Winners and losers from the U.S. Open

This past weekend saw a lot of great storylines and we are here to give you the good and the bad of it. Here are our winners and losers from the past week in golf.

Winners

Martin Kaymer — What more can we say about that performance from Kaymer all week at Pinehurst? The guy was dominant from the first tee on Thursday, opening with those 65s, keeping it together with his Saturday 72 and closing with a 1-under 69 on Sunday to win by eight shots. It is one of the best performances in the history of this major championship, and puts Kaymer on a short list of European-born players with two major wins before turning 30. Absolutely impressive from start to finish from Kaymer, who is inching towards Player of the Year on the PGA Tour with this win and his victory at the Players.

Erik Compton — At this point, you’ve probably heard all about the health issues of Compton earlier in his life, but looking past that for a second, this dude is an incredible golfer, and played his best tournament ever this week at Pinehurst No. 2. Compton’s T-2 gets him in the Masters next year, proves that he not only can play on the PGA Tour but can compete in the big events, and puts him above the $ 1.6 million mark for the year on the PGA Tour. I don’t think this will be a week the Compton family will ever forget.

Rickie Fowler — Finishing second is a bummer when you’re a PGA Tour winner with goals of winning majors, but Kaymer was so good this week it was second everyone else was playing for. Fowler joins Jimmy Walker as the only two players to finish in the top-10 at both the Masters and the U.S. Open, and those swing changes that Fowler has been working on with Butch Harmon seem to be paying off quicker than one would expect.

Jason Day – The 26-year-old Australian is finally playing 100 percent healthy golf, and just like that he’s back to his old ways of finishing in the top-10 at a major championship. Day has now played in 15 majors and finished in the top-10 seven times including three seconds and a third, so look for Day to take that leap to major winner very, very soon.

Justin Rose — Defending a major title, especially the U.S. Open, is really, really tough, but Rose played solid golf all week, finishing T-12 a year after his breakthrough win. Rose makes the list not because of his play, but because of his reaction when his birdie putt dropped on the 18th green on Sunday and he outstretched his arm in tribute to the late Payne Stewart, recreating that reaction to his winning par putt on this same green back in 1999.

Patrick Reed’s back nine on Sunday — It has been a tough stretch for Reed, the 23-year-old who has already won three times this season on the PGA Tour. After his win at the Cadillac Championship and the self-proclamation that he’s a “top-5 player in the world,” Reed’s game disappeared, missing four of the next five cuts and looking lost on the course. His Sunday started out brutally as he went out in 42, but Reed made five birdies on his way in at Pinehurst to post a back-nine 30 and salvage a final round 72 to finish T-35 in his first ever U.S. Open start.

Losers

Sunday drama at majors in 2014 — The performance by Kaymer was worth watching simply for the historical factor, but there wasn’t a ton of interest over the weekend considering we were basically watching a blowout. No contenders really pushed Kaymer, the tournament was over on the fourth hole on Sunday (if not earlier), and after the back nine snoozefest at the Masters, we could use a back nine battle at Hoylake to help draw a little more interest in the ’14 majors.

Phil Mickelson’s putting — We are halfway through the PGA Tour season, and Mickelson is still searching for his first top-10 and that is all because of the putter. Mickelson struggled all week on the Pinehurst greens, missing short putt after short putt, even changing his putting stroke mid-round on Friday after debating between the claw and the conventional look all week heading into the U.S. Open. Mickelson has gone through slumps before, but without that putting stroke to save him when his swing disappears it could be a very, very tough rest of the season for the second biggest draw in the game.

Rory McIlroy — It has been an interesting past 15 months for Rory McIlroy, who had a rough 2013 but seemed to turn it around this year, winning the BMW PGA Championship last month to get us all pumped to see how he would do in his first major after a big win like the one at Wentworth. Rory’s Friday 68 had us thinking he might be the one to come out and put some heat on Kaymer, but on Saturday he made five bogeys on his way out, and shot 7-over on the weekend to drop out of the top-20. McIlroy is a rare talent, but it seems when things start going south he has no way of saving them.

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Shane Bacon is the editor of Devil Ball Golf and Busted Racquet on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shanebaconblogs@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter at @ShaneBacon!

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