Matt Fitzpatrick scored 68 on Sunday at The Country Club to beat Will Zalatoris and Scottie Scheffler by a stroke as he won his first major championship in the same place he won the US Amateur in 2013.
It was a show of strength and presence that we were not used to seeing from Fitzpatrick along with a closing kick worthy of the golf course where it was played.
When Phil Mickelson stepped into the microphone Monday morning to speak at the guerrilla LIV golf championship that helped him get started, a doll went through one of the most majestic weeks of the year. His sad shame pervaded the rest of the property and foretold a future that remained undesirable.
Like it or not – and many have voiced their positions loudly and insultingly – LIV Golf is here to stay. They are all players, players, agendas, managers, media and staff discussed this week at Brookline. It has cracked the piers where professional golf is currently located.
Greg Norman’s work on pets, however, can not (and probably will never) permeate the fortress built around the 16th day of the year during which major leagues compete.
The first round on Thursday served as a shelter, as did the 54 holes that followed.
The standings of this US Open at the weekend only exacerbated this reality. Collin Morikawa was halfway there as he tried to become the first golfer to win three major leagues in the first 11 such starts since the Masters started in 1934. He lost 77 on Saturday, but was replaced by the first three players. of the world. At one point on Sunday afternoon, Scottie Scheffler (No. 1), Jon Rahm (No. 2) and Rory McIlroy (No. 3) were among the top four in the leaderboard.
Rahm and McIlroy could not take advantage of their opportunities and McIlroy missed one of the great performances of his career after leading the field with almost 10 place wins. Scheffler remained for life trying to achieve the rare double Masters-US Open and Fitzpatrick led Zalatoris one-on-one with both seeking their first career studies and PGA Tour wins.
The next two hours, a week that covered everything except golf, gave perhaps the best golf we have seen this year. A two-shot swing at No. 11 gave Zalatori a two-shot lead over Fitzpatrick. Zalatoris, now three times second to second, snatched his ball from the cup and pierced his fist with longing, pressing like a man thinking of redeeming that defeat in the PGA Championship playoffs by Justin Thomas a month ago.
Fitzpatrick countered at No. 13 with a right hook that refuted the meekness with which he usually behaves. The tournament was once again a draw. Pars at No. 14 led to a long wait for the 15th T-shirt, as fans huddled in the narrow alley overlooking the finish line where turkeys (literally turkeys) often circled this week.
Fitzpatrick looked to the future. What was he thinking there while he was tied at the top of the US Open leaderboard with the man standing next to him? Maybe the past, when he won the Am here in 2013. Maybe the future and the four holes he had left to break the deadlock. He then explained how difficult it is to stop envisioning the trophy in his hands.
“You’re just trying to say to yourself, ‘Just stop. Just take a break. Stop thinking about it. “It’s not there yet,” Fitzpatrick said.
He was not there yet, but after that hole, it was almost up to him to keep it. Fitzpatrick sprayed the drive to the right, but somehow got up and got down between a horseshoe from 220 yards away to reach 6 down, while Zalatoris made a splash to throw two back.
“It was one of the best shots I took all day,” Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick barely opened the house and that was just enough. After an easy 3-4 streak at No. 16 and 17, he hit his No. 18 jersey at a shelter. As he walked toward him, Boston fans broke the police force behind them and surrounded their former and future champion.
Fitzpatrick then fired “one of the best shots I’ve ever taken” from this shelter, with two shots, and avoided a bird from Zalatoris that would send the tournament into a two-hole playoff. As soon as Zalatoris’s shot went through the hole, Fitzpatrick turned to Candy Billy Foster, who was already crying.
Chaos ensued, as always happens at the end of big leagues. Rory McIlroy was there to hug his Ryder Cup teammate. Fitzpatrick’s brother, Alex, who shot him in the head in 2013, cried. Fitzpatrick hugged his dad on Father’s Day. both could barely breathe.
He was emblematic of one of the great extended finishes in a major championship in the last decade. While the key players may not be winners of many important or future Ryder Cup leaders, the weekend was less about their credit and more about what the most unadulterated version of this game looks like.
It is not the home of golf, but in the United States, you may not necessarily choose a better or more original hosting site than The Country Club. It is one of the five founding clubs of the United States Golf Association, which hosted the tournament this week. Older venues often host the best golf courses.
It’s hard to explain to the uninitiated how playing for a $ 3.15 million first prize is in some ways the purest form of sport. However, being among the last nine pairs back in the big league controversy on Sunday is probably the place where money is least valued. The gloomy gray backdrop of Boston made the scene feel as raw as it seemed.
Golf has recently felt so manipulated and choreographed. This felt improvised and wild.
He felt it mattered.
It was also fitting that during a year in which players struggled to play the system to understand how they could work less and earn more, he was a player who worked harder in his game that thrived on Brookline. Fitzpatrick has transformed his body and his game. The numbers do not lie.
He finished the T16 in driving distance this week, which does not sound like much until you realize he took the T127 on the PGA Tour last year. He beat Thomas and McIlroy this week. He also punished the Fairways, which is indicative of an all-around game that is the best ever. Fitzpatrick is making a year of career in every category, except for the placement, which foretells a future in which victory could become normal.
He did not even have to rely on a player he has relied on often. He finished 42nd in the jar, while McIlroy finished first. If you had said this statistic on Monday and who won the event, you would have made a lot of money.
Fitzpatrick proudly paraded the US Open trophy across the property as he walked from interview to interview on Sunday night. His answers were mostly benign and repetitive.
One comment, however, stood out. He used it as a perfect volley back to the players who spent the first part of the week defending the business decisions they made to join LIV Golf and possibly give up the opportunity to play in future major leagues.
“Emotion is out of this world,” Fitzpatrick said, holding the US Open trophy in the same place he once held his cousin. “It’s so cliché, but it’s something you dream of as a child. Yes, to achieve that, I can retire a happy person tomorrow.”
The last fortnight has been about, as PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said in a recent letter to players, “money, money, money.” We will return to this conversation on Monday as – if you believe the rumors circulating on Brookline – some former big winners and potential future planners plan to travel and connect with their PGA Tour rival.
However, in four days – and especially for the last nine holes on Sunday – we shared an experience that not all the money in the world could buy: to claim and win a big championship.
In a world where everything can be bought and everyone can buy, the joy and absolute enjoyment of this experience is simply impossible to monetize.
Rick Gehman, Patrick McDonald and Kyle Porter summarize US Open 2022. Follow and listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
