Billy Horschel defeated Chris Stroud in 21 holes to win the final match of the aforementioned pro-am event earlier this month. Although Chris Parrais defeated Horschel 7 and 6 in the final of The Match, a 12-man final amateur match on July 15, Zach Johnson and Jason Day decided to tangle in a series of three 18-hole matches. In each of the matches, the winner’s score after 16 holes would determine the final score in the tournament, so they called the match after three rinks were completed.
No match was more hotly contested than that of Zech Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.
As seen in the video above, Koepka and DeChambeau are evenly matched as far as shots go, even going toe-to-toe at times. Koepka, meanwhile, was much more aggressive than DeChambeau. Given that Koepka is a two-time major champion, DeChambeau knew he had his work cut out for him. DeChambeau, meanwhile, has multiple top 10 finishes this year in LPGA and PGA Tour events.
In their final match, Koepka led DeChambeau by two shots after 16 holes, then extended his lead to three after 18 and ultimately finished ahead of his contemporary by a score of 4 and 2. “I just wanted to spank him,” Koepka said of winning the match. “I had the idea to go balls out out there and attack him. I think I did do that. It was pretty special to get it done.”
DeChambeau told reporters that if Koepka would have teed it up again, he’d have lost. “[Koepka] knew what he was doing. He wanted to win so bad and he played really well,” he said. “His win was hard to come by.”
Koepka, meanwhile, praised his opponent’s abilities, noting that DeChambeau is “probably the best putter I have ever seen.” He even noted that he’d be running into him this weekend at a tournament. He said DeChambeau was scheduled to appear in the group “that I am going with,” to which he responded by telling reporters, “he’s not a member.”