PINEHURST, N.C. – The chances of Retief Goosen being on the wrong side of one of the worst collapses in major championship history are about as great as Goosen becoming a stand-up comic in his next life.
That, however, is what occurred before disbelieving eyes yesterday. Goosen, seeking his third U.S. Open title and second in a row, not only blew the three-shot lead he took into the final round, he single-handedly obliterated it.
Goosen couldn’t believe it. His caddie, Colin Byrne, couldn’t believe it. Goosen’s opponents couldn’t believe it. The galleries sat stunned as Goosen frittered away his lead faster than a leaky baseball bullpen.
“It’s a shock,” Byrne said afterward in the quiet of the locker room. “Putting that badly . . . I haven’t seen him putt that badly . . . you can fluke a few in at least. As well as he putted at Shinnecock last year, he putted equally as badly today.”
Goosen called his play “rubbish.”
“It happened to Ernie [Els] last year, and it was my turn this year,” Goosen said. “It was unfortunate. I just couldn’t find the hole on the greens and that was really the end of the story.”
Olin Browne, asked if he were shocked at Goosen’s score, said, “Well, that ought to bring it into crystal clarity how difficult the conditions were. A player of [Goosen’s] stature, who was apparently in control of every facet of his game, got his [butt] handed to him much like the rest of us. That’s just the nature of this game.”
Goosen, in his usual calm demeanor, didn’t set off alarms with anger or embarrassment.
“This is nothing serious,” he said. “Nobody has died, I think, or anything. I had a great Father’s Day this morning with the kid, and the family is a lot more important than playing anyone out there today, but it was disappointing. I would obviously loved to have been up there giving myself half a chance going down the strip, but next time.”
Goosen took the drama out of his round pretty quickly, carding a double bogey on No. 2, which suddenly left him with a mere one-shot lead. He bogeyed Nos. 3, 5 and 6 to lose his lead en route to a 6-over 41 on the front.