Wake Forest's Own Webb Simpson Wins U.S. Open

The promotions for the U.S. Open were centered around two pairings. One contained three of golf's biggest stars: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson. The other contained the top three ranked golfers in the world: Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood.

Despite the hype, none of them won. Three of them failed to even make the cut.

Not only did Wake Forest's own Webb Simpson make the cut, he won the tournament and brought home his first major. He did what none of those six stars could do, and that was conquer The Olympic Club in San Francisco, Cali.

More to follow after the jump...

Webb Simpson was quietly having a magnificent weekend. I say quietly because NBC failed to acknowledge him until his last 13 holes on Sunday. The former Arnold Palmer Golf Scholarship recipient made us all proud to be a Deacon yesterday, as he has for his entire career. After winning the U.S. Open, Webb Simpson will begin to gain the national respect that he deserves.

Webb Simpson played the quintessential weekend to win the U.S. Open. After struggling on Thursday and Friday (72-73), he finished 68-68 en route to winning his first major championship. While the field combined for over 1,000 shots over par on the first six holes, Simpson played them at even par this weekend. That's a major reason while he was able to win the tournament. His final round was a thing of beauty. He survived the first six holes at one over par, and then birdied three of the next four holes. He then shot par on the remaining holes.

When others were grinding out pars, Simpson was hitting fairways, greens in regulation, and then having relative tap-in pars. He missed some birdie putts, but he wasn't in danger of having a bogey until the 18th hole. Simpson missed the green, but he made an outstanding chip shot from the right rough before knocking down the putt for par.

Webb Simpson is now ranked No. 5 in the official world golf rankings. For those who think this is a Cinderella story, think again. Simpson is here to stay. After earning his first career victory at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, he has been on a roll. Since that time he's had two victories, six top 5's, and 11 top 10's. Webb has always had the game of a major champion, now he has the hardware to prove it.