SAN DIEGO – There are very few lists of outstanding accomplishments in golf that do not include either Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson or Tiger Woods. The list of golfers who have won back-to-back U.S. Opens is one of them.
Willie Anderson was the first of seven golfers to do it, winning three in a row from 1903 to 1905 before Bobby Jones won in 1929 and 1930. Ben Hogan won two in a row in 1950 and 1951. The last man to win two in a row is Brooks Koepka, who won at Erin Hills in 2017 and Shinnecock Hills the following year.
Bryson DeChambeau won the U.S. Open last year at Winged Foot and wants to be the eighth name on that list. After shooting a 2-under 69 Friday at Torrey Pines, he is even par for the tournament and five shots behind England’s Richard Bland. Heading into the weekend, he’s still got a shot.
Walking off the course Thursday night, the 27-year-old may not have felt that way. He was frustrated and headed to the range to hit some balls. In the dark. He wound up staying in the practice area until after 9 p.m.
“I couldn’t see very well, and it obviously being very dark, they shut the lights off, which is fine,” he said. “I’ve hit golf balls in the dark plenty of times.”
While he did not find the swing feel he was seeking, DeChambeau said that it came to him in the middle of the night.
“I found something this morning,” he said. “I was sleeping, and it came to me in the middle of the night. I woke up and I was like, ‘Hmm, I’m going to try this,’ and I went out, and my intuition is pretty good, so I went out and tried it and it worked, just keeping the right wrist bent for a lot longer through impact.”
That thought needed a few holes to kick in because Friday morning, DeChambeau’s round began with bogeys on the 10th (his first of the day) and the 12th holes. That raised his overall score to 4 over.
However, a 16-footer for birdie on the par-5 13th began a solid run.
On 16, his tee shot on the 223-yard par 3 landed about 30 feet short of the hole but bounced and trundled to within 3 feet before stopping and setting up a kick-in birdie. On 18, a 571-yard par 5, DeChambeau hit a 339-yard tee shot before leaving his approach shot 25 feet below the hole. After making the eagle putt, he was suddenly 2 under for the day and back to even par for the tournament.
A birdie at the first hole got the building crowd going, but he wasted a scoring chance on the second hole, hit a poor tee shot on the par-3 third that led to a bogey and then missed makeable birdie putts on the fourth, fifth and sixth holes.
“I feel like I got my C, C-plus game with my irons, and my driving is like B, putting is A,” DeChambeau said Friday. “I’m putting really well, but I feel like if I can clean up my iron play and get a little more comfortable with the irons and the drivers, I’ll have a good chance for this weekend.”
