Wow, the 2024 US Open.
That was the most dramatic and exhilarating major I can remember for a long time.
I wanted to take a few days before writing about this one, and I’m not going to do the usual review format, because anyone who’s a golf fan is surely well aware of what happened. Instead I wanted to try to write about how this one made me feel.
Because watching sport is supposed to make you feel something, but it often doesn’t. A lot of the time, the events we get all hyped up about are actually a bit mediocre (this year’s Masters, for instance). I guess by definition we can’t hit these heights too often, so there’s a real rarity value when it happens.
So how did the 2024 US Open make me feel?
In as much as I’m a fan of any golfer, I’m a Rory fan. I’m always willing him to win, especially in the majors.
That could be because he’s from the UK. It could be because I believe him to be a genuine person who tries to do the right thing. It could be because he’s so obviously talented and plays a slightly wild, but thrilling brand of golf. It could even be partly because I met him once at an EA Sports media event in 2010 and he just seemed like a nice lad.
But I think a big part of it is that Rory does make you feel something when he’s playing. He shows how he’s feeling: not quite in a Seve or a Phil way, but you do get the sense that you’re on this ride with him, in a way that doesn’t happen with Scheffler or Xander or Cantlay or 95% of the other players.
On the edge
There’s always a sense of vulnerability with Rory. A knowledge that some form of disaster is never far away. I don’t think this was the case in his early years, but since his 2011 Masters meltdown nothing has ever felt totally secure (despite him going on the win the US Open by a mile two months later…).
Golf is like that, of course, especially at a place like Pinehurst. The margins are tiny, and the penalty for being in not quite the right place can be extremely high.
When the putts were dropping and Rory went two shots up on Sunday, it did for a moment feel like everything was coming together for him. Putts not quite dropping have been his downfall in several major near-misses, and I did this unfortunate Tweet after he nailed one on the 13th…(maybe this is what doomed him?).
But even in that moment, it didn’t feel very secure. Rory seemed to feel that, too, because he seemed to really tighten up for those last few holes and made some tactical mistakes along with the missed short putts.
Bryson
Bryson wasn’t playing especially well on the day. If he’d been playing on my local course he would have lost about six balls on the front nine, but there was always a sense that there would be twists and turns before this thing was done.
Bryson’s another player that makes you feel something when you watch him play. I’m not quite sure what I think of him. According to many insiders he is (or certainly has been) a bit of an idiot over the years, and he’s done and said some pretty silly things in regards to the LIV / PGA Tour situation.
But he seems to have changed a bit, and he’s definitely interesting. He definitely had the “USA…USA..” crowd in his corner on Sunday. Did that knock Rory off his stride a little?
My view on Bryson is that his persona is roughly 65% really him and 35% a bit of act, or at least an exaggeration of who he really is, designed to create maximum noise and attention.
Does that matter? Probably not. What’s undeniable is that Bryson is an incredibly impressive player and he ultimately deserved the win.
He’s also good for golf in general. If his character and social media profile brings a younger audience to golf, then I’m all for it. This game really lacks proper characters and the occasional villain (most of them went to LIV and semi-retired).
Genuine drama
So, two players who make you feel something when you watch them (plus Cantlay hanging around…) on a beast of a course. The perfect recipe for those final few holes to be among the most gripping sport I’ve ever watched.
When Rory two-footer on the 16th lipped out, I actually gasped, even though I was watching by myself at home. The crowd reaction tells us just how shockingly unexpected it was.
Anyway, it set the stage for a gut-wrenchingly tense finish, which Bryson just managed to finish on the right side of.
After his miss on 16, it seemed almost inevitable that Rory would miss again on 18, but this was a far trickier putt to make, as John Rahm explains here (the real error was hitting driver off the tee and missing the fairway).
Still, with Bryson in some trouble, it seemed like a play-off was them most likely outcome, but the golfing gods had decreed that Bryson would take this one. His bunker shot on 18 apparently had a 1.7% likelihood of getting within four feet. But he did it.
Rory broken, Bryson elated
This is what sport is all about. Not the money, not the points or the “has he qualified for the next major?”, but the sheer glory of winning and the pain of losing.
For us fans, it makes us feel like we’ve been part of the story. And the thing that makes golf special, I think, is that we all know what it’s like to miss that two footer, or not quite be up to it when the pressure is on (albeit not for quite the same stakes).
Rory will be back. I think he’s determined enough and mentally strong enough to put this behind him pretty quickly, and he’s clearly been playing really good golf.
Onwards to Troon…
Dave McLean