The U.S. Open at The Olympic Club was meant to be a grueling course, to the point where a lot of people expected that it would take only an even par game to win it all. That prediction ended up being too kind, with the eventual winner Webb Simpson finishing with a +1 after an exciting Sunday.
It started off with a lot of expectations for guys who weren't Webb Simpson, though. A 'superstar' trio of players matched together on the first day of the tournament -- Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson -- was supposed to provide the biggest match-up of the Open. Unfortunately for those three, it never worked out that way. The Olympic course did its business, especially to Watson and Mickelson who were both pushing high scores right from the start. Watson didn't even make the first cut, while Mickelson made it only barely and was out shortly thereafter.
Meanwhile, less famous names like David Toms, Michael Thompson and Jim Furyk were doing steady work to keep themselves up at the top of the leaderboard. Tiger Woods had his chances and started off the tournament with strong play but couldn't seem to keep a lead for himself, never managing to pull away from the heart of the pack at the top.
Woods eventually succumbed to the course as well, though he was the only one of his trio to make it as far as Sunday's final round, he had a bad round which doomed him to finish out of the money. Instead, it was a late rush by Webb Simpson that would win the day and the Open.
Going into Sunday, the leaderboard had a slew of names near the top, with Jim Furyk and Graeme McDowell being top dogs. Simpson hadn't done a whole lot in the tournament up until that point, and as late as Saturday had only 125/1 odds on him to win it. He was one of the first to go on Sunday but put up a spectacular final round, ending up at two under par. As he waited, players ahead of him started to slide left and right and by the end of the day, his great final round was able to hold and he ended up $1.4 million richer and the U.S. Open champion with a score of +1.
Par for the course at the Olympic Club, which promised excitement at the beginning and delivered from start to finish.
You can find the final leaderboard here at USOpen.com.
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