Change Pebble Beach to a par-69 because that's how it actually plays. Open itself this week is for the USGA to simply change par. The most compelling idea I've seen about the U.S. But the last five years have been a fascinating plight for those of us who watch and cover him to the point that we've now arrived where we don't believe he'll get it done at major championships even if we maybe should. Rory doesn't have to lift another finger for the rest of his career, and he'll still be an all-time great. The part that's probably worse for him than not really contending is that, when contrasted with Koepka, I'm not sure anybody truly thought he would. Rory misses again: After fighting so hard for the first two days, Rory McIlroy played the weekend in even-par 142. Here are nine other takeaways from this U.S. You're not worthy until you show you are, and Woodland did that in every way you possibly could on a dreary but monumental week here at Pebble Beach. Open champs to win at Pebble Beach, his play on the weekend at this place proved him worthy. And while his resume and his career never suggested that he could join Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Woods as U.S. But it doesn't matter because Gary Woodland believed in himself.
It was a final emphatic statement in a weekend full of them.Ī general public clamoring for Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods or Jordan Spieth might not believe in Gary Woodland or consider him a worthy champion for Pebble Beach. Even then, though, he stayed present and beat back the champ, burying him once and for all with a thunderous bird. Open, he smartly hit iron, iron, wedge to 30 feet. He had slack in the rope and a two-shot lead. I never thought about what would happen if I won, what comes with it. "I think, from a mental standpoint, I was as good as I've ever been," said Woodland. He clipped a ball he had to clip perfectly and made a par that broke Brooks' back.
He could have cracked when he had to chip from on the green on the 17th because there was no clear pathway to the cup. Woodland could have cracked on the obvious three-shot 14th hole on Sunday, but he went for it - literally and figuratively - from 263 yards away and made birdie. I was proud of myself to stay in my moment and control myself and not get too worried about what he was doing."
I told him when I got done he needs to slow down a little bit. "And obviously what he's done the last couple of years is phenomenal. He lives for this moment," said Woodland. Once he got to 10 under on the fourth hole on Saturday, he never dipped below the number that would have at least gotten him to a playoff on Sunday evening.
And he could have cracked on the weekend because the weekend is when you're supposed to crack at a U.S. He could have cracked after sleeping on a 65 on Friday to assume the lead. He could have cracked after a poor ball-striking Round 1. Woodland had every opportunity to crack and to fade away at this tournament, yet he never took any of them. In the end, it was Rose who fired a 74 on Sunday at Pebble Beach and Woodland who stood up to the coiled-up biceps of Brooks Koepka and stared him into the horizon en route to his first major championship. Justin Rose and Gary Woodland both played in the final pairing on Saturday and Sunday, and it seemed impossible that both of them would stay above the other 154 golfers in the field for 36 straight holes. The only question is which one or both will fall. A conversation on repeat in the media center and throughout the towns of Carmel-by-the-Sea and Monterey at this 119th United States Open went something like this: The top of the leaderboard will crack we are sure of that.