2001 - GOOSEN CROWNED CHAMPION

By Mark Garrod, PA Sport Golf Correspondent, Tulsa

South African Retief Goosen, guilty on Sunday night of what Johnny Miller called the worst three-putt in golf history, fully redeemed himself on Monday to become the most unexpected winner of a major since Paul Lawrie.

Goosen won his United States Open play-off with American Mark Brooks by two strokes after the pair had been forced to spend another 24 hours in Tulsa because of his two-foot gaffe on the 72nd hole.

Scoring a level par to the 72 of Brooks, the 32-year-old European tour player saved himself from being remembered as the man whose three putts from 10 feet cost him 278,000 US dollars.

Instead Goosen returns to his Surrey home 676,000 US dollars the richer, top of the Order of Merit, up to a career-high 26th in the world rankings and his country's third winner of the title following Gary Player and Ernie Els.

There is also the promise of millions to come from sponsorship deals and appearance fees, but a place on the US Tour for the next five years if he wants it.

"It's amazing," he said. "I don't want to consider what it would have felt like if I had lost."

While many thought he would be bearing too deep a mental scar from what happened on the final green in regulation play, it was in fact 1996 US PGA winner Brooks who failed to rise to the occasion.

Regaining his sure touch on the greens - he had just 12 putts in the first 10 holes - Goosen took a five-shot lead into the last eight holes.

His Texan opponent, who had himself three-putted the 72nd and was clearing out his locker until first Stewart Cink double-bogeyed the same hole and then Goosen's mind went awol, had chances to narrow the gap on both the 12th and 13th.

But he duffed a pitch at the first of those and took two in a bunker at the latter.

They was still five between them with only two to play, but at the 17th Goosen flew the green and bogeyed, while Brooks holed from 14 feet for birdie.

Down to three, but although Goosen came up short of the last green and three-putted from there, this time he could have taken four and still won once Brooks had failed to hole from a greenside bunker.

It was still a little nervy as Goosen left himself a six-footer for bogey, but he made it to complete a day's work that should never have been necessary

Of the three putts on Sunday evening he reflected: "I hit the first putt too hard through the break.

"I can't explain the second one, though. There was no way mine should have gone right like it did.

"But if someone had offered me an 18-hole play-off for the US Open at the start of the week I would have taken it and I hope my experience in the Dunhill Cup will help me."

Goosen won all his 10 matches in South Africa's two wins in 1997 and 1998, a performance which prompted teammate Els to say he was good enough to follow him into the major winners' enclosure. Now he has.

The two were junior Springbok rivals, but Goosen had to accept he was in the shadows when Els burst onto the professional scene by winning the South African Open, PGA and Masters titles in 1992.

By then Goosen had had a harrowing experience at home, being struck by lightning and being left with an irregular heart-beat.

He still turned pro just a year later than Els, in 1990, and won the European tour qualifying school two seasons later.

His first victory came at Slaley Hall near Newcastle in 1996 and his three subsequent successes have all come across the Channel with two French Opens and the Lancome Trophy last September.

The play-off was between the players ranked 44th (Goosen) and 195th (Brooks) in the world and it meant that if Brooks won he would be the lowest-ranked winner of a major since the rankings started in 1986.

Lawrie was 159th when he won the 1999 Open at Carnoustie, but the biggest upset was John Daly's 1991 US PGA victory. Daly, originally the ninth reserve for the event, was 168th.

A win for Goosen or Brooks would not be anything like as unexpected as that, but either way it was still astonishing that with all the best players in the world present they were the two to last the longest.

Goosen had never previously finished higher than 10th in any major and his best finish on the European tour this season was fifth in the English Open at the Forest of Arden eight days ago.

Prior to that he missed the cut in both the Volvo PGA championship at Wentworth and British Masters at Woburn. There really was no reason to suspect he was on the verge of something like this.

Brooks, of course, was already a major winner. But the 1996 US PGA, where he beat fellow American Kenny Perry at the first hole of a sudden death play-off, was his last tournament victory anywhere.

The following season he was 108th on the US Tour money list, in 1998 it was 129th and for the last two seasons he was 74th.

This year he had had only one top 30 finish and the only reason to write about him really was for a feature on his collection of vintage fountain pens and toy trains.

Coming to Southern Hills his lowest round all year was a 66. But on Friday, on the toughest course he had faced all year, came a 64 and, with Tiger Woods not on the leaderboard, the chance was there.

That chance, however, appeared to have gone when he three-putted the last green from 45 feet for a bogey five that left Goosen and Stewart Cink tied for the lead on the final tee on five under par.

When Goosen sent a superb six-iron to 10 feet Brooks started clearing out his locker and was ready to head off. He had gone close, but not close enough.

Cink was through the green in two and when he left his chip way short and missed his par putt Goosen appeared home and dry. Cink certainly thought so because he chose to putt again from under two feet - and missed.

How he was to regret it. Goosen, with two putts to win, sent the first two feet past and to stunned amazement fluffed the biggest moment in his career.

It was Doug Sanders at St Andrews in 1970 and Scott Hoch at Augusta in 1989 all over again.

Sanders went into an 18-hole play-off with Jack Nicklaus as a result and lost it by one. Hoch's miss was at the first hole of sudden death with Nick Faldo and it kept Faldo alive. A hole later Hoch lost.

Since then there has been Bernhard Langer's six-foot miss at Kiawah Island when the Ryder Cup depended on it, Greg Norman's Masters collapse against Faldo and Curtis Strange's horror three-bogey finish, again against Faldo, in the 1997 Ryder Cup.

And, of course, there was Jean Van de Velde at Carnoustie needing a double bogey at the final hole and taking the most dramatic triple bogey in golf history.

To be two feet from glory, though, was a position Van de Velde never reached. Goosen did and once there he made a complete and utter hash of it.

The play-off presented him with the opportunity to make amends, but it called for an enormous amount of mental strength after what had happened. He was brilliantly equal to the task.

Collated final totals in the 101st United States Open Championship at Southern Hills, Tulsa, Oklahoma (USA unless stated):

(x) denotes amateur

276 R Goosen (Rsa) 66 70 69 71, M Brooks 72 64 70 70 (Goosen won 18-hole play-off 70-72 & wins £676,000, Brooks £398,000)

277 S Cink 69 69 67 72 (£255,000)

278 R Mediate 71 68 67 72 (£178,000)

281 T Kite 73 72 72 64, P Azinger 74 67 69 71 (£136,000 each)

282 V Singh (Fij) 74 70 74 64, A Cabrera (Arg) 70 71 72 69, D Love 72 69 71 70, K Triplett 72 69 71 70, P Mickelson 70 69 68 75 (£98,200 each)

283 T Woods 74 71 69 69, M Gogel 70 69 74 70, M Allen 77 68 67 71, S Garcia (Spn) 70 68 68 77 (£72,000 each)

284 S Hoch 73 73 69 69, C DiMarco 69 73 70 72, D Duval 70 69 71 74

285 C Perry 72 71 73 69, C Pavin 70 75 68 72, M Weir (Can) 67 76 68 74

286 S Verplank 71 71 73 71, T Bjorn (Den) 72 69 73 72

287 M Calcavecchia 70 74 73 70, S Lowery 71 73 72 71, H Sutton 70 75 71 71, O Browne 71 74 71 71, J Durant 71 74 70 72, T Lehman 76 68 69 74

288 J Parnevik (Swe) 73 73 74 68, S Jones 73 73 72 70, B Estes 70 72 75 71, D Wilson 71 74 72 71, D Clarke (Gbr) 74 71 71 72, G Hjertstedt (Swe) 72 74 70 72, P Harrington 73 70 71 74, (x) B Molder 75 71 68 74, JL Lewis 68 68 77 75, B May 72 72 69 75

289 S Micheel 73 70 75 71, T Herron 71 74 73 71, B Langer (Ger) 71 73 71 74, B Baird 71 72 70 76

290 K Sutherland 73 72 73 72, T Byrum 74 72 72 72, T Izawa (Jpn) 69 74 74 73, F Funk 78 68 71 73, J Maggert 69 73 72 76, B Chamblee 72 71 71 76, D Waldorf 75 68 69 78

291 E Romero (Arg) 74 72 72 73

292 M Wiebe 73 72 74 73, J Walker 79 66 74 73, C Montgomerie (Gbr) 71 70 77 74, J Coceres (Arg) 70 73 75 74, B Tway 75 71 72 74, S Dunlap 74 70 73 75, H Irwin 67 75 74 76, B Jobe 77 68 71 76, F Lickliter 75 71 70 76, L Roberts 69 76 69 78

293 T Petrovic 74 71 75 73, R Zokol (Can) 72 71 74 76, J Furyk 70 70 71 82, P Lonard (Aus) 76 68 70 79, D Hart 71 73 74 75

294 D Forsman 75 71 77 71, E Els (Rsa) 71 74 77 72, H Frazar 73 73 76 72, D Toms 71 71 77 75, D Peoples 73 73 72 76

295 F Langham 75 71 75 74, N Faldo (Gbr) 76 70 74 75

296 A Kang 74 72 77 73, G Orr 74 72 74 76, T Jaidee (Tha) 73 73 72 78, M Gronberg (Swe) 74 69 74 79

297 J McGovern 71 73 77 76

301 S Gangluff 74 72 78 77