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The 2019 U.S. Open will be the first PGA Tour major championship victory for Gary Woodland. While he hasn’t taken home a title prior to this, he’s certainly knocked on the door a few times and put together some impressive results. Specifically, Woodland has found success at the PGA Championship in recent years, but his play at the U.S. Open was superb.
Entering the action on Sunday, Woodland held a lead over the rest of the field but had to fend off multiple top players to lock up his first major victories. This included Justin Rose and back-to-back defending champion Brooks Koepka, among others. Woodland began the day at 11-under par and was ahead of Koepka by four shots, but Rose was knocking on the door while teeing off at 10-under par.
Multiple players rallied and attempted to make a push at Woodland to cut into his lead, he was able to fend them off and get the job done in a strong final round. Among the names worth noting was a list that included Xander Schauffele, who shot a 67 on Sunday, Jon Rham (68) and Adam Scott (68).
Gary Woodland’s Best Finishes in Majors
Earlier in the year, Woodland posted a T8 finish at the 2019 PGA Championship, an event which Koepka went on to win in impressive fashion. It wasn’t surprising to see him finish the major tournament strong, as he posted a T6 in the event in 2018 and T22 in 2017. As far as his play at the U.S. Open goes, he hasn’t had quite as much success until the 2019 event rolled around.
Woodland finished better than T36 just once at the U.S. Open since 2009, missing the cut on three of eight attempts. He finished T50 and T36 in the past two years, so it was apparent the upward trend was already underway.
Heading into the event, Woodland had put together one of the best years, if not the single best year of his entire career thus far. He was ranked No. 9 in the FedExCup standings with seven top-10 finishes (eight now) and prior to the U.S. Open had earned more than $3.306 million in 2019, per PGATour.com.
Woodland’s win on Sunday brings a payday of $2.25 million, per Golf.com.
Gary Woodland’s PGA Tour Wins & 2019 Results
The 2019 U.S. Open marked Woodland’s fourth victory on the PGA Tour, with his most recent prior to that coming in 2018 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. In that win, he topped Chez Reavie during a playoff to get the job done. Going further back than that, Woodland’s other victories came in 2013 at the Reno-Tahoe Open and 2011 at the Transitions Open.
During the 2019 season, the 35-year-old had come close to winning two other events, posting second-place finishes at the Sentry Tournament of Champions and The CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges. Although Woodland picked up just one other win before the U.S. Open since 2013, he’s found himself consistently inside of the top-50 of the FedExCup standings and had 16 top-10 finishes from 2015-18.
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