PINEHURST, N.C. — Bryson DeChambeau is marching around the hallowed grounds of Pinehurst No. 2 like Paul Bunyan.
Everywhere the 30-year-old DeChambeau goes, jaws drop, eyes widen and throaty screams of approval are directed his way.
It fuels him. Makes him better.
Makes him crave the role of the performer even more.
DeChambeau is working the room that is the 124th U.S. Open. He takes a three-shot lead at 7-under par into Sunday’s final round in a bid to win his second career U.S. Open.
DeChambeau, the 2020 U.S. Open winner at Winged Foot, leads Rory McIlroy, Patrick Cantlay and Mattieu Pavon by three shots.
Hideki Matsuyama and Ludvig Aberg, who entered the day with the tournament lead at 5-under par and played in the final round alongside DeChambeau, are both 2-under par. Tyrrell Hatton and Tony Finau, at 1-under par, have an outside chance to make Sunday run.
But this day — and this tournament — has been about DeChambeau and the complete transformation from misunderstood and quirky to unquestioned fan favorite.
His shot-making is as breathtaking as his swagger is breathtaking. No one in the field — or the sport — is having more fun than DeChambeau right now.
“It was amazing,’’ DeChambeau said of the fan 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.’’
Even after he pulled his tee shot on 18 well left of the fairway into the dusty native area, DeChambeau walked off the tee fist-pumping toward the packed grandstands who were cheering him on.
Two holes earlier, DeChambeau had a four-shot lead as he played the 16th, and he double bogeyed it with some sloppy short game errors to melt the lead in half.
True to the form he’s in at the moment, though, he followed that hiccup with a bounce-back birdie on the par-3 17th hole and unleashed a wild fist-pump celebration as his lead pushed to three shots.
Last month, DeChambeau was the player who drew the most rabid roars at Valhalla while electrifying the crowds with his remarkable shots.
He finished 20-under par, one shot behind winner Xander Schauffele.
Now, as DeChambeau wakes up on Sunday morning, he’ll have one hand on the U.S. Open trophy.
And he’ll play the final round with his supporters doing whatever they can to carry him to the finish line. What a turnaround in DeChambeau’s life.
Remember when everyone was mocking him and rooting for Brooks Koepka?
No more. Now, there are few players in the sport who connect with the fans better than DeChambeau through this social channels.
“It’s meant a lot to me,’’ he said. “Just thinking back three years ago, the landscape was a lot different. I tried to show everybody who I was. I didn’t do it the right way and could have done a lot of things better.’’
No one was better than DeChambeau inside the ropes on Saturday, which was a beautifully intense day that felt like a Sunday final round.
The temperatures hovered in the 90s. The sun was searing. The greens were baked out. And the pressure. The pressure around the back nine was palpable.
“Just a really difficult U.S. Open Saturday,’’ McIlroy said. “Everything we expected it to be. I love the test that Pinehurst is presenting. It’s what a U.S. Open should be like. It’s obviously great to be in the mix. No matter what happens, I feel like two shots, three shots, four shots, I’ve got a great chance going into tomorrow.’’
As DeChambeau kept powering down the sandy highways at Pinehurst, some of his nearest competitors found themselves skidding into multi-car pileups.
Finau was right in the mix before he took a triple-bogey on the 13th hole, which ruined a few players’ days and chances to win the tournament.
Finau was 4-under par and two shots behind DeChambeau when he tripled 13.
“Obviously 13 is going to jump out at me as a hole that was the toughest pin on the whole championship, in my opinion,’’ Finau said.
A few minutes after Finau’s mess, when DeChambeau and Aberg arrived to 13, it was DeChambeau delivering an exquisite approach shot to the fat of the treacherous green from the sandy native area to the right of the fairway and from a difficult angle.
And, while DeChambeau patiently waited to take his birdie putt, Aberg was playing ping-pong on the hole, taking a soul-crushing triple-bogey 7.
“Obviously, what happened to me on 13 is not ideal,’’ Aberg said later. “It doesn’t necessarily change the way that you try to approach this golf course. I think there’s only a certain way you can play it. If you don’t play that way, you’re going to get punished. I guess the golf course kind of bites back.’’
