UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — All that drama, all that build-up after a week of controversy and criticism, and it had to come down to one of the most miserable little failures in all of golf. 602 yards in 2, but 12 feet in 3. And with that, Dustin Johnson comes up short and Jordan Spieth stands tall.
It wasn’t the way anyone wanted it to end. An eagle would have vindicated the decision by the U.S. Golf Association’s executive director Mike Davis in all of his weeklong setup wizardry. Maybe he overplayed his hand a little by switching pars on the first and last holes and tweaking tees 100+ yards from one day to the next.