2012 U.S. Open golf: Webb Simpson passes Jim Furyk, Graeme McDowell for title

SAN FRANCISCO — When Webb Simpson is asked, years from now, for the shot that defined the 112th U.S. Open, he may well pick the dainty-as-a-doily chip he faced at the side of the 18th green in Sunday’s final round. He had been the leader of the Open for all of five minutes, and the players with more holes to endure had more messes to make. He picked the ball carefully out of the gnarly grass, watched it tumble gingerly across the green, where it settled three feet past the hole. He made the par putt, and headed to the clubhouse — a memory either way.

But to anyone else — to Jim Furyk or Graeme McDowell, to Padraig Harrington or Ernie Els — the shot that defined this version of the Open was something else completely. Simpson has the trophy, because that chip shot helped close out a 68 that left him at 1-over-par 281 for this brutal tournament. He is 26, a North Carolinian by birth and residence, a father of one with another on the way. And he celebrated his first major championship in the comfort of Olympic’s clubhouse, kissing his wife Dowd while his most likely assailants created their own memories, albeit dark ones.

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Webb Simpson has won the U.S. Open for his first major title. Simpson saved par on the hilly 18th hole with a chip from the rough. He closed with a 68 to hold off Graeme McDowell and Michael Thompson at the Olympic Club in San Francisco on Sunday.

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Webb Simpson's win at the U.S. Open was only the latest upset at the U.S. Olympic Club in San Francisco. AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson says The Olympic Club is known for surprises.

“I never felt nerves like I did today,” said Simpson, a two-time winner on the PGA Tour who came in ranked 14th in the world. “A lot of times, I had to hit my legs because I couldn’t really feel them.”

That would give a sense of what those playing behind him experienced, and perhaps emphasizes the advantage he had by teeing off a half an hour before the overnight leaders, McDowell and Furyk. To be sure, his round was one to be admired — three straight birdies at 6, 7 and 8 to claw into the picture, a birdie at 10 to climb within one of Furyk’s lead, and eight straight pars to close, exactly what the U.S. Open calls for.

But listen to Furyk and McDowell, each seeking his second Open championship, and it’s easy to see that Olympic, in hosting its fifth Open, doled out more gut punches than slaps on the back.

“I don’t know how to put that one into words,” Furyk said. “But I had my opportunities and my chances and it was right there.”

“There’s a mixture of emotions inside me right now,” McDowell said. “Obviously disappointment, deflation, pride. But mostly just frustration.”

The reasons for all that, Simpson could watch from the clubhouse. The viewing he did there — when he and Dowd weren’t watching videos, on their phones, of their 16-month-old son James, just to calm themselves — was worthy of frittering away fingernails. Both Furyk and McDowell reached the tee at the last facing the following scenario: make birdie at what played as a 335-yard par 4, and play Simpson on Monday in an 18-hole playoff.

“I was so nervous all day, but especially at the end,” Simpson said. “Even after I was done, I was nervous.”

He had a right to be, because as shaky as Furyk and McDowell were over their final six holes, they each are the kind of gnash-the-teeth-together competitors who could offer up a defining shot at the defining moment.

At 18, McDowell knocked his approach past the flag, and he jogged up the hill, so anxious he was to see how much he had left for birdie — about 25 feet down a hill.