PINEHURST, N.C. — The redesign of the old No. 2 course — such a big story at the onset of this U.S. Open — actually was incomplete until the last putt dropped on Sunday. There, that put the finishing touch on one more waste area.
The leaderboard.
There was Martin Kaymer, the first German ever known to star in a laugher.
And just so much shifting sand after that.
The five-shot lead Kaymer took to the first tee Sunday swelled to eight after a day in the southern heat and humidity, as he became the first from his nation to win a U.S. Open. Five months from his 30th birthday, Kaymer has collected his second major (this a follow-up to the 2010 PGA Championship).
“To win one major is very nice,” Kaymer said. “To win two means a lot more. Some friends call me a one-hit wonder, obviously in a funny way. But now I can show them this one.”
Tiger Woods still has the record for the largest margin of victory in an Open, or any major, with his 15-stroke victory at Pebble Beach in 2000. But, still, this was plenty comfortable, as if Kaymer was wearing a Hawaiian shirt out there while everyone else was in a straightjacket.
Oh, Kaymer insisted upon trying to make this seem difficult.
He said he warned his caddie before going to the first tee: “This is going to be a very brutal day, very difficult.”
“Maybe the toughest day of golf I’ve ever played,” he said afterward.
“To lead by five shots it’s not easy. It is a little cushion but if you approach the day like that, it can disappear. You want to stay aggressive, but that’s hard to do. You get tight. I overcame that and played very good golf.”
Kaymer was not as dialed in as he was the first two days of the championship when he shot back-to-back 65s. He didn’t need to be. No one else was designed to put the least bit of heat upon him.
Kaymer’s 1-under 70 Sunday was hardly a perfect gem — he missed six of 14 fairways, ranking him 50th in the field — but all things in golf are relative. Only five others were under par after the first three rounds. They seemed the ones most likely to mount any sort of serious challenge. None of them broke par. In fact, the five were a combined 13 over Sunday.
At least to one of that bunch, the final round was just about as much a victory as you can win out here without getting an oversized check and a four-story trophy.
Erik Compton, the two-time heart transplant recipient who had never finished better than fourth in a PGA Tour event, was just the runner-up in the U.S. freaking Open.
By shooting 72 Sunday, and finishing 1 under for the tournament, “I put myself on the map,” Compton said. “I proved to the world that I’m not just a guy with two heart transplants.”
With his runner-up finish, the former University of Georgia player, appearing in just his second major, also earned a spot in next year’s Masters. A prize Compton said he was unaware of as he was finishing his day with three straight pars.
“I was just playing for second,” he said. “I think we all were playing for second.”
Tying him for second was Rickie Fowler, who now has consecutive top-five finishes in 2014’s majors.
None of them was able to get close enough to Kaymer to see him without a telescope. He began Sunday at 8 under, five up on his nearest competitors. After the first of his three bogeys for the day on No. 7, that bulge was momentarily reduced to four. But by the time Kaymer birdied the par-3 ninth, his lead was back to six at the turn.
He finally began to chill a little when he got up and down from the bunker on the drivable par-4 13th. “I looked at the scoreboard, seven ahead, five to go, that’s fine,” he said. By the time he tacked on another birdie on No. 14, he had fully transported the NBC viewing audience from the edge of its seat to the crook of its couch.
Having toyed briefly with the world’s No. 1 ranking in the wake of his PGA Championship victory, Kaymer let the pressures of that position erode his game. It was only this year that he put himself back on track, winning the Players Championship last month in similar wire-to-wire fashion.
“I knew I would play good golf again, there was always the belief there. I just didn’t know it would take me that much time,” Kaymer said. “I think I’ll play better golf now. I’m more a complete player.”
If there are any other family-themed holidays left, it would be a good time to put a large wager on Kaymer. This year he has won on both Mother’s Day Sunday (the Players) and Father’s Day.
“Although our Fathers Day was a couple weeks ago in Germany, and I didn’t get anything for my dad,” Kaymer said.
“Maybe this will do.”
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