He stood over the par putt and never had a doubt.
“That’s Payne right there, baby,” an excited DeChambeau said shortly afterward, referring to the late Payne Stewart, a fellow SMU alum who captured the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst with similar heroics.
As momentous as it was for the 30-year-old, the exciting finale was crushing for McIlroy, who was seeking his first major title since 2014. As DeChambeau accepted the trophy on the 18th green, McIlroy was already in the parking lot, leaving the course and declining to discuss his round with broadcaster NBC or the reporters on hand.
The win was DeChambeau’s second U.S. Open title, and while it might not have perfectly matched the theatrics of Stewart’s battle with Phil Mickelson in 1999, there was no shortage of fireworks and suspense. DeChambeau fended off one of the game’s great champions on one of the trickiest courses on the planet, scaling the bulging domed greens day after day. He hit mammoth drives and impossible iron shots. He was one of the top putters and successfully scrambled where others succumbed.
This tournament will be remembered for the back-nine battle between two of the game’s biggest stars: McIlroy, the beloved champion eager to return to the top of the ladder, vs. DeChambeau, golf’s muscle-bound mad scientist who absconded from the PGA Tour two years ago to play for LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed rival circuit.
The duel effectively started before either teed off. At one point, McIlroy and DeChambeau were alone on the range. DeChambeau was surrounded by high-tech equipment and no fewer than six members of his team. Two cameras were trained on every swing, which required constant study and discussion. At one point, he measured the face of his driver, didn’t like what he saw and swapped out clubheads less than 20 minutes before his tee time — a move entirely unheard-of.
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McIlroy, meanwhile, stood alone with his caddie and a bag of balls, pulling them out one at a time. He took mighty cuts, sometimes not even waiting for the ball to land before reaching for the next.
But McIlroy sent an early warning of what the afternoon had in store: DeChambeau was on the tee box when the crowd around the first green roared, celebrating McIlroy’s first birdie of the day.
DeChambeau, the 2020 U.S. Open champion, had posted three straight rounds below par and carried a three-stroke lead into the final day. But his bogey on No. 4 opened the door for McIlroy, and on the ninth, McIlroy buried a 15-foot putt for a birdie.
Suddenly, just one stroke separated two of the biggest stars in the game, setting the stage for a back-nine brawl. The U.S. Open started with 156 golfers, but at this point only two mattered.
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Even those who began the day within sniffing distance of DeChambeau had faded. Patrick Cantlay, tied for second after 54 holes, kept threatening but finished with a final-round 70. That left him at 4 under, two shots back and tied with Tony Finau for third. And Matthieu Pavon, who also started at 4 under, posted a final-round 71 to finish three shots back in fifth.
So the spotlight was focused on just two — both bombers, both fan favorites, both past champions. Certainly, McIlroy understood the pressure and the stakes. He won his first major at 22 at Congressional. He reeled off three more major wins over the next three years but then spent the past decade discussing his perennial letdowns, which included second-place finishes at the 2018 British Open, the 2022 Masters and last year’s U.S. Open. Attempting to snap the skid, he tried to refocus this year, putting on blinders and approaching each major like a business trip.
But it’s hard to account for foes such as DeChambeau, who was a crowd favorite all week, high-fiving fans and playing to a boisterous gallery. On No. 10, McIlroy sank a 26-footer for a second straight birdie, taking a share of the lead, and the giants traded blows down the stretch.
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While the tricky greens and tough conditions laid waste to golf royalty — Scottie Scheffler, the world’s top-ranked player, finished 8 over and in a tie for 41st — DeChambeau treated it like a playground. He played the final round, he said, thinking about Stewart, whom he honored with a flat cap on his bag and a pin on the back of his hat, and his father, Jon, who died in 2022.
The crowd certainly enjoyed the show. With the two playing one group apart, its roars felt like call and response, ensuring neither McIlroy nor DeChambeau needed to see the leader board to know the scores. “I knew what he did based on the roars,” DeChambeau said. “That was actually kind of fun because it gave me the knowledge of what I had to do.”
All of North Carolina might have heard the thunder when McIlroy sank another long birdie putt on No. 12, this one from 22 feet. Then, just moments after DeChambeau posted a bogey on the 12th, McIlroy drained his fifth birdie of the day at No. 13, giving him a two-stroke lead and prompting chants of “Ror-y! Ror-y!” to echo across the course.
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“I turned the corner and saw I was a couple back and said, ‘No, I’m not going to let that happen,’” DeChambeau said.
A DeChambeau birdie on No. 13 followed by a McIlroy bogey on No. 15 meant the two were tied at 7 under. DeChambeau missed a three-foot par putt on No. 15 to drop back down. It was his only three-putt hole of the tournament.
McIlroy then watched his 3½-footer on No. 16 lip out, a second straight bogey that again tied the tournament at 6 under, setting the stage for the 18th-hole drama.
Following his bogey, McIlroy retired to the clubhouse, where he watched DeChambeau’s final notes on television: The beefy Texan stepped into the bunker, onto the green and into history.
“I had an amazing up and down on the last,” DeChambeau said. “I don’t know what else to say. It’s a dream come true.”
When his performance was over, DeChambeau turned back toward the 18th fairway, where he had skirted disaster. He took the trophy and walked back toward the cheering fans, encouraging them to touch a bit of history, just in case witnessing it hadn’t been enough.
