Woodland Wins With Pebble Beach Heroics

Koepka denied third straight US Open victory

Gary Woodland stared down the top player in the world to win the 119th US Open as a kinder, gentler Pebble Beach produced yet another classic major championship.

Don't let Woodland's 13-under par total fool you, the 35-year-old American needed shot-making skill and intestinal fortitude to come through on Sunday for his first major title, a triumph that denied Brooks Koepka's bid for an historic third straight US Open victory.

Koepka, winner of the last two PGA Championships as well as the prior two US Opens and a runner-up in April at the Masters, was breathing down his neck when Woodland produced a pair of shots that will live on in US Open history. "The idea was to play to win," Woodland said of his three-wood second shot to set up a birdie at 14.

But his signature moment came at 17, the same hole where Jack Nicklaus set up a tap-in birdie with a stinging one-iron in 1972, and where Tom Watson chipped in 10 years later to deny Nicklaus a fifth US Open title.