No thrill for Phil
Phil Mickelson will not soon forget this heartbreak. Seemingly in control of his game and his emotions, Lefty entered the final three holes of the U.S. Open with a two-shot lead but bogeyed No. 16 and double-bogeyed 18 to hand the title to Geoff Ogilvy.
By T.J. Auclair, Junior Editor
MAMARONECK, N.Y. -- There will be no "Mickel-Slam."
The 1974 U.S. Open here at Winged Foot is regarded as the "Massacre at Winged Foot," which Hale Irwin won at 7 over par. It was then that former USGA championship committee chairman Sandy Tatum famously said, "We're not trying to humiliate the best players in the world. We're simply trying to identify who they are."
It could be argued that the 2006 edition of the national championship was the sequel to the '74 horror show.
In arguably the most monumental collapse of his impressive career, Phil Mickelson double-bogeyed the 72nd hole of the 106th U.S. Open at Winged Foot Golf Club to hand the trophy to resilient Australian Geoff Ogilvy on a brutally hot and humid Father's Day Sunday.
"I don't know," said a stunned Ogilvy. "It's hard to -- I don't know. It's slightly sinking in. It's pretty special."
Mickelson was looking to join Tiger Woods as the only other player in 50 years to win at least three majors in succession.
Moments before Mickelson's train-wreak, Ogilvy rolled home an 8-footer for par at the last to post 2-over-par 72, good for what ended up being a winning 5-over-par, 285 total. That was one better than Mickelson, Colin Montgomerie and Jim Furyk. Ogilvy became the first Australian since Steve Elkington at the 1995 PGA Championship to win a major.
"It's pretty scary," the 29-year-old Ogilvy, who chipped in for par at the 17th, said. "I knew it would come, and the Australian press has been starting to ask the question, when is it going to happen? I honestly didn't think it would be me. But you never think it's going to be you. It's kind of bizarre."
After bogeying the par-5 16th, Mickelson stood on the 18th tee box with a one-shot lead. After having problems with his driver all week and making magical recoveries, he tempted fate once too often.
With a driver in hand, Mickelson hit a wild push that flew over the trees, carromed off a hospitality tent and came to rest on a patch of trampled-down grass. With trees obstructing his view to the green, Mickelson's over-aggressive nature overcame him and he attempted to hit a miraculous cut around the trees. What ensued was a nightmare.
The ball didn't cut early enough, instead striking a tree and sending the ball back to Mickelson. He managed to pull off the cut the second time around, but overcooked it and wound up with a terrible buried lie in the left greenside bunker. From there, he sent the sand shot through the green and got up and down for double-bogey as Ogilvy celebrated his maiden major victory with his wife in the scorer's tent.
"I still am in shock that I did that," Mickelson said after his final round 5-over-par 75. "I just can't believe that I did that. I am such an idiot. I just couldn't hit a fairway all day. I just couldn't hit a fairway all day. I tried to go to my bread-and-butter shot, a baby carve slice on 18 and just get into the fairway and I missed it left. It was still OK, wasn't too bad. I just can't believe I couldn't par the last hole. It really stings. As a kid I dreamt of winning this tournament. I came out here and worked hard all four days, haven't made a bogey all week [on No. 18] and then bogeyed the last hole. Even a bogey would have gotten me into a playoff. I just can't believe I did that."
Mickelson broke through to win his first of three majors at the 2004 Masters, but he has had many close calls in the four big ones, particularly the U.S. Open. He lost to Payne Stewart by a shot in 1999 at Pinehurst, finished second to Woods at Bethpage Black in 2002 and had a late three-putt in the final round in 2004 that took him out of contention at Shinnecock. However, of all those gut-wrenching defeats, none compared to his latest.
"This one hurts more than any other tournament because I had it won," he said. "I came out here a week or two ago in the evenings, just spending the evenings on the last four holes thinking that I would just need to make four pars, that there's a good chance if I can make four pars on Sunday, I could do it. I made a good par on 15, bogeyed 16 and doubled 18. So, it hurts because I had it in my grasp and just let it go, as opposed to somebody making a long putt or what have you."
Mickelson wasn't the only player with a heartbreaking crash.
All of Montgomerie's past major championship snubs -- including two seconds and a third at the U.S. Open -- seemed as if they'd be reconciled by one sweet stroke of the putter when he holed a tremendous left-to-right bender from 60 feet on No. 17 for a share of the lead with Mickelson at 4 over par.
However, Monty fanned his approach shot from a perfect lie in the fairway 171 yards from the hole and into the heavy, thick, nasty rough to the right of the green. Four shots later, Montgomerie had a double-bogey six and fell to 6 over par.
"This is as difficult as it gets," Montgomerie admitted. "You wonder sometimes why you put yourself through this. I doubled the last there and Phil holed a very good putt to double the last. It's a very tricky hole, but it shouldn't be that tricky from the fairway. That's my strength normally. I hit the wrong club for my second shot. We put ourselves into poor position after two shots, and then it was difficult from then on because that green is very fast."
For a long time it looked to be anyone's game. At No. 14, Montgomerie missed a par putt from six feet to drop to 5 over. Furyk dropped to 5 over on No. 15 when he three-putted from 20 feet. His birdie putt was eight feet short of the hole. Ogilvy missed a six-footer on 14.
Through 15 holes, Irishman Padraig Harrington had the tournament's only bogey-free round in the works, but tripped up after missing a 12-footer for par at No. 16, followed by another bogey at No. 17 to drop three shots behind at 6 over par. His third straight bogey came at No. 18 and he finished alone in fifth at 7 over par.
Mickelson bogeyed three of his last five holes on the front. He made three solid pars to start the round before carding a birdie at No. 4 by canning a 15-footer for a temporary one-shot lead. With a crazy bogey at No. 6, where his ball advanced no more than a foot after he tried to hit a fairway wood out of a buried lie in the rough from 140 yards out, Mickelson dropped back to 2 over par with 54-hole co-leader Kenneth Ferrie, who shot a 76 in the final round and finished in a tie for sixth with Nick O'Hearn, Jeff Sluman, Mike Weir, Steve Stricker and Vijay Singh at 8 over par.
In the meantime, Montgomerie was putting on a front-nine charge. The Scot started the day at 5 over par, but picked up two birdies on the front to make the turn at 3 over, before taking a bogey at No. 10.
Ogilvy, who has played great in 2006, winning the World Match Play Championship at La Costa in February, birdied Nos. 5 and 6 -- both on putts inside 10 feet -- to briefly grab sole-possession of the lead at 1 over par.
He bogeyed Nos. 8 and 9 to go back to 3 over, but Mickelson and Ferrie each bogeyed No. 7 to go to 3 over, creating a four-way tie for the lead. Ferrie dropped another shot when he missed a lengthy par putt at No. 8.
At 5 over par, Furyk was just two shots off the lead through 11 holes, but picked up two bogeys coming in, including one on the 18th hole.
"I played my heart out," said Furyk, the 2003 champion.
The National Weather Service was predicting a high of 91 degrees during the final round. It was expected to be the hottest June 18 on record since 1929, the year Winged Foot hosted its first U.S. Open. The record in Central Park that year was 95 degrees. The temperature was 94 degrees when the leaders teed off at 3 p.m.
The crowds serenaded Mickelson with showers of cheers and well wishes as he arrived to the first tee box with Ferrie. Both players started the final round at 2 over par, one-shot better than Ogilvy. Mickelson had previously won eight of the last nine events he had been leading, or co-leading after 54 holes.
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