SAN FRANCISCO

The U.S. Open yields few birdies or big celebrations.

At Olympic Club, they always come in strange places.

Webb Simpson walked off the 18th green on a fog-filled Sunday evening with his face red and his legs limp, settling into a corner of the locker room to recover with his worried wife and watch Jim Furyk and Graeme McDowell chase his 1-over par 281 on the course.

After a week that restored the toughest test in golf, this was not the look or score of a mediocre man.

This was the 112th U.S. Open champion.

Simpson saved par from the collar around the 18th green and sweated out a pair of past champions three groups behind, becoming the latest to claim his first major title at a club that always crowns the guy nobody expects to win.

“To be honest,” Simpson said, “I never thought about, and I never really wrapped my mind around winning.”

With the history here, he should have known better.

Graveyard of champions

Olympic Club is called the “graveyard of champions” for a reason. Proven major winners who were poised to win the U.S. Open — Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson and Payne Stewart — all lost out to the underdog. And all in a painful finish.

The North Carolina native emerged from the famous fog that blanketed the undulating Lake Course to make four birdies in a five-hole stretch around the turn on the final day, and convert a tough par from the thick grass around the tiny 18th green. He shot a 2-under 68 that created more pressure than two tested champions and a 14-time major winner wearing red could handle.

Furyk was flawless for much of the week until he snap-hooked his tee shot on the par-5 16th hole to fall out of the lead for the first time all day. He never got it back. Needing a birdie on the final hole, his approach landed in the bunker. He crouched and clamped his teeth onto the shaft of his wedge.

Furyk made bogey on the final hole and closed with a 74.

McDowell, the champion two years ago down the California coast at Pebble Beach, made four bogeys on the front nine. The Northern Irishman at least gave himself a chance with a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th and a shot into the 18th that had him sprinting up the hill to see what kind of chance he had.

Tiger Woods, starting five shots behind, played the first six holes in 6-over par and was never a factor. He shot 73 and finished six strokes back.

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

That was the kind of week the U.S. Golf Association delivered.