Even after his disappointment at No. 17, Mickelson enjoyed the gallery's cheers on the final fairway. AP

The most popular player in golf today? It's Phil Mickelson. (Obvious if you watched the U.S. Open at Bethpage two years ago.)

The most beloved player in golf today? It's Phil Mickelson. (Obvious if you watched this year's Masters.)

The best player in golf today? It's Phil Mickelson. (Obvious, if you watched the Masters and Sunday's U.S. Open finish, where Lefty settled for second place.)

The 104th United States Open champion? It's, uh, Retief Goosen. (Sorry, he won on a technicality. He had the lowest score.)

The vocal galleries rooted as hard as they could for America's favorite lefty, even to the point of being rude when one fan yelled "Noonan!" on the final green when Goosen was about to capture the Open. But what looked like another Mickelson heart-stopping Masters-like finish turned into another Mickelson heart-breaking defeat. Whether Goosen snatched victory from the jaws of defeat or Mickelson snatched defeat from the jaws of victory -- or, more likely, Shinnecock Hills simply crushed everyone like so many bugs on a windshield -- doesn't matter.

This tension-filled finish was reminiscent of the 1999 U.S. Open at Pinehurst. Mickelson actually outplayed Goosen on Shinnecock's unyielding back nine. The course was so tough, nobody shot under par -- but here was America's Hero, three shots behind the South African, looking like the second coming of Arnold Palmer. Birdie at the nasty 13th hole. Birdie at the nasty 15th hole. Birdie at the nasty 16th hole (every hole was nasty today, in case you were wondering about the inability to think up a new adjective) to grab the lead momentarily, and take the Open's momentum and stick it in his wallet as easily as a folded $20 bill.

But Goosen did a Payne Stewart on Mickelson. Just as Stewart one-putted five of the last six greens in the 1999 Open, including the dramatic winner on the final green, Goosen one-putted the last six greens and seven of the last eight. They were not tap-ins, either, folks. Shinnecock's greens by this time were scarier than a cobra in a darkroom. And, oh yeah, Goosen knew that the whole enchilada (that's technical talk for the U.S. Open) was riding on every single one of them. Yet he rolled them in like he was playing miniature golf with a Boy Scout troop at Mr. Mike's Mini-Putt.

Goosen's biggest strokes of genius: A six-footer for par at the 13th after he'd chopped fescue-to-fescue across the fairway and looked like he was making bogey or worse. A 12-footer for bogey at the 14th after he flubbed a bunker shot a few feet into an ugly lie in the rough, then hit a poor chip. A six-footer for par after he chipped out of the rough into the front bunker at the 15th. A 12-footer for birdie to tie Mickelson at the 16th. And then that 18-incher at 17, which was just about anybody's comfort zone.

Mickelson didn't really lose this tournament, he just got, well, Shinnecocked. It all came down to the par-3 17th. Mickelson hit into the front bunker, had a decent lie and played an excellent shot out. Except it hit a strip of titanium-based concrete called the 17th green -- "My cleats didn't even go down into the grass on that green," Mickelson said -- took a huge hop and ran six feet above the cup.

With Shinnecock's greens either dead or in critical condition and slicker than the Long Island Expressway, above the hole was a dangerous spot to be. By the time Mickelson took a stab at saving par, he'd already seen Goosen birdie the par-5 16th to tie him for the lead. He missed the putt and then, despite trying to regroup after it sprinted five feet past, missed that one, too. The double bogey gave Goosen a two-shot edge, and when he hit into the same bunker as Phil, in nearly the same spot and blasted out to 18 inches, the Open belonged to the Goose.

The 17th green, where the Open was decided, was also where the Grand Slam ended. Mickelson, the Masters champion, played all week as if he knew he had his A game, stroked putts confidently and even stalked across the greens with the confidence of a man who knew he was going to win. Fred Funk, playing with Mickelson, thought so, too.

"I was hoping he'd win because I would've been part of history, part of the Grand Slam, and he's a good friend," Funk said. "I became a big fan of Phil's at the President's Cup last year. His win at Augusta this year was huge. I started crying when he won that, it meant so much to me. I'm sure it meant even more to him.

"Phil played great all day. I feel horrible for him at 17. He just left himself on the wrong side of the hole. I had an uphill putt there and I still had to be careful not to blow it two feet past. I couldn't believe how fast that green was. Unless Phil's putt hit the hole there, no way it was going to stop. The greens were just ridiculous. I went to the putting green today, which has pretty much been dead all week. Today, it was unputtable, just like glass. I got on the first green and thought, this will be slower and have more grass but it was pretty much like that putting green. That's when I knew we were in trouble."

Goosen is a reserved, low-key South African who hits it straight and has a great short game, which was the formula Shinnecock Hills required. The USGA unwisely let the fairways and the greens dry out and turn mostly brown, so Sunday's final round turned into a chipping and putting contest for the players who hit the fairways. Goosen actually hit only six greens in regulation in the final round. Mickelson hit nine. The field's average was a mere 38 percent, which should tell you that the course conditions were beyond fair.

In short, the USGA blew it. Saturday, the seventh green became unplayable due to the green's speed and slope and a change in the wind direction. And, oh yeah, because some knucklehead member of the grounds crew ran a roller across it, supposedly against USGA orders. Sunday, all of Shinnecock's greens resembled the seventh and looked ready to be autopsied on CSI.

"They lost the golf course," Tiger Woods said after he shot 76 and tied for 17th. "It's terrible they lost control of the golf course at our national championship. This is not the way it's supposed to be played. It's a great course, absolutely fantastic. It was great the first two days but today it just got away from them."

Jeff Maggert, who finished third, agreed with Woods. "What everybody saw on TV speaks for itself. I mean, any sane person ... realizes that it was a little ridiculous. I really felt after Friday that they were going to let this happen to the golf course. They looked up at the scoreboard and see all those red numbers and panic. They don't want 10 under to win their tournament, and that's just the philosophy that they've had forever. Maybe this will be something they can re-evaluate."

Mickelson was sort of in shock afterwards. Nothing in sports is tougher than to have victory in hand, then not take home the trophy. "It's just as disappointing as it was thrilling to win the Masters," Mickelson said. "To come very close, to play so hard for 72 holes and play better than everybody but one guy is disappointing."

It may turn out to be a national disappointment on the order or Palmer losing to Billy Casper in the '66 Open or Ben Hogan losing in '57 to Jack Fleck. The way Mickelson played, however, showed that the changes he's made to control the ball better have made him a bigger threat to win every major championship.

The book on MIckelson before was he'd never win the British Open because he hits a high ball and couldn't play in the wind. Now he's playing cut shots and knockdowns and controlling his distances and making big putts (well, most of them). If he could win at Shinnecock Hills, a demanding links-like track -- and he played well enough to do that -- then he could've won at Royal Troon. And maybe the mysterious but would-be links hosting the PGA Championship, Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wis.

There will be no Grand Slam this year, Lefty fans. It was the case of the man who was killed by the golden Goose. Like man bites dog, it's news, but in the end, it's not as satisfying as it could have been.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Gary Van Sickle writes for the magazine's Golf Plus section and is a regular contributor to SI.com.