Gary Woodland chose the perfect stage and time to break a jinx of never having converted a 54-hole lead into a title. He chose Pebble Beach and the US Open to do that after never having done so on seven previous occasions when he teed off on Sunday with the lead. It seemed perfect. In the process, Woodland held off the hottest golfer on the planet, Brooks Koepka, who came tantalisingly close to a third US Open in succession, a feat achieved only once before in over a hundred years.

Both Woodland, 35, and Koepka 29, have the same instructor Pete Cowen from Yorkshireman, who left for England a day before Woodland was crowned. So, Cowen’s wards have reached the summit at the last three US Opens. Also, Woodland’s two previous Top-10s in Majors — both at the PGA Championships won by Koepka — also came after joining hands with Cowen.

Darren Clarke (The Open, 2011), Henrik Stenson (The Open, 2016) and Danny Willett (Masters, 2016) have all come from the Cowen stable.

Cowen sees Woodland as a ‘nice’ guy and he wants him to be ruthless as Koepka is. Watch this space from here, now that Woodland knows what it means.

This year, a video of his one-hole journey with a young Special Olympian Amy Bockersette at the iconic Par-16th at the Waste Management went viral with almost 20 million people appreciating the gesture. Woodland helped Amy make an up-and-down par, which became the highlight of her golfing exploits and through Sunday she kept willing Woodland to make those spectacular putts, many of them for par, as he rode on a three-shot win for his maiden Major.

Impressive feat

Within minutes of Woodland installing himself as the US Open champion, there were mentions of his record of going one shot deeper than Tiger Wood’s famous 12-under total in 2000, when he won by 15 shots. But Woodland’s four rounds in 60s, while not being as dominant as a 15-shot win, was no less impressive. He went through a 34-hole bogey free stretch at one stage and on the final day, his pars were more impressive than many of his birdies.

The pick of all shots was the second shot on the 14th, from almost 265 yards. On a hole where most were laying up, Woodland was all aggression at a time, when a player looking for his maiden Major may have been more conservative. He had just a one-stroke lead on Koepka and Rose was still in the chase. The ball cleared the front greenside bunker and stopped in the rough just left of the green. From there, he executed a perfect pitch stopping three-and-a-half feet from the flagstick. He converted that and his lead doubled to two. Koepka never came close than that.

The pick of the par saves was on the 17th, when he pitched so perfectly from 91 yards that he was inside three feet and of course, he holed it.

The stamp of a champion was complete with the 30-footer for the final birdie flourish on the 72nd. It was impressive, probably more than 16 before it over the previous 71 holes, simply because of the Trophy it brought with it. Seventeen birdies against four bogeys was how the log book read.

Woodland candidly admitted that as a child he never stood over a putt imagining it was a win, let alone the National Open or a Masters. However, while trying to block dunk, Woodland had his trachea crushed by an opponent’s knee and had to be carried off, but three nights later he was back scoring 20-plus and becoming the ‘Player of the Week’.

Koepka gave it all he had but had to make way. He wanted a ‘W’ just as it was in 2017 and 2018. But W-W-2 does not look bad either. In his last nine Major starts, Koepka is now W-6-13-1-39-1-2-1-2. He missed the Masters in 2018. So, it is four wins, two seconds and one more Top-10 in nine starts.

“I kept telling myself that records are meant to be broken,” said Woodland. “I’m more nervous right now than I was playing today. I didn’t let myself get ahead at all today. Didn’t ever let myself think the tournament was over.”

‘I’m happy for him’

“I played great,” said Koepka, who was hoping to join Willie Anderson (1903-05) as the only players to win three consecutive Opens. “Nothing I could do. Gary played a great four days. That’s what you’ve got to do if you want to win a US Open, win a major championship and hats off to him. Cool way to go out on 18, to make that bomb. He deserves it.”

Tiger Woods was four-over for first six holes and then he birdied half of the remaining 12 holes to finish at two-under 69 and Tied-21st at two-under 272. Phil Mickelson, who has not been able to go beyond his six runner-up finishes at US Open, celebrated his 49th birthday as he carded 72 and finished at 288 and Tied-52.

Justin Rose, the 2013 US Open winner, expected to be the main challenger to Woodland, faded after an opening birdie and ended with a 74 to be Tied-third alongside Xander Schauffele (67), Jon Rahm (68) and Chez Reavie (71). Rahm collected his fourth top-10 in major championships since the start of the 2017-18 season.

Major champions Adam Scott and Louis Oosthuizen tied for seventh (278), as Henrik Stenson, Chesson Hadley and Rory McIlroy tied for ninth at five-under.