Webb Simpson Wins U.S. Open 2012 At Olympic Club

Webb Simpson won the U.S. Open and put two more names into the graveyard of champions.

Overlooked for so much of the week, Simpson emerged on a fog-filled Sunday at The Olympic Club with four birdies around the turn and a tough chip out of a hole to the right of the 18th green that he converted into par for a 2-under 68.

He finished at 1-over 281, and it was enough to outlast former U.S. Open champions Jim Furyk and Graeme McDowell.

Furyk bogeyed two of his last three holes. McDowell had a 25-foot birdie on the 18th to force a playoff, but it never had a chance.

"Oh, wow," Simpson said, watching from the locker room.

Olympic is known as the "graveyard of champions" because proven major winners who were poised to win the U.S. Open have always lost to the underdog. One of those was Arnold Palmer in 1966, when he lost a seven-shot lead on the back nine.

Perhaps it was only fitting that the 25-year-old Simpson went to Wake Forest on an Arnold Palmer scholarship.

"Arnold has been so good to me," Simpson said. "Just the other day, I read that story and thought about it. He's meant so much to me and Wake Forest. Hopefully, I can get a little back for him and make him smile."

No one was beaming like Simpson, who followed a breakthrough year on the PGA Tour with his first major.