The Limerick Summary: 2019 US Open

Winner: Gary Woodland

Around the wider world of golf: Brooke Henderson became the winningest Canadian golfer ever (male or female) with her win at the Meijer LPGA Classic; Jillian Hollis won the Forsyth Classic on the Symetra Tour; Xinjun Zhang won the Lincoln Land Championship on the Web.com Tour; Jake Knapp won the GolfBC Championship on the Mackenzie Tour; Cyril Bouniol won the Suzhou Open on the PGA TOUR China; Scott Vincent won the Landic Challenge on the Asian Tour; and Emily Toy won the Women’s British Amateur.



While my Tuesday Twofer picks didn't do so well, I wasn't expecting much. I picked Tiger Woods (T21) to win and Phil Mickelson (T52) to Top10. At least both of them made the cut!

• Winners: 2 for 24
• Place well (Top10): 11 for 24 (6 Top5 finish, 5 more Top10s)
• Overall Top10s: 22 of 48 (11 Top5s, 11 more Top10s)

But it's hard to believe anybody picked this week's winner. Gary Woodland hasn't had the best of luck at majors, except for a couple of Top10s at the last two PGAs. Even Justin Rose and Louis Oosthuizen were outliers of a sort, since neither seemed to be in the best of form lately.

And admit it -- you had to figure that Brooks Koepka was the favorite, given that he had won four of his last eight majors (plus one runner-up finish).

But Gary had an ace in his corner -- Amy Bockerstette, the Special Olympics golfer he became friends with at the WM Phoenix Open earlier this year. He credits her friendship, along with the highs and lows of becoming a father, with helping him gain more perspective on his game. And that new perspective was on full display Sunday, as he calmly dealt with Rose and Koepka's attempts to catch and pass him on the leaderboard.

In case you didn't see the final round, Rose tied him on the first hole, then dropped back on the second hole and neither Rose nor Koepka caught him after that. And just to punctuate his victory, Gary birdied the final hole for a three-stroke victory.

The discussions have already begun. You know the ones -- will this win "open the floodgates" and Woodland begin winning at an accelerated clip? Who knows? But I do know this: Gary Woodland has just picked up his first major Limerick Summary. It may not be as shiny as his first major trophy, but hopefully he'll get some joy from it as well.

A win from the lead’s not a given,
So Sunday’s win must feel like heaven!
With Gary’s last round
He took Brooks Koepka down
And made this his first major. That’s livin’!

The photo came from this page at chinadaily.com.cn.