Louisville (United States) (AFP) – Bryson DeChambeau was still coping with losing the PGA Championship when he began looking forward to using the heartbreaking defeat as inspiration for next month’s US Open.
DeChambeau fired a bogey-free seven-under par 64 in Sunday’s final round at Valhalla but Xander Schauffele’s six-foot birdie putt on the final hole gave him a one-stroke victory for his first major title.
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Schauffele’s 21-under performance broke the old 72-hole record low under-par winning score.
“Proud of myself for the way I handled adversity. Definitely disappointing, but one that gives me a lot of momentum for the rest of the majors,” DeChambeau said. “It will be closing time, hopefully, over the next couple majors. I’ve got to learn from this and learn a lot.”
DeChambeau, the top finisher among 16 LIV Golf players in the field, birdied two of the last three holes to keep the pressure on his American compatriot and hopes to add clutch putting to his trademark long drives.
“The resilience that I had out there was awesome,” DeChambeau said. “I putted well this week. I figured some good stuff out. Just got to remember those things and use that for the US Open. I’m excited for Pinehurst.”
DeChambeau matched the old sub-par major mark at 20-under by using his putter to take full advantage of rain-softened Valhalla greens.
“I shocked myself a couple times. Putted fantastic,” DeChambeau said. “I don’t feel like I missed one big-moment putt out there. Every time I needed to get up-and-down I got up-and-down. Definitely surprised myself, impressed myself and I know I can do it again. It’s just going to take some time. Got to figure some stuff out.”
That includes getting his tee shots back to their most formidable level.
“Didn’t strike it my best all week,” he said. “Felt like I had my ‘B’ game pretty much. My putting was A-plus, my wedging was A-plus, short game was A-plus, driving was like B.”
At 16, DeChambeau hit his tee shot into right-side tress and the ball bounced back into the fairway, where he hit it within reach of a tap-in birdie to match Schauffele for the lead.
“I said thank you to the tree,” said DeChambeau. “I just wasn’t driving it my absolute best this week and was uncomfortable on the tee shot and I pulled it left, and I got super lucky. I go, OK, this is what it takes to win major championships. You got to have breaks like that happen. I fully took advantage of that second shot, put it in there close, hit a great shot.”
The 2020 US Open winner also felt like he caught a break at the par-5 18th when his 10-foot birdie putt that tied him for the lead barely creeped in the hole.
“I left it short again like a you-know-what, like an idiot,” DeChambeau said. “Luckily it got there and it was some nice elation to finish off a round like that in a major championship. Pretty proud of myself. I seriously thought 18 was going to do it. Then when I saw what Xander was doing, it’s like, man, he’s playing some unbelievable golf.”
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