Tiger Woods was the favorite to win the U.S. Open, but a few shots in the opening round may have cost him the title.
Jun. 23, 2009
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The Monday finish at the U.S. Open caused this edition of Monday Backspin to run on Tuesday. What are our writers thinking about after last week's tournament at Bethpage Black?
TIGER TRACKS: How badly do you think Tiger Woods would like to have the four strokes back that he pretty much gave away at the end of the first round of last week's U.S. Open? Of course, you could say that about a lot of guys, but a lot of guys aren't Tiger Woods.
No one is.
Woods might've been the biggest prohibitive favorite to win at Bethpage Black since, well, himself the last time the U.S. Open was played there in 2002. Coming off an impressive win at the Memorial Tournament, the talk was all Tiger last week. And why wouldn't it be?
But his performance at the end of Round 1 isn't some damnation of his game or some sort of cause for any concern. It's just golf. It's fickle and finicky and even the best player in the world can fall prey to that from time to time. Woods might be all about winning, but he still hasn't finished outside the top 10 in a stroke-play event this year. He's also first in scoring, second in earnings and third in the FedExCup.
Only one stat matters to Woods, though. Winning. He didn't win last week, but he will do so again and probably soon. And remember, still no one has more wins than Woods this year already. -- Brian Wacker
MICKELSON'S MAGIC: It was hard not to be impressed by Phil Mickelson's performance at Bethpage Black. He hung around the edge of contention all week and he gave himself a chance to win on Monday when he rolled in a 5-footer for eagle at the 13 th hole to tie Lucas Glover at 4 under.
Yes, Lefty made ill-timed bogeys at the next two odd-numbered holes to drop back into a tie for second, the fifth of his career, at the U.S. Open. But he nearly brought home the big silver trophy to put in his wife Amy's hospital room -- just as she requested. That performance took an enormous amount of focus during a time of extreme uncertainty in their lives.
Mickelson has already said it's likely that he won't play next month's British Open that will be held just two weeks after Amy's surgery. And depending on what he always calls "our" treatment, Mickelson may not be able to play in the season's final major, the PGA Championship, either. That's the least of his concerns, though. He'll have other chances to add to three majors, but Phil is doing what he needs to do right now. -- Helen Ross
A PERFECT VENUE: In discussing Bethpage Black after his final-round Monday, Phil Mickelson had a terrific thought. "I just keep thinking that this is like the ideal spot to hold the Ryder Cup," Mickelson said. "The golf course is terrific ... and the way the fans are, I think that we'd" -- meaning the United States team -- "have a big advantage."
If it happens, though, it won't be until 2024 at the earliest. That's because the PGA of America has already picked out its next three Ryder Cup venues (Medinah in 2012, Hazeltine in 2016 and Whistling Straights in 2020).
Long Island in the fall couldn't be any worse than the summer showers that drenched this year's U.S. Open, and Mickelson is right about the vocal support the U.S. team would receive. But if Bethpage Black were to host the 2024 Ryder Cup, Mickelson would be 54. Hmmm, sounds like a good age to be Ryder Cup Captain. -- Mike McAllister
NO QUIT IN DUVAL: David Duval doesn't quit. He didn't give up over the last decade, when many people assumed he was finished in golf. Once the world's top-ranked golfer, Duval had dropped to 882nd in the Official World Golf Ranking before the week began at Bethpage Black. You heard the stats all week. Duval hadn't earned a top-10 finish since 2002. His last win came at the 2001 British Open. He had missed eight cuts in 14 starts this year.
So how could he possibly have tied for second at the U.S. Open? It's easy -- perseverance, determination and a lot of confidence.
"It may be arrogance, but it's where I feel like I belong," Duval said after his final-round 71. "I had no question in my mind I was going to win the golf tournament."
Duval's hopes for major glory -- and a major comeback -- appeared to be dashed when he made a triple bogey on the third hole in the final round. But he rebounded with five birdies and just two bogeys over the next 15 holes.
Of his performance after that triple bogey, Duval simply said, "I don't quit."
He proved that more than once this week. -- Lauren Deason
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| Stock up |
Phil Mickelson: The two costly bogeys over his last four holes simply can't happen at a U.S. Open. They have before for Mickelson, though, and they did again, but his fifth career runner-up came on the heels of uncertain expectations. He didn't finish it off, but played great again.
FedExCup rank: 1 (7 last week) |
David Duval: He's been telling us for a while that he's close. He went so far as to say a month or so ago that he felt he was one of the top 10 players in the world -- still. Well, we'd better start listening after the kind of golf he played last week on his way to a runner-up finish.
FedExCup rank: T115 (207 last week) |
Ian Poulter: He deserves to be in this category just for his Twittering alone (more on that in Quick 18). On the course, Poulter's final-round 67 was the lowest score of the round and included a back-nine 32. A T18 was also the second-best U.S. Open finish of his career.
FedExCup rank: 22 (28 last week) |
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| Stock down |
Mike Weir: Weir's matching weekend 74s aren't going to win much, especially not a U.S. Open. That's a 10-shot swing from his opening 64, when it looked like Weir had a shot at his second major title. It was a disjointed week for all players, but he had one of the most lopsided performances.
FedExCup rank: 20 (27 last week) |
Padraig Harrington: Back-to-back 76s led to another missed cut for last year's two-time major winner. Harrington knows his game better than any of us, but you know the saying if it ain't broke don't fix it? That's the fickle nature of great players, though.
FedExCup rank: 112 (108 last week) |
David Toms: He was the only guy to break 70 in the opening round and still miss the cut. That's what happens when you shoot a 76 in the second round. With five bogeys and one double, Toms vanished off the leaderboard. At least he got to play on Saturday, though.
FedExCup rank: 14 (12 last week) |
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| A Quick 18 |
| Front Nine | Back Nine |
| Ricky Barnes, meet Jason Gore. You have to feel for Barnes, a likeable, easy-going guy who has been nowhere to be seen since winning the 2002 U.S. Amateur. The wheels started coming off Sunday night and not even play being called for darkness could save him. | What a bizarre week of weather. Mid-June and it was rainy and borderline cold with temperatures topping out in the 60s most of the time. It was the type of stuff you'd expect to see in the fall or spring, not the middle of summer in New York. |
| How tough is it to defend a U.S. Open? Since 1991, Tiger Woods and Retief Goosen are the only defending champions to finish better than 40th in the defense of their title -- Goosen finished T11 in 2005, while Woods finished 12th in 2001, 20th in 2003 and T6 in 2009. | Craig Currier and his staff can't be congratulated enough, if they're actually awake right now to receive those congratulations after working all night a lot of the time to get Bethpage Black playable. Not a single player complained about the course condition, either. |
| Phil Mickelson is more this generation's Arnold Palmer than he is Jack Nicklaus, but Mickelson's runner-up finish is the 22nd of his career and fifth at a U.S. Open, more than anyone else. Those are very Nicklausian numbers. Now only if he had 18 majors... | Two questions asked a lot last week were if the USGA would consider playing lift, clean and place and, had the weather continued to be a major problem, would they shorten the event. The answer, of course, was no. Majors are a different breed of tournament, folks. |
| The runner-up finish for David Duval, the 13th of his career, is his first top-10 finish since a tie for sixth at the 2002 Invensys Classic at Las Vegas. That's a span of 116 tournaments. It's also his best result since a playoff loss at the 2001 Buick Challenge. | All that weather, while difficult on tournament officials and grounds staff, also made Bethpage Black particularly easy, at least the first couple of rounds. The 4-over cut line was one of the lower ones in tournament history. |
| Duval's last top-10 in a major came at the 2001 PGA Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club. That's a span of 18 majors for Duval, who missed the cut in 13 of them and withdrew from another. It was also his best-ever finish in a U.S. Open. | Forget all the weather and all the traffic. Is there a better host city for a U.S. Open than New York? Pebble Beach is certainly up there and some would argue Pinehurst, but given the atmosphere and the courses, no place beats New York. |
| Continuing with firsts at the U.S. Open, a number of players posted their best finish in a major championship. Obviously, Glover tops the list and Barnes (T2) is next. Add Ross Fisher (fifth), Soren Hansen (T6), Hunter Mahan (T6), Rory McIlroy (T10) and Matt Bettencourt (T10). | Shot of the week: Amateur Nathan Tyler, needing to hole out from deep in the fescue to make the cut, hit the ball about an inch, if that. He then took a one-armed stab at it with the toe of the club, popped it out into a bunker then quickly holed out from that bunker. |
| And along those lines, three players have top-10 finishes in the first two majors of the year: Phil Mickelson (5th Masters, 2nd U.S. Open), Tiger Woods (T6, T6) and Hunter Mahan (T10/T6). That's pretty heady company for Mahan, who appears to be finally living up to the hype. | Ian Poulter has a new No. 1 fan after giving a pair of Sunday tickets to Bradley Wilks, who drove 6 hours to get there. Pouter gave the spare tickets away via his Twitter feed (@ianjamespoulter) and even met Wilks to deliver them. How cool is that? |
| Remember, Mahan was the guy who Barnes beat in the 36-hole final at the 2002 U.S. Amateur. Their career paths have been vastly different with Mahan having more, albeit mild, success. We've been waiting for Mahan to really breakout since, though, and he might be ready to. | Speaking of Poulter and his "tweeting," he did a terrific job of it during a difficult week. Yet there was Poulter, posting pictures, offering jokes and insight, keeping fans informed. He's a guy who gets it and fans benefit from that. |
| Glover, who hadn't won on TOUR since 2005, became just the fourth twentysomething to get a victory this year, joining Nick Watney, Dustin Johnson and Sean O'Hair. That group has a ways to go to catch the thirtysomethings and their 17 wins. | Tragic news about Chris Smith's wife, Beth, who was killed in a car accident over the weekend. The couple's two kids were also critically injured. Jerry Kelly spoke to Smith Monday night and could barely talk about it. Say a prayer for the Smiths, folks. |
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| The Forward Spin |
After a water-logged week at Bethpage Black, players headed to the Travelers Championship were greeted by weather only slightly better with more rain and wind lingering in the Hartford area early in the week. The good news is the forecast should improve. The bad news is, its' a quick turnaround for the guys like Anthony Kim, and yep, Lucas Glover. The newly minted U.S. Open champion is scheduled to play there this week. So are Sergio Garcia, Vijay Singh and Stewart Cink.
The other half of the news surrounding what could be one of the best fields in tournament history is that, like Cink, PGATOUR.COM will have quite a Twitter presence throughout the week, starting with Wednesday's celebrity pro-am, which will feature, among others, Joe Pesci, Luke Wilson, Roger Staubach and Sandy Koufax. We'll have Q&As with each of them, Twitter from the pro-am and fans will be able to vote on which specific groups yours truly will follow throughout the week. There will also be LIVE@ coverage from the course and a few other bells and whistles along the way. |
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PGATOUR.COM's Brian Wacker wrote Stock Up, Stock Down, A Quick 18 and Forward Spin. For more news and insight from him, follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/pgatour_brianw.
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