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 Handling the heartbreak Lehman looks to exorcise U.S. Open demons
Posted: Monday June 15, 1998 08:41 PM
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- No one has played the U.S. Open better than Tom Lehman over the last three years. Yet three other guys took home the championship trophies and Lehman went away with only painful memories. Lehman played in the final group on Sunday three times and he goes into this year's U.S. Open at The Olympic Club with three consecutive heartbreaks. At Shinnecock Hills in 1995, Oakland Hills in '96 and Congressional last year, Lehman either had the lead or shared the lead going into the final round. The only other person to lead the U.S. Open after 54 holes three consecutive times was Bobby Jones in 1928-30. The difference is that Jones came away with two championships while Lehman came away empty-handed. But the 39-year-old Lehman is a man who takes each setback not as a defeat but as a learning experience. After all, he did spend eight years on minor tours all over the world just trying to get a chance to play with the big boys. "It helps to feel the pressure to deal with sleeping on those leads on Saturday," Lehman said. "Those things all mean a lot down the road. And I've been through that a few times in majors and I know what it's like." His track record in the major championships since making it to the PGA Tour in 1992 is impressive with a second and two thirds in the U.S. Open, a second and a third in the Masters and a victory in the 1996 British Open. In none of those near-misses did Lehman collapse in the final round. It was just that things didn't go his way. In 1995, Lehman shot 67 on Saturday and was tied for the lead with Greg Norman going to Sunday. Lehman played solidly but not well enough, posting a 74 under very difficult conditions to finish third. The next year Lehman shot 65 in the third round -- the best score of the day by two strokes -- and went into the final round with a one-stroke lead. But he finished second by a stroke to Steve Jones despite a gutsy 71 that ended with a bogey on the final hole. Last year at Congressional, Lehman was tied for the lead on the 16th hole when he made a bogey. Trailing by a stroke on No. 17, he gambled going for the pin, caught too much ground and not enough ball and sank in painful disbelief when the ball bounced into the water left of the green. "I was playing in the pro-am today and a marshal said to me, `I was standing right there on 17 when you hit that ball in the water,'" Lehman said earlier this month at the Kemper Open, played just a mile from Congressional. "I'm thinking, `Yeah, thanks for the memory,'" Lehman said with a laugh. Even now as he struggles along as one of the best players on tour in hitting greens in regulation and one of the weakest putters, he keeps things in perspective. "I know I am a good player," Lehman said. "There is really no need to panic. My putting has been very unusual. I hit good putts that don't go in. All I need is for a few to start dropping." Lehman has shown flashes of his old form, finishing second in The Players Championship and contending in the Memorial Tournament. But he has also missed the cut three times -- including a shocking 80-76 in the Masters -- and has looked lost and unhappy at times on the course. "I really believe I'm mentally tough enough, I'm confident enough, I'm patient enough and I'm good enough," Lehman said. "I haven't backed down. I haven't wimped out. I haven't choked my guts out. "It just hasn't happened." Perhaps this year at The Olympic Club it will.
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Lehman has played in the final group at the U.S. Open three straight years, only to come up empty 