Goosen takes the title for a second time (Getty Images).
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Surrounded by the noise of a New York crowd and amid an almighty row about a
course bordering on unplayable, quiet man Retief Goosen won himself a second
United States Open title on Sunday night.
While others were complaining - with every justification - about conditions
that saw an amazing 28 of the 66 players fail to break 80, the 35-year-old South
African repeated his 2001 triumph in Tulsa in a remarkable finish.
Masters champion Phil Mickelson, going for the second leg of an unprecedented
Grand Slam, stood on the tee at the short 17th one ahead, but double-bogeyed it
after going into sand and then taking three putts from under five feet.
Goosen, rolling in a 12-foot birdie putt on the 16th to draw level, went into
the same bunker, but splashed out to less than three feet and saved his par.
Mickelson sensed he needed a birdie at the last to have a chance, but could
only par and so Goosen, twice winner of the European Order of Merit, was able to
bogey and still win.
He three-putted from 12 feet to fall into a play-off with Mark Brooks three
years ago, but on this occasion he got down in two and so won by two.
Not one of the field broke the Shinnecock Hills par of 70, Goosen's superb 71
giving him the trophy again with a four-under-par total of 276.
Afterwards Goosen received the trophy once more and said:
"It is a great feeling."
"I am just very lucky to stand here with this trophy again," he admitted.
Mickelson meanwhile was left to reflect on that disaster at 17, saying: "I
was putting downwind, that was the problem. I had a
great week and am just disappointed it was not quite enough."
Ernie Els, paired with Goosen, collapsed to an 80 and joint ninth spot, Tiger
Woods was down in 17th place after a 76 that actually moved him up the
standings, while Sergio Garcia was leading European - in 20th place after also
shooting 80.
Play even had to be suspended for 20 minutes after the seventh green, always
controversial, just got farcical.
After three of the first four players on the 189-yard hole had taken triple
bogeys and the other a miraculous bogey the action was halted so that hoses
could be used to soften the surface. Officials stood accused of waiting far too
long before taking action.
Even with the soaking just 12 of the field saw their tee shots finish on the
green and it was not only there that water was necessary.
Billy Mayfair's 89 was the worst, while Alex Cejka had 85, Phillip Price 84
and Ryder Cup hopeful Joakim Haeggman an 83 after he putted off the green at the
10th, down a 50-foot slope and ran up a quintuple bogey nine. Price had an eight
there.
Padraig Harrington, eight over for his first 13 holes, needed three birdies in
the last five for a 75.
"I did have fun - a strange sort of fun," said Harrington, who finished 15
over par a week after losing a play-off to Sergio Garcia. "I spent most of the
day trying to break 80."
Lee Westwood did so by just one shot and ended up 16 over.
Els' failure to win means Woods remains world number one, but it might not be
for much longer. He finished 10 over and then said: "It is terrible in our
national championship that they lost control of the course. This is not the way
it is supposed to be.
"They just lost it. It got away from them. The first two days were tough, but
fair. Don't make it like it's unfair."
Woods did not like being criticised by his former coach Butch Harmon during
the week either, while his caddie Steve Williams was spoken to by a rules
official after grabbing a photographer's camera on the second tee.
David Fay, executive director of the United States Golf Association, stated:
"If there is an issue that Steve has he should bring it to the official's
attention. Let security deal with these incidents - it does not help Steve,
Tiger or the championship.
"Something could get ugly out there and you want professional security to be
dealing with it."
Haeggman said: "My girlfriend asked me yesterday what's the highest score I
have ever had on a hole. I told her eight. Now it's nine.
"I thought this would be the greatest chance of winning an US Open and I am
22 over. They are the toughest greens I have ever played on - my caddie and I
bounced balls on the practice green and caught the balls without them making a
pitch mark."
After an 81 Jerry Kelly commented: "When are they (the USGA) going to grow a
head? They have done it again. If they were smart they would realise they look
really stupid.
"Just try to be intelligent. Apparently they have no idea what that means. I
could go on and on."
Mark Calcavecchia added: "It is not the first time they have done this and it
won't be the last. And on that note I need a beer."
Collated 4th rd scores and final totals (USA unless stated, par 70, (x) denotes amateurs):
276 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 70 66 69 71 (£618,982)
278 Phil Mickelson 68 66 73 71 (£371,389)
281 Jeff Maggert 68 67 74 72 (£233,619)
284 Mike Weir (Can) 69 70 71 74, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 66 68 74 76 (£147,320
each)
285 Fred Funk 70 66 72 77 (£116,888)
286 Robert Allenby (Aus) 70 72 74 70, Steve Flesch 68 74 70 74
287 Jay Haas 66 74 76 71, Stephen Ames (Can) 74 66 73 74, Chris DiMarco 71 71
70 75, Ernie Els (Rsa) 70 67 70 80
288 Tim Herron 75 66 73 74, (x) Spencer Levin 69 73 71 75, Tim Clark (Rsa) 73
70 66 79
289 Angel Cabrera (Arg) 66 71 77 75
290 Skip Kendall 68 75 74 73, Tiger Woods 72 69 73 76, Corey Pavin 67 71 73
79
291 Mark Calcavecchia 71 71 74 75, David Toms 73 72 70 76, Kirk Triplett 71 70
73 77, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 72 68 71 80
292 Daniel Chopra (Swe) 73 68 76 75, Tim Petrovic 69 75 72 76, Nick Price
(Zim) 73 70 72 77, Lee Janzen 72 70 71 79
293 Vijay Singh (Fij) 68 70 77 78, Shaun Micheel 71 72 70 80
294 Ben Curtis 68 75 72 79
295 Peter Lonard (Aus) 71 73 77 74, KJ Choi (Kor) 76 68 76 75, Padraig
Harrington (Irl) 73 71 76 75, David Roesch 68 73 74 80, Bo Van Pelt 69 73 73 80
296 (x) Casey Wittenberg 71 71 75 79, Lee Westwood (Gbr) 73 71 73 79,
Hidemichi Tanaka (Jpn) 70 74 73 79, Charles Howell 75 70 68 83
297 Joe Ogilvie 70 75 74 78, Pat Perez 73 67 76 81, Spike McRoy 72 72 72 81,
Jerry Kelly 76 69 71 81, (x) Bill Haas 72 73 71 81, Geoffrey Sisk 72 72 71 82,
Scott Verplank 71 71 72 83, Stephen Leaney (Aus) 72 70 71 84
298 John Rollins 76 68 76 78, Kris Cox 68 74 77 79, Jim Furyk 72 72 75 79,
Zach Johnson 70 73 75 80, Chris Riley 72 71 72 83
299 Scott Hoch 75 70 73 81, Dudley Hart 71 73 70 85
300 Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 69 70 79 82
301 Tom Carter 74 71 70 86
302 Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 74 69 76 83, Phillip Price (Gbr) 70 73 75 84, Tom
Kite 72 71 75 84
303 Craig Parry (Aus) 70 73 75 85, Alex Cejka (Ger) 75 70 73 85
304 Cliff Kresge 72 73 77 82, (x) Chez Reavie 73 72 71 88
306 JJ Henry 75 69 86 76
307 Kevin Stadler 68 72 82 85
310 Billy Mayfair 70 70 81 89
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