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Sputtering putters Tough 18th claims three down the stretch
Updated: Monday June 18, 2001 12:28 AM TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- It's the kind of thing golfers fantasize about while they practice -- 12 feet from the hole and two putts to win the U.S. Open. Reality proved to be far crueler for Retief Goosen. Two measly putts -- the last one barely two feet in length -- were all that stood Sunday between Goosen and his first major championship win. It took him three, in a meltdown that ranks among golf's great giveaways. "Obviously I'm not happy about what happened. I mean, what am I going to do," Goosen said. "I'm not going to jump out of my hotel room tonight." Not with a chance to still win in a playoff on Monday with Mark Brooks, he's not. He can only hope what happens on the 18th green doesn't matter by the time he reaches it again.
"Tomorrow is another day," Goosen said. "I'm looking forward to it and it's going to be a great day. After pushing his birdie try two feet past the hole, Goosen stood in disbelief, with his hands on his hips, as the par putt that would have given him the championship also slipped past the hole. It may be a while before he forgets this one, especially since the championship had seemingly been handed to him by Brooks and playing partner Stewart Cink. Brooks had his own chance and couldn't bring it home. His putt was much tougher, though, a sliding 40-footer that he got to eight feet. The next putt stopped on the edge of the cup. "At 18 I don't know, I think we read it right," Brooks said. "If I had just hit it easier, I think we would have been just right." Cink, meanwhile, gave away his playoff spot with a missed 18-incher that he thought didn't matter. It did after Goosen 3-putted, leaving Cink out of a playoff by one. "It's not like I wasn't trying to make it," Cink said. "I just didn't think it was crucial." Aware that the tournament was his to win, Goosen hit his first birdie putt well past the cup. "That green is a little bit slow, and putting up the hill there I just hit it too hard," he said. The two-footer for par seemed easy enough. Like the first putt, it was straight. But Goosen pushed it to the right and missed again, then looked around in disbelief. "No, I didn't misread it," he said. "The putt for some reason went right on me and lipped out on the right side. So I was very surprised that the putt went that way." He wasn't alone. The large gallery at 18 gasped as Goosen went from Open champion to a possible Open footnote. "Obviously you're nervous. That's part of the game," he said. "I'm not going to say I wasn't nervous." Brooks, playing two groups ahead of Goosen and Cink, was in the locker room when the leaders collapsed. "I figured I was done," he said. "I had already unpacked my locker. I've got all my stuff back in it now though." Goosen thought so too. But he wasn't going to hang his head.
"That's golf," Goosen said. "Things pened in golf and
this is one of them. So I'm not going to let that let me down."
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