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.
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