Bryson DeChambeau takes three-shot lead into final round of US Open at Pinehurst No. 2

On a Carolina day that felt like it was baked in an air fryer, Bryson DeChambeau threw a hip check into the U.S. Open, bear hugging an adoring gallery as he challenged pins hidden in plain sight on Pinehurst No. 2’s slopey bits to take a three-shot lead over Matthieu Pavon, Rory McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay into Sunday’s final round.

After having his right hip cleaned and pressed by the trainer he summoned as he set off down the back nine, DeChambeau vaulted into the lead when he made back-to-back birdies on the par five 10th and the par four 11th. That’s the hole Ben Hogan liked more than any other at No. 2.

With the tees moved seductively forward on the 13th, Bryson invited the crowd to join him in the party in his head. “I’d love to go for this,” he said to anyone who wanted to listen. When he decided to be sensible and lay up, he pulled an iron from his bag, looked at all his new friends and said, “Don’t hate me.”

Hate him? They’d have carried him on their shoulders all the way to Aberdeen if he’d need a lift, which he didn’t. He was riding their wave. Having broken the invisible plane between actor and audience, DeChambeau flared his tee shot on the 13th out right into a deep bunker and followed it with a magnificent wedge up the hill to 9 feet. He missed that one but did it again on the 14th, losing his tee ball right and wedging his second to 9 feet where he curled in a big breaker to reach 8 under par.

Up ahead, McIlroy had birdied the 14th but gave it back with bogeys on both the par threes on the back — the 15th and 17th — and just that fast the head LIV Crusher was four shots clear of the field. DeChambeau invited his closest challengers back into his personal party with a sloppy double-bogey on the 16th, giving everyone in the locker room a reason for hope, especially McIlroy who has been chasing another major title in vain for a decade. He cut the hope down to size with a bounce-back birdie after hitting a wedge into the 17th. Even McIlroy, who had been one of the most outspoken critics of LIV, seemed to enjoy having DeChambeau back, if just for a couple of majors.

“He’s one of the most popular figures in golf,” said McIlroy. “Even though Xander (Schauffele) won the PGA, it was like Bryson was the star of the show.”

The 24-year-old Swedish phenom Ludwig Åberg had a one-shot lead going into Saturday’s third round but had his worst ball-striking day of the championship. He pulled his 3-wood off the tee on the third, hit a fat 5-iron on the fourth, missed the eighth green short right and bogeyed the ninth with a pulled iron shot into the greenside bunker. Still he was there or thereabouts until he ran afoul of the 13th, the same hole that doomed Tony Finau.

Finau’s approach came up short, he putted it up the hill and through the green into the back bunker, exploded it back across the green and down the hill again and finished with a triple bogey 7. Aberg did essentially the same thing, going over and back and to make a 7 of his own.

The day’s early-going belonged to the Frenchman Matthieu Pavon, the son of the professional soccer player Michel Pavon, who went out in three-under 32 to take a share of the lead temporarily at 6 under par. His 2-over-par back nine 37, coupled with DeChambeau’s charge, left him — and everyone else — in the shadows.

So, you think this is the hottest U.S. Open ever? Not so fast. Forty years ago the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club — next year’s venue and another of the USGA’s anchor sites — experienced its worst heat wave since 1895. For six straight days the temperature hovered between 95 and 98 degrees. The championship ended in a three-man playoff between Loren Roberts, Colin Montgomery — whose zaftig figure in the searing heat coupled with his choice of dark-colored attire did his physique no favors — and a 24-year-old from South Africa named Ernie Els, who would win his first major championship.

It will be hot again as DeChambeau tries to add a second U.S. Open title to the one he captured at Winged Foot Golf Club in 2020.

“It was a beautiful day,” DeChambeau said of his three under par 67 on Saturday. He’ll be looking for another one.

What he won’t have to look for is the supporting cast. They are hip to their role.

“It was amazing,” said DeChambeau of the crowd support. “I can’t thank them enough. It was a blessing. Man, they riled me up. It just gives me a spike in my adrenaline and allows me to focus more on delivering for the fans and for myself and for my family. It just inspires me.”