Matt Fitzpatrick's moment of brilliance from bunker on No 18 seals a dramatic US Open title
DELIGHT: Matt Fitzpatrick celebrates victory with his family on the 18th green at The Country Club in Brookline.
BROOKLINE, Massachusetts – Rory McIlroy couldn’t get out of his own way on Sunday, failing to bring the magic he had last week in Canada’s national Open to his bid to win a second U.S. Open. Instead, it was England's Matt Fitzpatrick who produced a moment of magic to claim his first major title and a historic double in the 122nd US Open at Brookline.
A shot behind playing partner Will Zalatoris with six holes to play, Fitzpatrick holed from 50 feet for birdie across the 13th green to draw level and briefly moved two shots clear with another on the 15th.
World number one Scottie Scheffler closed to within one with a birdie on the 17th and Zalatoris did likewise on the 16th, but the American agonisingly missed from 14 feet for another on the 18th to force a play-off.
The victory means Fitzpatrick joins 18-time major winner Jack Nicklaus as the only players to win the US Amateur and US Open on the same course, Nicklaus doing so at Pebble Beach in 1961 and 1972.
Former Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama posted a closing 65, the lowest round of the week, to claim fourth place on three under, with Rory McIlroy and Open champion Collin Morikawa sharing fifth on two under.
A final-round 69 earned McIlroy his third top-10 major finish in 2022, backing his runner-up at the Masters and eighth-place finish in the PGA Championship. But it wasn’t the breakthrough he hoped for on the back of a victory in the RBC Canadian Open and with three sub-par rounds at The Country Club.
McIlroy couldn’t muster the charge he needed to put pressure on front-runners Fitzpatrick, Zalatoris and Scheffler. He buried a 26-footer for birdie on the first, a 22-footer for another on the fourth and a 17-footer for a third on the par-3 sixth. But each time he took a step up he took a subsequent step back, with bogeys at 3, 5 and 7.
“A bit of a roller coaster on the front nine, bogeys and birdies,” McIlroy said. “Got off to a great start. … It wasn't that easy out there. Obviously, there was a few good scores, but I needed to shoot a 65 or a 66 to get the job done today, and I just wasn't quite on it enough to do that. I still feel like I played well and shot a solid round of golf, but just not quite good enough to contend.
“There was a few holes there today where I made the birdie and then did the reverse one back with the bogey at the next. To win golf tournaments, you just can't do that.” A dispiriting par after a poor layup on the par-5 eighth meant he played the three easiest holes on the front side in 2-over. By the time he bogeyed the 108-yard par-3 11th, he already seemed to be playing for nothing better than a third consecutive top-10 major finish.
Back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15 sparked a little hope he might streak his way to at least catch the clubhouse lead set by Hideki Matsuyama at 3-under, but his momentum stalled and he settled for a tie for fifth with Collin Morikawa at 2-under 278.
“Another top five in a major. I guess doesn't really mean anything,” said McIlroy, who has been standing on four major victories since 2014.
“It's not win or bust. It's not as if where I finished today is the same as not playing on the weekend. I guess when I look back, will I remember the fifth place I had at Brookline? Probably not. It's funny, I had a flashback over the putt on 15. It was to finish T4 with Hideki, and I holed a putt on the last green at Augusta in 2015 to finish fourth. For some reason I had a flashback to that, which is weird. Obviously, seven years ago.
“Yeah, there's positives to take from it. I played well enough to give myself a chance to win. I didn't get the job done, but I'm closer than I have been in a while, which is good.” The signature third hole, which snakes through fescue-shrouded puddingstone outcroppings, proved McIlroy’s undoing. The 499-yard par 4 played sixth hardest on the week in a stroke average of 4.29, but McIlroy averaged a full bogey on it making double, bogey and bogey on it the last three days.
“Sort of feel like there was a couple of holes out there this week that were my nemesis, the third being one of them,” he said.
When he walked off with another 5 there on Sunday after short-siding himself in the rough left of the green, the four strokes he’d yielded to par on that hole stood between himself and the outright lead at the moment.
His most egregious mistake came at the drivable fifth hole, which played second easiest all week. McIlroy tried to drive it again and pulled it well left and wedged it back off the front of the green. His putt from 50 feet uphill on the fairway never had a chance, misses the hole a few feet wide right and 15-feet long. He missed the par save to slip back to 1-under.
“I'll look back at this as another missed opportunity just as Southern Hills was, but missed opportunities are better than not contending at all. So that is a positive,” he said. “I have to stay patient at this point because if I just keep putting myself in position, sooner or later it's going to be my day and I'm going to get one.” McIlroy will play again this week at the Travelers Championship in his last start before the Open Championship.
“I'll get two weeks of good rest before the Open and play some links golf and prepare and look forward to that,” he said. “Again, my game's in good shape. I've got one more chance this year to try to get that major.”
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