MOST golf championships are won with one magical shot. At times, it happens at the most unexpected places. It is something so surreal you’d think an unseen power had manufactured it.
Matt Fitzpatrick did just that, winning the US Open in its 122nd year on Monday to reprise his feat of almost a decade back—win the US Amateur in 2013.
Golf always drips with stirring drama that admirers of the game do not tire hearing the end of it, as in the sweet shocker of a first-round knockout punch in boxing, or a winning three-point basketball shot at the buzzer.
In golf, just one swing can stun us—mostly happily, at times eerily—from the teeing ground, from the fairway, from the green, from the rough, from the fairway bunker, from the sand trap guarding the green, and even from the woods or from an impossibly fried-egg situation in the sand.
Nine years ago, Fitzpatrick won the US Amateur at The Brookline Country Club in Massachusetts. He beat a brat pack that included Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas and the now world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, the just recently crowned Masters champion, who are now seriously challenging the established stars of the game.
In winning the US Open two days ago, Fitzpatrick did it with a title-clinching shot that only firm believers of witchcraft could believe it would happen.
Leading by just a shot as he stood on the 18th tee mound, Fitzpatrick ripped a 3-wood on the 444-yard 72nd hole that went way too left, landing at the center of a yawning bunker off the fairway.
With disaster looming large in the form of a cavernous sand trap guarding the front of the green, Fitzpatrick pulled out a 9-iron, and hit a cut shot from 159 yards to 18 feet past the cup for a birdie try that flew away. No worries. Will Zalatoris blew a playoff chance, missing a birdie himself from 14 feet to lose by one, and finishing second for the third time in a major.
“The bunker is the one place I didn’t want to be,” Fitzpatrick said, who became only the second player after Jack Nicklaus to win both the US Amateur and the US Open on the same venue. Nicklaus did it at Pebble Beach.
“I guess ability just took over (on that daunting bunker shot),” said Fitzpatrick, who also became the second Briton to win the US Open after Justin Rose in 2013. “It’s one of the best shots I’ve hit of all time. I can now retire a happy man.”
What? At 27 years of age, you have the world at your fingertips.
THAT’S IT The Golden State Warriors are still in utter bliss savoring their fourth NBA (National Basketball Association) title in eight seasons, adding their victories in 2015, 2017 and 2018. Although three-point king Steph Curry easily took home the Finals MVP (Most Valuable Player) trophy, Klay Thompson also shone brilliantly on his own, mainly on account of his stupendous comeback from two career-threatening injuries. Thompson’s first injury was three years ago when he tore the ACL in his left knee in Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals. He was on the way to recovery when, nearly one-and-a-half years later, he tore his right Achilles tendon. “The anguish that Klay has felt over the last three years…people can guess as to what it is like…it’s been a rough go for him.” I can imagine. Klay’s definitely a perfect study of audacity.