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 Perfectly unlucky Stewart's Open downfall started in a sand-filled divot
Posted: Sunday June 21, 1998 09:53 PM
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Accuracy doesn't always pay off at the U.S. Open. Just ask Payne Stewart. Stewart was fighting par and winning most of the battles Sunday in the final round, holding onto the lead despite having to scramble from the clumpy rough and steep bunkers of The Olympic Club. But just when it looked like he had straightened himself out, a perfect drive on the 12th hole found a hazard no bigger than the yardage book he kept in his back pocket -- a divot filled with sand. "It was the first fairway I had hit in awhile," Stewart said. "And sure enough, I was in a bunker." This time, Stewart couldn't save par. He bogeyed three of the next five holes, and once again wound up second behind Lee Janzen in the U.S. Open. "I told you yesterday that if I played good enough -- Payne Stewart's game for three days -- that I'd be standing here with the trophy," Stewart said. "And I didn't do that." Stewart, who made only one birdie for the round, finished with a 74. Janzen made four birdies and no bogeys over the final 15 holes to close with a 68. A round of 72 would have been good enough for Stewart, who has won only once since his U.S. Open victory at Hazeltine in 1991. Despite missing fairways, he managed to remain the only player not to make double bogey, and four times he saved par to keep the lead over the hard-charging Janzen. "I was fortunate this week to have some nice lies in the rough," Stewart said. "Then I had to deal with a not-so-nice lie in the fairway." His drive on No. 12 bounced and rolled, racing down the fairway speckled with divots. But its last turn stopped in the middle of the sand. Stewart is among several players who believe that a divot filled with sand overnight -- done to help the grass grow back faster -- should be considered ground under repair, and that players should be given a free drop. "I'd like to see them stay unfilled," he said. "When you find sand, you don't know how deep it is." Instead, he went from sand to sand.
"It came off to the right and went in the bunker," he said. Stewart blasted out to 12 feet, but he missed the putt and fell back to even par. And for the first time since Thursday afternoon, when Stewart birdied the last three holes of the first round, the lead no longer belonged solely to him. "I didn't play good enough to win today," Stewart said. "I got beat by an outstanding round of golf." Janzen, two groups ahead, was building confidence with every tee shot that found the short grass -- and avoided the divots. His approach into No. 11 slammed into the side of the rough and hopped onto the green, stopping 8 feet away for a birdie that pulled him to 1 over. "That's the one I started thinking I was in the hunt, when I made that one there," Janzen said. Janzen moved to even par with a 4-foot birdie putt on the par-3 13th and marched on, never seriously threatened with bogey the rest of the way. Stewart chewed his gum faster with each shot. He lost the lead on the 13th when his tee shot bounced hard through the green into the matted rough. He chopped it out to 12 feet, but the par putt never had a chance. Stewart answered with a birdie on No. 14 to pull back into a tie, but his approach on the par-5 16th came up short into the bunker, his par putt once again missed badly and his chances were running out. His drive on the 347-yard closing hole rolled through another minefield of divots, just missing one by about 6 inches. But Stewart's approach was 25 feet above the hole, and the birdie putt to force a playoff rolled an inch left of the cup. "I missed too many fairways and too many greens," Stewart said. "But I never gave up, and I'm proud of that fact."
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