It was somewhat fitting of the week that was in it that the 115th US Open would be decided on the final green not by a long putt but an error. Dustin Johnson will want to forget his three-putt par from 12 feet, when two putts would have given him a play-off with champion Spieth, in a hurry. Johnson feels he hit a good putt and closer inspection suggests that the ball did indeed jump on him. Unfortunately for him, he was left relying on greens that have been compared to vegetables, goat tracks and even sparked some interpretative dance in frustration from Billy Horschel.

He was beaten on the day by Jordan Spieth. He was the last man standing the so-called ‘Chamber of Horrors’. He also made mistakes but his mistakes were less destructive than the rest. It was difficult and it had a very different tone to his Masters triumph but it showed the versatility of young Jordan Spieth, who is now in completely uncharted territory with two major championship under his belt before the age of 22.

For Johnson however, this is the one that definitely got away. ‘DJ’ drove the ball spectacularly all week, hit some fantastic wedges and putted well. The tournament seemed to be in his control entering the back nine before he stumbled with what is usually his Achilles heel, short iron shots and putting. From good positions at 10, 11 and 12, he played the stretch in two over par, giving a crucial few shots back to the field. It appeared to be another close miss for the talented Californian.

Spieth charged through the door that Johnson and Branden Grace left open – Grace double bogeyed the 16th hole after a wayward tee shot – with a long-range birdie putt at 16. The uncharacteristically, Spieth hit a horrible iron shot which left him in thick rough on the very next hole. It showed that no win is a formality and the resulting double bogey brought Johnson and Louis Oosthuizen (who shot 29 on the back nine) back into the tournament. When Johnson birdied 17, it was back to all to play for on the final hole with three players at -4. Spieth did his part to separate himself from Oosthuizen with a tap-in birdie putt but with Dustin Johnson’s length, there was a very high chance that Johnson would get at least a birdie to tie.

DJ hit one of his best drives of the week up the 18th hole and he hit a sweet 5 iron to the green. His caddy knew just how good it was, calling it a ‘beauty’ from the moment it left his club. His shot was all over the pin and it left him a 12 foot downhill putt to win the tournament outright with an eagle. Unfortunately for Dustin, he will never get much credit for those two shots because of what followed. He did not hide from the challenge of holing a putt to win the US Open but perhaps he could have laid it up slightly easier. It is easy to say that from here because it was a devilish downhill putt. It is the second putt that will give Johnson nightmares. Johnson left a four-foot uphiller on the low side to make a US Open play off. It added more anguish to his major championship career At 30 years old, he has now failed to seize the opportunity at a major on several occasions and the longer his wait goes on, the harder it becomes – see Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood.

For Spieth, it is another string to his bow in what has been an incredible year. His maturity at age 21 beggars belief. Spieth simply hung around all week and never left the leaderboard. He watched his opponents drop like flies. It is a credit to the Texan that from Friday onwards, there was a sense of inevitability that his opponents would have to beat him, he was not going to lose it. This enviable trait helped Jack Nicklaus to 18 major titles and it seems like Spieth has nailed it down already. Spieth is now an intimidating proposition to come up against because his opponents know how solid he is in all aspects of his game. They also know that he can hole a putt from anywhere on the green with his trusty Scotty Cameron putter. To develop such a standing in the game at such a young age shows that Spieth is a very special player in the making.

Spieth’s exploits at Chambers Bay will give the Open Championship an extra buzz as he heads to St. Andrews halfway towards the single-year Grand Slam, which is really the pinnacle of golfing achievement. Despite winning two majors in a row, Spieth is still only second in the world rankings, which speaks for the quality of the player above him. Another win from Spieth will not have sat well with Rory McIlroy, whose thunder has been stolen by golf’s new golden boy. McIlroy demonstrated his undeniable ability on Sunday with a sparkling run of birdies – at one point threatening the lowest score record in major championship history – before a poor finish brought his comeback to a standstill. McIlroy’s ball striking was superb at the weekend but he really struggled on the greens. St. Andrews sets up well for McIlroy in July but he will need his putter on fine form if he is to stop the young pretender at the top of his game making it three in a row.