Pinehurst, NC – Bryson DeChambeau signed for a 1-over round of 71 to claim a thrilling one-shot victory over Rory McIlroy at the 2024 U.S. Open.

DeChambeau’s final day at Pinehurst featured just two birdies against three bogeys en route to a 6-under par total, good enough to secure his second major win and second Jack Nicklaus gold medal.

The 30-year-old SMU product entered Sunday’s finale holding a three-stroke advantage but after a wild day off the tee (just 5 of 14 fairways hit), DeChambeau found himself down two strokes to McIlroy as he stood on the No. 13 tee. A bounce-back birdie, though, cut the deficit to one and after both players bogeyed the par-3 15th, McIlroy held a one-shot lead with three holes to play.

Everything changed, though, when McIlroy missed a 3-foot putt for par on the 16th hole. All of a sudden, the 124th U.S. Open was deadlocked at -6.

The excitement level was off the charts. The world’s two most popular and polarizing players vying for a U.S. Open title on the historic track of Pinehurst No. 2 were all tied up with two to go.

After both players made pars on 17, it was on to 18.

McIlroy, playing in a group ahead of DeChambeau, hit his tee ball into the native area on the left and then kind of chunked it out. His third, a chip shot, looked good on TV as it landed about 4 feet from the hole. But it resulted in a nasty little downhill 4-footer that broke right.

And McIlroy shockingly (again) missed the putt, resulting in a third bogey over his final four holes. He was now in the clubhouse at 5 under, one shot off the lead.

DeChamebau, meanwhile, also missed another fairway leading to a second shot that landed in the famous sand bunker, guarding the front of the 18 green.

To understand the daunting task that DeChambeau faced: five minutes earlier, after McIlroy flubbed his second shot on 18, NBC’s Smiley Kaufmann said, “Luckily Rory missed that bunker or he’d be looking at an easy 5.” And as DeChambeau walked into the bunker a Tweet came across the U.S. Open feed: “No player has produced an up and down for par from this bunker all week.” Gulp.

Then NBC’s Brandel Chamblee noted, “Ask any tour pro what the hardest shot in golf is and they’ll all say it’s the 40-50 foot bunker shot.”

Bottomline: the degree of difficulty for the 55-yard bunker shot on the historic finishing hole was a 10 of 10.

Naturally, DeChambeau executed the shot flawlessly, landing his ball about 4 feet below the hole.

After he holed the putt, DeChambeau let out a Tigeresque body-shaking roar. The grandstands, surrounding the 18th green, followed suit and erupted into a frenzy.

McIlroy, who was watching from the scoring area, immediately put his head down, turned around and headed for the exits.

With a 1-over-par 71, and a 6-under 274 total, Bryson DeChambeau was the 2024 U.S. Open champion.

“I’m so happy I got that shot up-and-down on 18,” said DeChambeau during his press conference. “Oh, man, I didn’t want to finish second again. PGA really stung. Xander [Schauffele] played magnificent.

“I wanted to get this one done, especially at such a special place that means so much to me, SMU, my [late] dad (Jon who died in 2022), what Payne meant to him, 1000th USGA championship. Stack them on top.

“That bunker shot was the shot of my life. I’ll forever be thankful that I’ve got longer wedges so I can hit it farther, get it up there next to the hole.”

DeChambeau becomes the 23rd golfer in history, and first since Brooks Koepka in 2018, to have won multiple U.S. Open titles, joining legends such as Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods. He also becomes just the fourth golfer in history to have won the U.S. Amateur title (2015) and multiple U.S. Opens (2020 and 2024). The other three? Jones, Nicklaus and Woods.

Tony Finau posted the day’s low round with a 3-under 67, earning him a career-best T3 alongside Patrick Cantlay (70) on 4-under 276. Dechambeau’s playing partner, Matthieu Pavon shot 71, good for solo fifth on 3 under.

Hideki Matsuyama, the 2021 Masters champion, finished solo sixth on 2 under after a final-round 70. Russell Henley (67) and reigning PGA champion Xander Schauffele (68) tied for seventh on 1-under 279.

As for McIlroy, this one will go down as a career-defining gut punch. Leading by one shot with four holes to play, he finished bogey-par-bogey-bogey, with two of the dropped shots coming by the way of a pair of missed three-footers. Before those two missed putts, McIlroy had been 50 for 50 on putts inside 5 feet for the week. And through the first 13 holes on Sunday, he’d made four birdie putts of 15 feet or more, including a 27-footer on the par-5 10th. His putting seemed on point and the stars seemed aligned for the Northern Irishman to end his 10-year winless drought at the majors.

Until it all fell apart on the final four holes. That winless drought now covers 37 major championships.

“Yeah, Rory is one of the best to ever play,” said DeChambeau. “Being able to fight against a great like that is pretty special.

“For him to miss that putt, I’d never wish it on anybody. It just happened to play out that way.

“He’ll win multiple more major championships. There’s no doubt. I think that fire in him is going to continue to grow. I have nothing but respect for how he plays the game of golf because, to be honest, when he was climbing up the leaderboard, he was two ahead, I was like, Uh-oh, uh-oh. But luckily things went my way today.”