Michaux: Crazy week at U.S. Open sees even more bizarre finish

What just happened out here? History just barged through the back door.

The trains were cruising by gently all day on the narrow strip between Puget Sound and Chambers Bay on Sunday. The train wrecks and derailments, however, were taking place on the course all afternoon.

In perhaps the craziest finish on the craziest golf course in U.S. Open history, Jordan Spieth “won” the U.S. Open when Dustin Johnson three-putted from 12 feet with an eagle chance to triumph on the 18th hole.

There are no words to describe what transpired on a brilliant sunny Sunday on the West Coast, much less with about 30 minutes to digest it all on East Coast newspaper deadlines. But here it goes.

The 21-year-old Spieth is the youngest golfer since Young Tom Morris to win two majors, edging Gene Sarazen out of the way. Despite spitting up a three-stroke lead with two to play, Spieth gathered himself after a double bogey on the 17th to birdie the last and become the sixth player in history to win the Masters Tournament and U.S. Open in the same year. He’ll take his living hopes for the grand slam when he heads to St. Andrews next month for the British Open.

“You can’t win ’em all unless you win the first two,” Spieth said. “We’re going to go to St. Andrews looking for the claret jug and I think we can get it done if we get the right prep in.”

This was a far cry from the command wire-to-wire performance Spieth produced at Augusta National in April. He seemed in shock when the U.S. Open trophy fell in his lap with the latest and perhaps most stunning major heartbreak in what is becoming a long list of them for Dustin Johnson.

The meltdown at Pebble Beach, the bunker snafu at Whistling Straits and the out-of-bounds drive at Royal St. Georges will all back a back seat to Johnson’s back-nine putting fiasco at Chambers Bay. He was not alone in the negative dramatics Sunday, just the most notable.

Johnson was leading the field with seven holes to play when his putting stroke went AWOL.

Branden Grace had honors with a share of the lead on the 16th tee when his drive left the golf course and headed for the train tracks.

Spieth seized the moment with a 27-foot birdie putt that opened a seemingly insurmountable three-shot lead with two to play then hacked up a double bogey on the ensuing 17th.

But they weren’t the only characters in Sunday’s drama.

Louis Oosthuizen, who opened with 77 on Thursday, birdied six of the last seven holes to set the clubhouse bar at 4-under. A young Australian named Cam Smith nearly joined him when his approach on the par-5 18th came inches from an albatross (booking a trip to the 2016 Masters).

So it came down to Spieth and Johnson on the controversial 18th hole that played as a par-5 on Sunday. In consecutive groups, each of them hit perfect drives. Then each of them piped approach irons to the green to set up eagle chances.

Spieth missed, and settled for birdie and the clubhouse lead.

“I didn’t think it was good enough but I couldn’t be more happy right now,” Spieth said.

When Johnson delivered his second shot to 12 feet, he had a putt to bury his past and establish his legacy. It slid 4 feet past the hole and he tugged the comeback putt that would have forced an 18-hole Monday playoff.

“I think he’s the most talented guy in the game,” Butch Harmon said of his pupil, Johnson, before the round he believed was Johnson’s to lose despite a four-way tie for the 54-hole lead. “He should be the No. 1 player in the game and I think by the end of the year or next year that’ll happen.”

The new DJ – who came back revitalized after a six-month sabbatical last year – proved the same as the old DJ. And it’s Spieth who is staking his own claim to the greatest in the game as he creeps up on Rory McIlroy, who won the two majors before Spieth.

“What a kid,” said Ernie Els of Spieth. “It’s just amazing how this game can really give you something. He’s worked hard and he’s probably the best player in the world right now. Unbelievable stuff. Great stuff.”

On an imperfect golf course that drew as many jeers as cheers from the players for the condition of its greens, the U.S. Open ended up providing as thrilling a finish as anyone could have imagined. Chambers Bay suffered all manner of hits from critics this week for its spectator unfriendliness to its appearance on TV to the inconsistency of its green surfaces that wreaked havoc on putts.

But it’s hard to deny the caliber of player it revealed in the end.

“Logistically it seems to have its problems, but as far as the holes and the golf it asks you to play ... whoever wins is going to be a quality player,” said 2006 U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy. “You have to move the ball both ways. You have to use your brain, which is a rare thing in modern golf and something we’re not very good at, I don’t think. It’s going to be a class act of a player who wins, and really that’s all you want.”

Spieth is as first class an act as golf can get. While it may take some time to make sense of how it all transpired, the historic relevance of Sunday’s finish will resonate for years to come.