The last two leaders, heading onto the 18th tee, at the US Masters and US PGA carded double bogeys.
Matt Fitzpatrick is your 2022 US Open champion after one hell of a final day at The Country Club, in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Leading by one stroke, standing on the 18th tee, the English golfer strayed left into a fairway bunker. With Will Zalatoris, sitting one stroke back, nicely on the fairway, Fitzpatrick knew he could not afford to bogey.
As it turned out, his approach out of that bunker was struck so sweetly that he was left with a birdie chance from 15 feet.
Just drink this in from Matt Fitzpatrick… wow! pic.twitter.com/hwVHrcVNUR
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 19, 2022
Matt Fitzpatrick pips Will Zalatoris and Scottie Scheffler
The 27-year-old missed that birdie putt and, finishing on -6, left the door ajar for Will Zalatoris. The American, who has two second places to his name in majors already, slid his 12-footer just by the hole and that was that.
Zalatoris and Scottie Scheffler were left one adrift on -5 and Matt Fitzpatrick won the US Open on the same course where, nine years ago, he won the US Amateur Championship. On that bunker shot, Fitzpatrick paid tribute to his caddie, Billy Foster, saying:
“I’ll be brutally honest… If there was one shot I struggled with this year – and did not want – it was a fairway bunker shot. But Billy took over and it was one of the best shots I’ve hit all year.”
Celebrating the win with the family @MattFitz94 ❤️pic.twitter.com/bsV4cqHwhA
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 19, 2022
Rory McIlroy welcomes Matt Fitzpatrick to the club
“It’s incredible,” Fitzpatrick told Sky Sports. “You obviously don’t know how it’s going to feel… there was a lot of curse words in there, but just unbelievable. It’s 10 million times better than I could have imagined.”
As the Sheffield native soak in the scenes, around 18, he was met by former US Open champion Rory McIlroy and warmly congratulated on his win. McIlroy had finished tied fifth on -2 but put personal disappointment aside to welcome Fitzpatrick to the major-winners club.
As you can see, below, Fitzpatrick was clearly blown away from what was a gesture of pure class and humility by McIlroy, who declared:
“Get in there! Well done. All that hard work paid off. I’m so happy for you.”
From one #USOpen champion to another 🤜🤛 pic.twitter.com/7uuJOBvw8a
— U.S. Open (@usopengolf) June 19, 2022
Fitzpatrick was impressive over his front none and recovered from successive bogeys on 10 and 11 to birdie 13 and 15 before coming home with clutch pars.
Elsewhere, Hideki Matsuyama [-3] was standalone fourth while McIlroy shared fifth with Collin Morikawa. Séamus Power [+1] finished in a tie for 12th place.
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