The US Open is unique – it’s more like watching a train wreck than a golf tournament. The setup of the course is brutal. On many holes par is a good result – miss the fairway and you’re in knee deep rough and in serious Barney Rubble. Miss the dance floor by little more than a couple of feet and you’re agate buries in wrist breaking three inch high shagpile. It is the ultimate test; any player breaking par for the tournament has a great chance to win. Case in point our own Geoff Ogilvy – he won his US Open in 2006 from inside the Clubhouse as the trailing field stumbled to the line - with 5 over par for the four rounds.
This year’s Open at Merion in Pennsylvania was no different. The course was tighter than an Italian Tenor’s trousers. Players were hacking out of thick matted rough only metres from a pristine fairway. Nerves tested to the limit, players putting for par on a surface akin to putting on the bonnet of a VW Beetle.
Coming down the final stretch of holes the quartet of Rose, Mickleson, Mahan and our own Jason Day would provide the winner. With a handful of holes to play it was Rose at even par, the only player level with the par for the course.
Birthday boy Phil Mickleson started the day in front in his 23rd US Open appearance – I couldn’t believe he hadn’t won one yet! He was scrambling until he made an eagle half way through his round, now in the last few holes he was challenging.
Mahan looked more like a porn star than a golfer, sporting a hideous moustache and bum fluff on his chin. He too was right in the mix.
And “our” Jason Day just looks made of the right stuff in the Majors. In the past couple of years he’s given them a real shake. This right stuff continued as he Pied Pipered the field back to the club house. Clutch par saving putts on 16 and 17 saw him at the 18th tee on 2 over – only one shot shy of the other three after Rose bogeyed the 16th to join them at one over the card. If Day could par the ball breaking 18th and post two over, he was a real chance of sitting back in the scoring hut to watch the others burn and crash and hand him a major. Well that was my Monday morning dream anyway!
Day’s drive found the left rough a couple of feet off the cut stuff. Not ideal as the rough, even the mown first cut, was brutal. Behind Rose played a beauty on 17, Mickleson chipped from on the green at 15, but caught it thin made bogey. Mahan made double bogey on the same hole.
Rose made his putt on seventeen to lead by one from Mickleson and Day, who put his second in the bunker and then recovered to 6 feet. If Jason could par on the hardest hole on the course (one that barely had yielded a birdie during the entire championship) he was a real chance to either win or be in a playoff! My fingers and toes were as crossed as Luke Donald’s eyes.
My excitement and anticipation was quickly extinguished – his kangaroo labelled ball caught the lip of the hole, rode the edge for about 90 degrees and spat out the other side. Day made bogey while Rose crunched one up the guts behind. Day was two shots behind now – it wasn’t going to be two out of two major’s for Australia – but we were having a great run of late in the big ones!
Rose hit a cracking second, just trickling through the green on 18, followed by a beautiful chip with his rescue nearly holing for bird. Rose looked skyward and kissed his ball – finishing on one under. He knew he was in the box seat one shot ahead of Mickleson who had just parred 17. It was now down to these two as Hunter Mahan bogeyed 17 and slipped to be three off the pace.
The equation was simple; Phil Mickleson needed a birdie on the final hole for the best birthday present possible - to force a playoff with England’s Justin Rose.
He ripped his drive and dragged it left, but he wasn’t over. His ball was sitting up but he needed to hit a miracle shot. He left it well short of the green so as Rose waited in the clubhouse with his caddy and wife, Mickleson needed to hole a long pitch to make all his dreams come true. The ball ran past the wicker basket topped flag stick and Rose hugged his wife – the 2013 US Champion had been decided. Mickleson missed his par saving putt and finished two adrift – level with Jason Day in second place – the sixth time Mickleson had finished runner-up in the US Open leaving him (still) without a national crown. And Day finished second with him – adding to his 3rd place at this year’s Masters and impressive list of performances in major’s over the past few. He finished 2nd in the 2011 Masters, 2nd in the US Open that same year and he finished 10th at the PGA in 2010.
As the Mother Country salutes their new Rose, I’d say only time stands between Australia and the crowning of another major winner from our shores. Jason Day keeps putting his name in the mix – surely he will be our next major champion - his day will come!
Article from July edition of Hacker Magazine - click here to order