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Caught in the Webb: Webb Simpson Wins the 112th US Open for First Major Victory

Published

12 years ago

June 18, 2012

Nobody said it was going to be easy – Olympic Club is a challenging track, even for the world’s best.

With a 4-foot chip from the rough, Simpson parred the 18^th hole Sunday to sit at one-over heading into the clubhouse to await the group behind him. Within that group was Jim Furyk and Greame McDowell.

McDowell and Furyk entered the foggy round tied as they both parred the opening hole. While the dogfight between the two continued, Tiger Woods was slowly slipping out of contention, as he finished T21 (+7).

Tiger double-bogeyed the 3^rd hole, and Woods knew very early into his final round that the 15^th career major was not realistic. After leading through 36 holes with 69-70, Woods slowly began to drift back; missing crucial shots and finishing with a 7-over-par 287 for the tournament.

The 18^th hole was exciting, as McDowell and Furyk both hit their tee shots into the right rough of the short par 4. McDowell stepped up first and hit a solid shot leaving him with a 25 footer that if drained, would force a playoff with Simpson. Furyk pulled his second shot left, hitting the bunker left of the green. Furyk dropped down immediately with the club in his teeth in disgust, knowing full well that he needed to hole out a bunker shot to have a chance at a playoff.

After Furyk shanked his 3^rd shot across the bunker into another trap, all eyes were focused on Greame. After lining up what was probably one of the top 10 most important putts of his career, McDowell set himself in position and hit the ball just left of the cup.

At that point, Webb (from the clubhouse) was all smiles.

The past four days saw wind, fog, mist, dry concrete like greens, deep rough, trees that ate balls, and deep sand bunkers. We saw a 14 year old shoot just a few strokes worst then some of the World’s best and a 17 year old who hung in with the rest…Olympic Club was not a happy track at all.

Congratulations Webb Simpson on your first Major Victory.