AFTER one of the most enthralling, if not the most skilful, US Opens of recent years, Colin Montgomerie’s incorrect choice of club at the last hole allowed Geoff Ogilvy, of Australia, to emerge victorious.
As one experienced player after another fell by the wayside at Winged Foot here last night, Ogilvy’s last round, a 72, was good enough for him to edge past Phil Mickelson, Montgomerie and Jim Furyk to claim the title by one stroke, with a total of 285.
Juli Ogilvy, who is three months’ pregnant, fell into the arms of her husband as first Montgomerie and then Mickelson failed to match his total of five over par.
Montgomerie stood in the middle of the 18th fairway with 172 yards to the flag and a first major title at his mercy. He picked a six-iron for the shot but then changed his mind and took a seven-iron out of the bag. The result was a shot that finished short right, in “position Z”, as Montgomerie put it.
A chip and three putts later, Montgomerie knew that his chance had gone. A par would have won the title and a bogey would have put him in a play-off. The Scot said: “I just hit the wrong club at the last hole. I hit a seven-iron instead of a six and hit it slightly heavy anyway. I was factoring in adrenalin, which normally makes me hit the ball ten yards further. All I can do is come back and try again.
“I only just missed the putt for a bogey on the last. Sometimes you do wonder why you put yourself through this, but this is what it is all about. This performance gives me a lot of confidence to move forward.”
Mickelson will also rue his extraordinary collapse over the last few holes. Two strokes ahead at three over par on the 16th tee, he had to withstand a body blow from Montgomerie, who birdied the 17th by holing a putt as long as a cricket pitch to move to four over par. Mickelson dropped a stroke on the 16th, when his second shot ended in a fried-egg lie in a bunker.
Mickelson also needed a par to win at the last, a five to force a play-off with the unfancied Australian. The American sliced his drive fiercely and it rebounded from the roof of an exhibition tent that lined the last fairway. He rushed his second shot, hit his third into another bunker and when he failed to get down in five, the trophy belonged to Ogilvy. Thus did the left-hander fail to make golf history. Victory here would have enabled him to join a band of five men who have won the first two major championships of the year.
Montgomerie was hoping to celebrate his 43rd birthday in four days having won the first major championship of his career yesterday, but though he made a promising start to his final round and at one point shared the lead, the first-round leader fell out of contention until that huge putt on the 71st. He may never again have such an opportunity to win one of the game’s greatest prizes.
In truth, Mickelson should have made sure of it long before the closing holes of this demanding, par-70 course. Again and again he made matters difficult for himself with erratic driving, erratic approach play or missed putts. If hard work determines the outcome of a major championship then Mickelson would have won by Saturday evening. He had made six visits to this fiendishly difficult course, totalling nine days in all, and as he moved clear of his rivals with four holes remaining, it seemed that all his hard work had paid off.
They say that the closing holes of a major championship are as much about courage as about skill. That was certainly how it was in the New York heat as Kenneth Ferrie, the Englishman who has been the improbable hero of the week, slipped out of contention to finish three strokes off the lead. Ferrie won the hearts of a New York crowd, surprisingly for a man playing in his first major championship and only his third tournament in the US.
It might be a bit strong to say Ferrie’s success was down to beginner’s luck but as this was only the third time he had competed on this side of the Atlantic and neither of the other events was the US Open, it was clear that he did not carry some of the mental baggage about the US Open that affects some of his countrymen.
In the US Ferrie has been the man with the Superman belt buckle, the man who once weighed 280lb and is now 55lb lighter; “280” someone joked. “Doesn’t that usually win the Open?” To Americans, Ferrie has appeared “a regular Joe”. “Diet and gym — ugh” he said revealingly. For Montgomerie, winning new friends was not enough.