Ogilvy Wins U.S. Open
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Geoff Ogilvy captured the U.S. Open Sunday after huge collapses by Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie, among others.
Ogilvy holed out a masterful par-saving chip on 17, and it would prove to be the difference in one of the wildest U.S. Open finishes ever. He also gutted out a tough up and down on 18, including a slippery putt, to finish at +5... Then, he sat back and watched the rest of the field implode before his eyes.
After his drive on 18, Montgomerie (who still has never won a major) had a share of the lead and a great angle to the pin, but he inexplicably switched clubs just before the shot, and sent his approach sailing into the rough, a miscue from which he would never recover. He made double bogey on the hole and finished just one stroke off the lead.
Mickelson's bungling of 18 was even worse: His drive caromed off a hospitality tent, and his second shot from trouble struck a tree and went only 25 yards. When the dust cleared, Mickelson had also made double bogey, and had blown what looked like a certain victory just two holes earlier.
Mickelson and Montgomerie aren't the only ones who will ponder what might have been, though. Jim Furyk missed a late putt that would have given him a tie for the lead, and Padraig Harrington bogeyed the final three holes of the tournament after not having made a single bogey in his first 15 holes Sunday; he would finish two shots behind Ogilvy. Englishman Kenneth Ferrie's cinderella story came to a crashing halt on Winged Foot's Back 9 Sunday as well, as he shot a 39 coming in and finished tied for sixth.
"I think I was the beneficiary of a little bit of charity," Ogilvy said after the carnage on 18. Still, it was a well-deserved victory for the Aussie on a day in which the course was the real winner. No one finished under par for the tournament, and Ogilvy's +5 was the highest winning score to par at a major since Hale Irwin's U.S. Open in 1974 -- at Winged Foot.
Source
- http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/usopen06/news/story?id=2490383
- http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/leaderboard
Date
Sun 06/18/06, 4:46 pm EST
