Just when Rory McIlroy thinks he’s slayed his ghosts, Bryson DeChambeau just happens to visit the scene of his greatest collapse.
After finishing four strokes behind his rival, McIlroy, at Augusta on Sunday, DeChambeau was pictured Monday at the ACC Championships in Pinehurst, North Carolina, where he famously beat the newly crowned Masters champion for the 2024 US Open title.
‘Class A run-in,’ read a caption on the post from members of the Stanford women’s golf team, which is now part of the ACC due to some twisted conference realignment.
McIlroy beat Justin Rose in a sudden-death playoff in Augusta on Sunday to complete his career grand slam, so the memory of his epic collapse at Pinehurst No. 2 is fading into the rearview mirror. The Northern Irishman suffered three late bogies, which allowed DeChambeau to come away with his second U.S. Open title, thanks in no small part to a crucial 55-yard approach on the 72nd hole of the tournament.
In fact, it was that bunker shot that brought DeChambeau back to North Carolina, where he tried to recreate the moment for local media on Monday.
‘That bunker shot was the shot of my life,’ DeChambeau said in 2024.
After finishing four strokes behind McIlroy at Augusta on Sunday, DeChambeau was pictured at the ACC Championships in Pinehurst, North Carolina alongside Stanford’s team
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy shakes hands with Bryson DeChambeau of the U.S. on the green of the 18th hole after completing their final round resulting in McIlroy needing a playoff
As reported by the Fayetteville, Observer, a plaque now sits near the bunker, where DeChambeau saved par last summer.
‘Forever in history by that bunker,’ DeChambeau said. ‘That darn bunker.’
USGA’s chief championships officer John Bodenhamer said he wouldn’t have blamed DeChambeau for skipping the event. After all, the LIV Golf star is a busy person, and one who is coming off a difficult fifth-place finish at Augusta.
But as Bodenhamer explained, DeChambeau isn’t like that.
‘A lot of players wouldn’t be here today,’ Bodenhamer said, as quoted by the Observer. ‘But I think, with his presence, it speaks volumes for the type of individual he is and the type of champion he is.’
And that doesn’t mean DeChambeau is somehow over his Masters defeat.
Rather, the 31-year-old remained emotional on Monday.
‘It’s so ironic, too, cause I just lost the Masters,’ he said. ‘But in golf and in life, you lose a lot more than you win. It’s important to celebrate the moments where you win.
‘It’s really cool being able to come back from losing the Masters – one of the biggest rounds of my life – to remembering one of the most important rounds of my life. It’s only just the beginning.’
