5 LIV Golfers who have won the US Open before ft. Brooks Koepka
The US Open is set to return to Pinehurst No. 2 this week, with the event commencing on Thursday, June 13th. This time, 12 players from LIV Golf are part of the season's third major.
Initially, there were 13 players from the Saudi-backed circuit in the 156-player field at Pinehurst, but Jon Rahm pulled out on Tuesday, June 11th, due to a foot infection. The remaining 12 players in the field are Dean Burmester, Eugenio López-Chacarra, Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio García, Tyrrell Hatton, Dustin Johnson, Martin Kaymer, Brooks Koepka, Adrian Meronk, Phil Mickelson, David Puig, and Cameron Smith.
Six of the past ten editions have been won by players who are now part of the Saudi-backed circuit. In this article, we will look at the five LIV Golf professionals who have won the event before.
Five LIV Golfers to have won the US Open
1) Martin Kaymer (2014)
Martin Kaymer is returning to Pinehurst as the defending US Open champion at this course. He won the title in 2014, the last time Pinehurst hosted the championship.
Kaymer didn't drop a level right from the start and shot a 65 to take an early three-stroke lead. This was followed by another 65, extending his lead to six shots over Brendan Todd. He fired a 72 and a 69 in the next two rounds to finish at 9-under, beating Rickie Fowler and Eric Compton by a whopping eight strokes.
2) Dustin Johnson (2016)
Dustin Johnson became the US Open champion in 2016, which was played at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania.
Due to incessant rain, Johnson completed his first round on Friday and shot a 67 to finish two strokes back. In the second round, he fired a 69 and held a one-shot lead over Andrew Landry. He carded a 71 in the third round and was four shots behind Shane Lowry. It looked highly unlikely that the Irishman would lose from here, but fate had other plans.
On Sunday, Lowry had his worst round of 76 and slipped to a 1-under aggregate. Johnson, on the other hand, carded a 69 to finish at 4-under and beat Lowry, Jim Furyk, and Scott Piercy by three shots.
Brooks Koepka (2017, 2018)
Brooks Koepka is the only one on this list to have won the season's third major twice, and that too in consecutive years.
In 2017, Koepka shot rounds of 67, 70, 68, and 67 to finish at 16-under after 72 holes, beating Brian Harman and Hideki Matsuyama by four strokes. The following year, he finished at 1-over to secure a one-stroke victory over Tommy Fleetwood. He became the third player, after Ben Hogan and Curtis Strange, to defend his title.
4) Bryson DeChambeau (2020)
The 2020 US Open was played at the West Course of Winged Foot Golf Club, located in Mamaroneck, New York.
Bryson DeChambeau shot a 69 in the first round and was not in the top ten after the opener. In the second round, he jumped to second place after shooting a 68. He remained in second after shooting a 70 on Saturday but surged to the top after firing a low 67 in the final round.
DeChambeau finished at 6-under to beat Matthew Wolff by a six-stroke margin.
Jon Rahm (2021)
Jon Rahm was the last player from LIV Golf to win the US Open. He fired rounds of 69, 70, 72, and 67 to finish at 6-under, beating Louis Oosthuizen by one shot. This was the first major win of his career.
Unfortunately, Rahm will not be competing at Pinehurst as he is still struggling with a foot infection.