FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, June 20th, 2021
NOTES AND QUOTES – JON RAHM WINS THE 121ST U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP ON NBC (FINAL ROUND)
“Another one has landed at the 72nd hole! This time for Rahm to take the lead at the U.S. Open!” – Dan Hicks on Jon Rahm’s birdie putt on 18
“That’s a goosebump moment.” – Paul Azinger on Rahm’s putt on 18
STAMFORD, Conn. – June 20, 2021 – NBC Sports presented final round coverage of the 121st U.S. Open Championship from Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego, Calif., on NBC, capped by Live From the U.S. Open on GOLF Channel.
Jon Rahm (-6), who birdied the 17th and 18th holes, won his first career major with a one-stroke victory over second-place Louis Oosthuizen (-5).
U.S. Open – Final Round Leaderboard
| Player | Total |
| Jon Rahm | -6 |
| Louis Oosthuizen | -5 |
| Harris English | -3 |
On Jon Rahm
Rahm to Steve Sands on his U.S. Open Championship: “I’m a big believer in karma and after what happened a couple of weeks ago, I stayed really positive knowing big things were coming…I just felt like the stars were aligning. I knew my best golf was to come and I have a hard time explaining what just happened because I can’t even believe I made the last two putts and I’m the first Spaniard ever to win a U.S. Open. This was definitely for Seve (Ballesteros). I know he tried a lot, and usually we think a lot about him with The Masters, but I know he wanted to win this one most of all.”
Rahm to Sands on Torrey Pines: “It reminds me a lot of back home. It’s not exactly the same, but the coastline, the weather, the temperature…I think it’s something that really just resonates with me. I’m really confident in it.”
Dan Hicks on Rahm’s birdie putt on the 18th: “Another one has landed at the 72nd hole! This time for Rahm to take the lead at the U.S. Open!”
Azinger: “That’s a goosebump moment. What a putt. He had to give this one wide berth, most everyone’s missed this high.”
Azinger: “That’s an old school thinker, that Jon Rahm. He doesn’t come around here on this tour with a big entourage like some of these guys. They’ve got their full swing coach, short game coach, their trainer, their chef, their sports psychologist. Not Jon Rahm.”
Brandel Chamblee on Rahm’s U.S. Open win after The Memorial: “You can call this, as he did, karma. You can call it poetic justice, a reversal of fortune. Or is it misfortune, the reversal of? … But to me, it was the great-hearted, magnanimous statement that he made subsequent to that positive COVID test result that told me as much about what he was made of as his six-shot lead (at The Memorial) did tell me about his form…and I believe it was his constitution that had more to do with those putts falling on the last two holes. ”
On the final round
Dan Hicks on the leaderboard backing up: “We’ve seen some real crash and burns here in the last half hour.”
Azinger: “I said the cream has risen to the top, but it looks to me like it’s just soured…All of a sudden, the best players on the planet are just folding up on some shots…it’s still so hard to close the deal.”
Gary Koch on field’s collective back-nine struggles: “I have seen some shots on this back nine today that I haven’t seen in quite some time.”
On Louis Oosthuizen
Hicks: “He looks like he’s just out there for a little Sunday stroll.”
Roger Maltbie on 18 prior to Oosthuizen’s tee shot: “(Oosthuizen’s playing partner) Mackenzie Hughes said a very classy thing to me in the middle of the last fairway. He said, ‘I wish I could have given this tee shot to Louis.’”
Azinger on Oosthuizen’s tee shot on 17 into the hazard: “I can’t get that tee shot out of my head. I just can’t believe he hit it in the hazard.”
On Bryson DeChambeau, who shot 44 on the back nine
Azinger: “I think all of the wind went out of his sails – and his focus.”
Hicks: “He’s just become unraveled…I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like this. A guy on the back nine trying to make it back-to-back U.S. Open titles has just imploded.”
–NBC SPORTS–
