The Punter's US Open De-brief: Brilliant Bryson holds his nerve at Pinehurst

• Poor putting costs odds-on Rory dearly

• Pinehurst delivers produces another fabulous finish

• Read my Travelers Championship preview here

Having been matched at as low as 1.715/7 during Saturday's third round, pre-event 25.024/1 shot, Bryson DeChambeau, began the fourth and final round of the 124^th US Open leading by three strokes and trading at 1.910/11.

The 2020 winner started nicely enough with three pars but the 2011 winner, Rory McIlroy, started his round in perfect style with a lengthy birdie at the first and it wasn't long before it developed into a duel between the two.

Patrick Cantlay got to within two strokes of the lead with a tap in birdie at the seventh and after Rory had holed from 27 feet for birdie at the par five 10^th to draw alongside DeChambeau, Cantlay followed him in with his own birdie four from 22 feet to get to within one of the two leaders and the pre-event 90.089/1 shot, hit a low of 3.814/5.

With a gap of three back to the remainder, it looked like a three-man tussle would ensue on the back-nine but after a lacklustre one-over-par front nine, DeChambeau hit the front again when he too birdied the 10^th and Cantlay fell three back when he bogeyed the par four 12^th.

Having birdied nine and ten, Rory hit a low of just 1.222/9 when he moved two clear of DeChambeau with back-to-back birdies at 12 and 13 and it looked like his ten-year wait for major number five may finally be coming to an end.

In the heat of battle, on an exacting and tough course, Rory had somehow recorded four birdies in five holes, holing putts from 14, 27, 22 and five feet. Surely his time had come.

To his credit, DeChambeau didn't back down and after a bogey five at the tough 12^th, he stepped up on the short par four 13^th tee and hit an incredible 325-yard drive to within 30 feet of the pin.

He left the eagle putt short but tapped in for a birdie three and the gap was back down to one.

With the title within his grasp, Rory looked in complete control but with the adrenaline coursing, he blasted a seven iron through the par three 14^th green, which led to a bogey four, and everything changed at the par four 16^th.

Bryson also bogeyed the 15^th when he three-putted from 25 feet so Rory led by a stroke when he found the tough 16^th green in regulation but minutes after DeChambeau had got lucky with his drive on the 16^th, running through the wiregrass to find the fairway, Rory inexplicably missed his par putt from just two feet six inches!

Up until that miss, Rory had made 495 consecutive putts inside three feet on the PGA Tour this season and it understandably rattled the pre-event 14.013/1 chance to the core.

To his credit, he made a brilliant up-and-down from the greenside bunker at the par three 17^th and we looked highly likely to be heading for a playoff.

Rory missed the fairway off the tee on 18 and he finished short of the green with his approach but he appeared to have done enough to secure his par four when he chipped up to within four feet.

Having matched Rory's par three at 17, DeChambeau had driven into a poor spot left of the fairway on 18 and Rory went odds-on again but then this happened...

A bogey on the 72nd hole for Rory McIlroy. pic.twitter.com/SGSelJlVZ0

-- PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 16, 2024

It was yet another bizarre short miss from Rory, but all was not lost. The best Bryson could do with his second shot was find the bunker in front of the 18^th green and from 55 yards away, a par four for the win was far from a formality and a playoff was still a possibility.

Rory needed help from DeChambeau, but the 30-year-old American wasn't about to play ball. He hit a brilliant bunker shot to four feet and rolled in the putt for par and the win.

It was heartbreaking for Rory and it's going to take him some time to get over what can only be described as a major choke, but the winner still deserves plenty of credit.

DeChambeau didn't have his A game off the tee on Sunday, but he hung in all day brilliantly and it was impossible not to appreciate what a tremendous performance it was.

In-play the way to go

Pinehurst is a magnificent venue and it's great to hear we're going to be going back there in just five years' time.

The USGA kept it playable by watering the course this year, but we still finished the week with only eight players under-par and the top-five were all inside the top-five and ties after round one.

It's very easy to get too eager before the off at the majors and to place a plethora of bets before the get-go but waiting for the in-play is most definitely the way to play this major if you want to make a profit.

With it's wiregrass and waste areas instead of thick rough, Pinehurst differs to most US Open venues, but they all play the same.

They get harder as the week wares on and making up ground on the early pacesetters is nigh on impossible so concentrating on the leaders from early on makes sense.

Playing in his first US Open, Sweden's Ludvig Aberg, who sat alone in third after round one, had led at halfway, but having been matched at a low of 3.3512/5, he finished tied for 12^th after a pair of 73s over the weekend. And Thomas Detry fell from tied second to tied 14^th over the weekend too but the leaderboard changed very little throughout the week and concentrating on the leaders is the way to go.

Read my Travelers Championship preview here

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