A legendary U.S. Open modified 2 superstars’ profession trajectories

The previous 12 months had all of it — loopy successful streaks, new main champs, a major-week arrest (!) and extra. With 2025 on the horizon, our writers are trying again on the most memorable moments from 2024.

No. 15 — Charley Hull goes viral | No. 14 — LIV, LPGA CEOs say goodbye | No. 13— Solheim Cup parking fiasco | No. 12 — Phoenix Open chaos | No. 11 — Lydia Ko’s Corridor of Fame resurgence | No. 10 — PGA Tour/Saudi PIF merger stalemate | No. 9 — Keegan Bradley named Ryder Cup captain | No. 8 — Lexi Thompson stepped away | No. 7 — Xander Schauffele’s breakthrough | No. 6 — AK’s return to golf | No. 5 — Nelly Korda’s dominance | No. 4 — Bryson DeChambeau’s star flip | No. 3 — Scheffler’s mind-boggling season

Greatest golf moments of 2024 No. 2: Rory and Bryson’s U.S. Open epic

The good magic of Sunday at golf’s main championships isn’t historical past, however chance.

It’s tempting to consider the inverse is true. Historical past, in spite of everything, is what offers our main championships that means. It’s why a inexperienced jacket on the Masters resonates greater than a plaid blazer on the RBC Heritage, why a Claret Jug is extra helpful than a FedEx Cup, and why Tiger versus Jack is a reliable dialog level quite than a cockeyed theoretical. Risk, alternatively, fills the historic footnotes of each golf match because the starting of time, littering the margins of the historical past books in small fonts tucked beneath the bold-faced names of victors.

However historical past isn’t why there’s magic within the air on Sunday on the majors. Historical past is our accounting of the magic, our manner of indexing it for future reference. The magic is what comes earlier than it.

The magic is a sense of weightlessness, like a curler coaster pitching over a steep drop. It’s a cloud of static electrical energy, constructing silently however noticeably within the air like a late-summer storm. It’s one thing instinctual, gutteral, drawing from the identical primal energies that energy the cosmos. On main championship Sundays, the magic is the-moment-before-the-moment. We all know historical past is arriving quickly, however we’re nonetheless hazy on the small print of when? and how? and for whom?

That feeling of anticipation, of understanding and not-knowing, of the intermingling forces of destiny and free will? That’s magic. And on Sunday on the U.S. Open final June, it crested over Pinehurst like a tidal wave.

It’s exhausting to recollect how shut we had been to a distinct historical past. A couple of one-millionths on the X-and-Y-axes, possibly. Perhaps much less. However as Rory McIlroy stormed to the 14th tee field with the lead in hand, our since-forgotten historical past was as sure as sure could possibly be: the streak was over. Rory McIlroy was a significant champion once more.

We thought the story had unfolded for us already. 4 birdies in 5 holes on the flip of a golf course firmer than granite — the actual sort of Rory Sunday cost that had fizzled like a lit match in a pond at a dozen or extra main championship over the past decade. A one-shot lead with three to play, no surefire birdie holes. McIlroy had seized chance, now he might get away his tried-and-true playbook with old-man par and coast his manner into historical past.

The unraveling started rapidly. A roasted tee shot into the par-3 fifteenth, one membership too many, which bounced excessive and much over the inexperienced. A bogey. One other roasted tee shot on the sixteenth, a protected iron shot. A birdie putt to 2.5 toes, leaving a no-doubter for par to protect a one-shot lead. Hit the putt and win the match. McIlroy felt “discomfort.” He pulled it. Tied heading into 17. Survival from the left bunker on 17, then a too-eager chip from the mouth of the inexperienced on 18, leaving a twisting, tumbling 3.5-footer for birdie that lipped out for bogey. 4 holes, 45 minutes, three bogeys, and the course of golf historical past — all modified.

McIlroy suffered essentially the most completely devastating defeat in current golf historical past, whereas Bryson DeChambeau, who did little greater than par his final three holes, emerged because the triumphant victor.

It took months earlier than the total scope of these 45 minutes got here into clear view. McIlroy had not simply misplaced the U.S. Open, he had ceded it in a manner that rewrote the remainder of his final decade of main championship torment. Was it doable that the best golfer of his era had not misplaced however choked? And what did choking, on this second with this a lot on the road, imply for his standing among the many best ever to play the sport?

In the meantime, DeChambeau had not simply gained the U.S. Open however revolutionized golf, ushering in a brand new period of the game beneath its new best showman. DeChambeau was not only a lightning rod, he was a lightning rod on a historic trajectory, embodying a brand new era of {golfing} greats with an undeniably magnetic persona. He was not only a related participant however a nice one, with loads of time nonetheless to determine himself as an all-timer.

An inch-and-a-half on a two-foot-putt, a membership much less on a par-3, just a few revolutions fewer on the 18th inexperienced and these tales are completely different.

McIlroy and the remainder of the golf world will reckon with this chance for a while. And there’s something lovely in that reckoning. There can be no intrigue in what’s with out what might have been.

The magic is within the chance. The remaining, as they are saying, is historical past.