Glover ruins 2 great stories

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This article was published 23/06/2009 (6261 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Phil Mickelson was inches away from authoring the kind of story that would have had his female fans weeping all over their newspapers.

David Duval came within a hair of being the only man who ever returned from career rigor mortis to win a major golf championship. And we thank them for putting a little juice into an otherwise anticlimactic Monday.

But happily, at least for the sanity of all those who slogged through five days of underfoot goop and an overdose of Long Island weather, Lucas Glover settled his jangled nerves just in time to survive a final day of universal suffering, and outlast everyone to win the U.S. Open by two strokes.

The USGA got its 72-hole winner, and it only took until Monday. And if the final act was like watching a train engine run out of steam on a severe upslope and start backing up, taking the entire payload with it down the tracks… well, that’s only because Bethpage Black took three days to dry out enough to show the kind of monster it can be.

Among those it took down with it Monday were Ricky Barnes, who led after 36 and 54 holes but crumbled under the weight of final-round major pressure and closed with a 76 to fall back in a tie with Mickelson and Duval — and Canada’s Mike Weir, who was tied for fifth after three rounds, but couldn’t stop the hemorrhaging that had begun Sunday, and shot his second straight 74. He finished tied with Calgary’s Stephen Ames for 10th.

There may not be a single player in the top 15, Glover excepted, who didn’t leave the course Monday muttering “If only I had/hadn’t (fill in missed opportunity here).”

The trophy was begging to be taken, and at least a dozen pairs of hands let it slip away.

In the end, a three-over-par 73 by Glover was good enough, and his subdued celebration of the winning par putt on No. 18 was like the merciful period at the end of a run-on sentence.

“I don’t know if I have enough energy to do anything crazy. It was a long week, and that’s the first time I’ve contended in a major — and mentally, I was done,” said the 29-year-old Glover, who had won only once previously on the PGA Tour, four years ago at Walt Disney World.

“I don’t think I could have thought up a good celebration.”

Mickelson, at two-under, and Tiger Woods, who was even par when Monday dawned, were long shots but not out of it. But birdies were so difficult to come by, there really wasn’t much chance of anyone making a major run. Woods shot 69-68-69 the final three rounds, but his opening 74 was too much to overcome.

Mickelson was hanging around the fringes, then made a birdie at the 12th and a dramatic eagle at the 13th, and found himself in a share of the lead. He bogeyed the next, though, and he and Duval were unable to get up-and-down for par out of the greenside rough at the par-3 17th, and all Glover had to do was hang on.

Weir had nothing going — he had bogeyed the third hole, and couldn’t find a fairway, but holed out for birdie from a greenside bunker at No. 7. Suddenly, he was tied for fourth. Then he missed a five-footer for par at the par-3 eighth, and fell out of it for good with a bogey at the 15th and a double at No. 16.

“In a U.S. Open, if you don’t hit the driver you’re going to find some trouble at some point, and I found some,” said Weir, who hit only 48 per cent of the fairways off the tee all week. “But I had a chance today. I just needed a putt to drop to get some momentum.”

— Canwest News Service