mrbojumbles

Major success

Post by: Reece Lightning

// June 30th, 2009 // News

The 2009 US Open will forever be remembered by me as the tournament that played havoc with my sleeping patterns.

Weather-wise the tournament struck calamity, inflicting irregular viewing hours and delaying finalisation of the cut until late on Saturday (Monday morning NZT). When the weather fluctuates wildly you can expect to see exactly what we did: some players getting the better end of the stick with tee times more receptive to good scoring while the less fortunate battle to stay within kicking distance. Lucas Glover and Ricky “Who?” (Barnes) broke away from the pack on Saturday with smoking third rounds of 64 and 65 respectively, while a soggy Tiger licked his wounds in the clubhouse.

The first three rounds were truly a case of “when the big cat’s away the mice will play”. The unlikely lead pairing were resilient in the wet: Glover drove the ball beautifully and took his chances on the greens – always a great combo for US Open golf, while Barnes stormed up the leaderboard unperturbed by the names he left in his wake. You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to predict a Ricky Barnes collapse on the final round, it was as sure as wet socks with a hole in your shoe on a rainy day.

After the completion of the third round, pairings went back out to get in a few holes of the final 18. Barnes’s ugly bogey down the first and snap-hook tee shot on the second before bad light ended play was worthy of a few chuckles. What a thought to sleep on: leading the US Open by one, your first shot of the final day is to be played from knee deep rough, no one wants you to win and you have a rock-star chasing pack guaranteed to fire at some stage. You may as well go and get ham-sandwiched at the 19th because there is no way you’re going to get a good night’s sleep sober with that on your mind.

So I woke to my alarm at 1am on Tuesday and made my way to a fellow golf tragic’s house in the hopes of watching Barnes spontaneously combust and Mickelson’s fairytale come true. Unfortunately it was not to be for Philly. Of course, Barnes went up in a cloud of smoke, looking like a Monday hacker at an honesty-box nine hole course. Lefty’s charge was confidently expected yet glorious all the same. The birdie on the 12th to get back in the red backed up with a truly stunning eagle on the 13th to grab a share of the lead got us going bananas. This, I am sure, did not go down too well at 4am with the non-golfers in the house. Just desserts for sleeping through the final round of the US Open I’d say.

The only other person on the back nine to make a charge was ‘retro’ Duval reeling back the years. The former world number one hadn’t won in eight years and had to qualify to even play! It would be fair to say he produced a bonafide Baker-Finch (or a Cambo for those of you not up to speed with Aussie chokers). Duval had the ball on a string all week, especially with the putter. Late in the back nine he had charged into a share of the lead with Mickelson and Glover, well, that is until the 17th.

The penultimate hole was the losing of the tournament for Philly and Duval, both taking bogeys on the tricky par three to give Glover a two shot buffer with only one hole to play. Sadly for Phil he could muster only two over par through the last four holes to surrender the lead and settle for his record 5th second placing at his elusive national title. However, in Lefty’s own words: “there are more important things than golf… oh well”. In Phil’s case there certainly are more important things than golf right now, but for me… gee whiz I’m scraping the barrel.

Glover exhibited the composure down the stretch required to claim a major, his even par back nine with a birdie on the 16th to seal it was remarkable. He later revealed “my knees were knocking pretty good down 16, 17, 18”. Well, I couldn’t see them banging around Lucas and for this you will forever have my respect.