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Rose Holds Off Mickelson in U.S. Open | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
The best golfers in the world came to Merion Golf Club for the 113th United States Open, and an amusement-park ride broke out. For Sunday’s final round, Merion’s East Course was set up to resemble a 6,853-yard cobra loop, with more ups and downs and twists and turns than the Storm Runner at Hersheypark. | |
Two by two, the golfers took off at No. 1 on a stomach-churning whirl, climbing up the leader board only to drop without warning in the time it took the wind to shift or their focus to drift. Like most adrenaline-filled endeavors, it seemed like great fun only after it was blessedly over. | Two by two, the golfers took off at No. 1 on a stomach-churning whirl, climbing up the leader board only to drop without warning in the time it took the wind to shift or their focus to drift. Like most adrenaline-filled endeavors, it seemed like great fun only after it was blessedly over. |
For the winner, Justin Rose, Sunday’s round completed a loop on his roller-coaster career, one that saw him turn pro at 17 after finishing fourth at the 1998 British Open and miss the cut in his first 21 events before developing into the star everyone, starting with his late father, expected him to be. | |
Rose closed with a 70 for a 72-hole total of one-over 281 to win by two strokes and become the first Englishman since Tony Jacklin in 1970 to capture the United States Open. In securing his first major championship, he broke up the last of the scar tissue left from his early failures as a pro. For the longest time, Rose said, “I was just trying not to fade away. I didn’t want to be known as a flash in the pan, a one-hit wonder.” | |
He added: “My learning curve has been steep. I announced myself in the golfing scene before I was ready to handle it. Golf can be a cruel game. I had to handle the ups and downs.” | |
Nobody has had to endure more highs and lows at the United States Open than Phil Mickelson, the 54-hole leader, who closed with a 74 to finish tied for second, at three over, with Jason Day, who posted a 71. Known as Phil the Thrill for his derring-do, Mickelson looked to be on the ride of his life, one he had been queuing up for more than 20 years, when he holed a wedge shot from the rough for an eagle on the par-4 10th to regain the lead he had lost with two double bogeys in the first five holes. | |
But Mickelson, a four-time major champion, could not ride the momentum of his highlight-reel 2 to victory. There will be no plaque placed at the spot on the 10th fairway, some 70 yards from the green, to commemorate the perfect shot he struck with a wedge. | |
Mickelson made bogeys at Nos. 13 and 15 and was overtaken by Rose, who played the final seven holes in one under. It was another unwanted tie on Father’s Day for Mickelson, who turned 43 on Sunday. “It’s very heartbreaking,” he said, adding, “Playing very well here and really loving the golf course, this week was my best opportunity, I felt.” | |
The play of Rose, who weathered five bogeys Sunday, embodied the philosophy of Olin Dutra, the winner here of the 1934 United States Open, who said: “Nobody ever changed history. Just hit the next one better.” | |
Hitting the next one better proved a tall task for the players who began the day with the trophy in their sights. Steve Stricker, one shot out of the lead when the round began, had been sniffing Merion’s small greens like a bloodhound all week. In the first three rounds, he hit 78 percent of them. On the second hole he shanked his approach after hitting his drive out of bounds on his way to a triple-bogey 8. Stricker, 46, never recovered, recording a 76 to finish tied for eighth with Luke Donald at six over. | |
Donald began the round two shots back. On the third hole, a par 3, he knocked down a volunteer standing inside the ropes with his tee shot and was so shaken by her pain he made a bogey on the hole and two more bogeys and a double bogey on the next three. | |
Jason Dufner, who started in the 25th group of 37, made the charge that the day’s early finishers predicted was there for the really intrepid. Eight over at the round’s start, Dufner reeled off five birdies, with no bogeys, in the first 14 holes. He was at three over when he arrived at 15 and six over when he left after hitting his drive out of bounds to set up his triple bogey. | |
Dufner rebounded with a birdie on 16 and posted a 67, one of six sub-70 scores, for a 72-hole total of five over, to finish tied for fourth with Ernie Els (69), Billy Horschel (74) and Hunter Mahan (75). | |
The course, with its shaggy rough and turtle shell greens, was not everybody’s idea of a thrill ride. Martin Laird, a Scot who carded a 68 to finish at plus-11, said: “I enjoy it now that it’s over and I have shot two under, but to be honest I do not like the setup. I think that they try to push the envelope a little too far in the first few rounds.” | |
Noting that the United States Open was held here for the first time in 32 years, Rory McIlroy, the world No. 2, said: “Yeah, I mean, some guys want to keep that 30-year gap going. I’m not too sure just because it’s beaten up on us so much.” | |
McIlroy, who won the United States Open at Congressional Country Club two years ago with a score of 16 under, closed with a 76 to finish at 14 over. Finishing one stroke ahead of McIlroy, at 13 over, was the world No. 1, Tiger Woods, a three-time United States Open champion who closed with a 74. It was his second-highest total in relation to par in a United States Open, and his worst since turning pro in 1996. | |
During one of his practice rounds at Merion, a local caddie broke down the course for Rose by telling him to think of it this way: the first six holes are drama, the second six are comedy and the closing six are tragedy. | |
By nightfall Sunday, Rose stood alone in the spotlight, pointing heavenward at the father who died when Rose was 21, but not before molding his son into the golfer and the man capable of riding out a week, and a career, of storms. | |