Bryson's sensational Sunday
The feeling that history was about to be made was seldom absent from the 2020 US Open.
Matthew Wolff entered the final round with a two stroke lead, with the knowledge that a win would make him the first person to win the US Open on their championship debut since Francis Ouimet in 1913. Phil Mickelson arrived at the resting place of his greatest chance to win the US Open, still chasing golf's Grand Slam.
History dominated the discussion of the location, too. Much was made of the difficulty of the West Course at Winged Foot, and whether or not the USGA were planning on repeat performances of the slogs that took place at the A.W. Tillinghast brute, in 1974 and 2006.
Everyone that tuned in to the television coverage now knows the story of Billy Casper laying up on the par-three third hole every day in 1959, just as they now know the title 'The Massacre at Winged Foot,' and similarly can visualise every shot Phil Mickelson hit en route to the double bogey on his 72nd hole in 2006.
Despite some debate about the Thursday set up, it was the course, and the USGA that would share the last laugh. Winged Foot grinned on Sunday afternoon, and the teeth were sharp and stained with the blood, sweat, and tears of 143 of the 144 best golfers in the world. The course could laugh, but not at all who tried to tame it.
Pre-tournament, World Number two Jon Rahm made what turned out to be a prophetic statement. "If it gets firm, I don't see how any of us shoot under par. Or if we shoot under par, it would be somebody winning by a lot," Rahm said.
He was right. Just one player finished on the correct side of par for the week, and he did win by a lot. In truth, it seldom appeared as if it were going to finish with anyone other than Bryson DeChambeau at the top of the leaderboard.
History dominated the discourse, and history was indeed made, but not in the way many thought it would, or indeed ever could.
History had other plans, and in the end, these plans involved the most talked about man in the game of golf in 2020. Bryson DeChambeau shot a final round of 67, three strokes under par, and in doing so entered the history books a major champion, all while entering another, perhaps even more exclusive and impressive club.
The Sunday scoring average was 74.9, which is 1.4 strokes higher than the fabled final round in 2006 on the same course. DeChambeau beat this by eight strokes, and that isn't even the most impressive record set by the champion.
What DeChambeau accomplished with his Sunday round of 67 is something that has only been done once in the last 50 years of major championship golf. Nobody else at Winged Foot recorded a score better than 70 on Sunday, meaning he beat the second best score on the day by three strokes.
DeChambeau is the first player in 42 years to accomplish this, and the only player in the last 50 years to do so at a US Open.
There have been 202 major championships held in the last 50 years. Beginning with the 1970 Masters, rounds in which the champion recorded the solo best round of the final day number just 16, which is less than 8.5% of the time.
Of those 16 occurrences, just seven players beat the next best on trophy day by a total of two full strokes, or more; this equates to 3.5% of the time.
Of those seven, Bryson becomes the first, and only other since Gary Player in 1974, to beat the next best player in the field by three strokes en route to securing a major championship.
Less than 1% of all major champions in the last fifty years.
This was Sunday dominance reserved for some of the best major champions (and most memorable major championships) of all time. There were players that were closer to Johnny Miller's legendary 63 at Oakmont, as there were to Paul Lawrie's ludicrous 67 at Carnoustie in 1999. In 2000, when Tiger Woods won by 15 at Pebble Beach, a record that will stand the test of time, his marvellous Sunday 67 was the best on the day by just one stroke.
Only Gary Player, overcoming a seven stroke deficit to win the 1978 Masters, has ever recorded as dominant a Sunday performance as DeChambeau did on Sunday - a round heralded as one of the most remarkable Sunday performances of all time.
Days like Sunday are incredibly rare and magnificent, and are historically acknowledged as such. To illustrate this, below is every single time a major champion, in the last fifty years and 201 attempts, had the outright best score in the field on a major Sunday. I guarantee that many of them will ring a bell.
US Open
2000 - Pebble Beach - Tiger Woods. Best round of the day (67) by one stroke.
1983 - Oakmont - Larry Nelson. Best round of the day (67) by one stroke.
1973 - Oakmont - Johnny Miller. Best round of the day (63) by two strokes.
Masters
2011 - Charl Schwartzel. Best round of the day (66) by one stroke.
1996 - Nick Faldo. Best round of the day (67) by one stroke.
1989 - Nick Faldo. Best round of the day (65) by one stroke.
1978 - Gary Player. Best round of the day (64) by three strokes.
PGA Championship
1988 - Jeff Sluman - Oak Tree GC. Best round of the day (65) by two strokes.
1979 - David Graham - Oakland Hills CC. Best round of the day (65) by two strokes.
1978 - John Mahaffey - Oakmont. Best round of the day (66) by one stroke.
Open Championship
2016 - Royal Troon - Henrik Stenson. Best round of the day (63) by two strokes.
2013 - Muirfield - Phil Mickelson. Best round of the day (66) by one stroke.
1999 - Carnoustie - Paul Lawrie. Best round of the day (67) by two strokes.
1997 - Troon - Justin Leonard. Best round of the day (65) by one stroke.
1988 - Royal Lytham - Severiano Ballesteros. Best round of the day (65) by two strokes.
1977 - Turnberry - Tom Watson. Best round of the day (65) by one stroke.
The list includes some of the most memorable Sunday performances of all time, and, excluding just one, Bryson's round tops them all, yet what he accomplished at Winged Foot will be discussed for many reasons other than the dominance.
In fact, more so than history will review this week as the masterclass of an athlete at the top of his game, it will be remembered largely as a case study in the ongoing distance debate.
Whether you see DeChambeau's maiden major championship title as all that is wrong with modern golf, or another rueful step toward the end of the usage of classic golf courses in professional championships - or anything else - it is careless to proceed with the notion that this was anything other than one of the most, if not the most, dominant Sunday performances in major championship history.
The round may not get the credit it deserves in years to come, but the stats don't lie. This was every single bit as impressive as Johnny Miller's 63 at Oakmont in 1973, every bit as astounding as Stenson's 63 at Royal Troon in 2016, and just as dominant as Nick Faldo's 67 to defeat Greg Norman at Augusta in 1996.
Bryson is here to stay, and love it or hate, so are 350 yard drives, rough that you could lose a toddler in, and US Open's where the winning score does not match the gargantuan challenge of the golf course.
The exponential gains in distance and the loss of art in the game of golf should not be ignored, but nor should the sheer immensity of this accomplishment. That was a standard of golf that is once in a generation. It might be another 46 years before someone matches it.
The debates will linger and persist until the governing bodies are ready to admit they are 25 years late on making what should be the obvious, and correct, choice. For now - for just one day, however - perhaps we should just marvel and fawn over one of the greatest rounds of golf many of us will ever witness.
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