2006 U.S. Open: Won or Lost

[iacas]

I don't know. I think a lot more people lost it than won it, so I voted "lost," but that's not to take anything away from Ogilvy's tremendous play, particularly on the last two holes.

[neudi]

i think neither...a course playing that tough you can't really lose it and with ogilvy posting a 5 over par on the board and making phil hit the shots he needed to make it a tough question. I think it was just golf...not won or lost.

[cold]

I agree with "golf's golf" take.

Does anyone know what happened with Ogilvy and his caddy on Saturday? He seemed really ticked off for a bit.

[thehillgolfer]

i voted lost cuz montgomerie and mickelson both doubled the last hole...and i'm usually a phil fan, but today i was going for monty first, oglivy or however u spell it second...phil was lucky to even be at 6 over... i mean he deserved to hit that tree on 18 cuz he got a lucky bounce of the hospitality tent!!

[cireyamel]

Boobs could have glided in for the landing. Remind me never to fly with him. Didn't we all absolutely cringe after watching him pull his drives all day when he yanked it out of the bag on 18? He could have hit three irons and been putting for par. Nothing from Ogilvy (geeze, he did just win a major).

e

[sole wolf]

Don't forget about Furyk missing a short putt on 18 that would have left him at +5

[Rafcin]

This is one thing, that sucks about US Open.
Nobody wins it. There is never a situation, where somebody plays a great round and runs away with it on sunday - it's ALWAYS about who will mess up less on sunday and doesn't lose it. (ok, maybe except for Tiger's win at Pebble Beach).
Personally - I hate it.

[Guest]

Fellow Golfers.

This US OPEN has to be the worse golf I have seen in a while.
It was tiresome to watch and listen. All the hype about how much Phil is loved in NYC, and Tigers come back, and how much difficult the course layout is .etc.etc. The fact remains they lost 65% of the rating when Tiger missed the cut. The highest rating they got was during his interview on what happened, and Phil's tremendous screw up ever seen in this game which gave the US OPEN to Ogilvy.

I was pathetic watching this game, I did not even tune to watch the 3rd and 4th rounds until Phil got on 18th. All the bad shots, bad breaks, bad putts, players in the rough, in the bunkers, by the tent, under trees. It reminded me of a typical golf day, and these are things I’m use to seeing when I get out.

Why would anyone endure watching bad golf for 3 hours on end, when they experience it live? People want to see exceptional golf. They want these professionals to beat the course, make the shots we so much desire to see and feel.

The course won the 06 US OPEN, I give credit to Ogilvy, he played a good game @ 5+ , still this entire game was a huge disappointment. These people at the USGA better get it straight next time. The audience wants to see victory and playoffs. There are too many let downs going on in real life already, now we have to watch it on TV also? I don’t think so.

They promote golf to the fullest during these games. This US Open was so bad it gave a contrary reaction to play golf. Who in their right mind would want to take on golf when even the pros can’t handle it? This US Open was revolting. Simply put.

F.Cepeda
Pompano Beach, FL.

THanks for the correction.. IACAS

[iacas]

These people at the PGA better get it straight next time. The audience wants to see victory and playoffs.

THe PGA only puts on one major championship per year - the PGA Championship - and the PGA Tour puts on none.

And I don't think we'd want to see a playoff. Most people would miss it (they'd be at work right about now).

[NCGolfer]

As bad as Phil was on the last hole, you have to give Ogilvy a ton of credit. Everyone had written him off when he was next to 17 green in 3. But he proceeded to chip in and then making par from a sandy divot (according to divot expert Johnny Miller) on 18.

Ogilvy won the tournament. He looked like a US Open champion with is cool demeanor all week and steady play.

[Guest]

Corrected.
Thanks for the heads up.

[Konrad]

Geoff played some gritty golf, and he deserved the title. He put his best out there, and Mickelson's play just wasn't good enough to beat him. Bottom line - Phil choked, but Geoff played some great golf.

[iacas]

Funny timing, as I've just now gotten around to reading

this article . It begins:

Phil Mickelson has come a long way since the 2002 Players Championship, where he professed his addiction to high-risk golf and vowed never to harness that aggression. Like many embattled compulsives, Mickelson depicted himself as a happy prisoner to the full-throttle mind-set. The game is more fun, he surmised, when you're swatting a driver off the deck and trying to carry it 260 yards over water, or jamming a 4-iron through a tree, or hunting a back-left pin on adrenaline and a left-to-right ball flight.

[georgep]

The US Open is always about survival. Very seldom does a player go out and dominate this tournament (Tiger at Pebble, a notable exception). There's usually 10 guys with a shot to win on Sunday because the course is set up so difficult that you can't get away with a mental or physical mistake. Me, I can barely hold it together to shoot 80 on the weekend. Let alone playing a course that's tricked up like the USGA likes to do. Still, Mickelson almost got away with playing his go-for-broke game. It seemed like he wanted to hit a big drive on 18 to hear the crowd roar. Way to go Cup, or C-Cup! I kind of think it would have been a shame if he'd have got away with bouncing it off the hospitality tent -- but that's the rub of the green.

Monty was the shocker for me. In the fairway, and miss the green (and short sided) with an iron? I think the pressure got him.

So, I vote Won. Ogilvy won it by not making the big mistake ... nothing worse than bogey all week!

[Thrash13]

What is everyone thinking here?

All the golfers played the same exact course. Geoff Ogilvy played his 72 holes better than anyone else, so he won it. Ogilvy didn't get the best of breaks either on the 72nd hole, but he still made a solid par. Phil's decision making doesn't affect my opinion on the matter.

Ogilvy is a winner, and he won this tournament.

I don't get why people say nobody ever wins at U.S. Opens. The course is the same for everyone, so whoever does the best wins the tournament fair and square.

It shouldn't matter if someone is making pars, birdies, or bogeys in doing so. And it shouldn't matter if the winning score is +10 or -10. As long as the course is the same, someone wins and everyone else loses.

[ttee9]

...... I thought this was a superb Open ....


It's not so much that anybody lost .. it's that Winged Foot won.!

This is an extremely tough course ... greens like skating rinks, grass deep enough to hide your Mother-in-law in, super tight fairways and more changes and curves than Dolly Parton .. then add in the 90+ degree temps and you have meltdown --- it took course management, thought and calculation .. not 320 yard drives into the Amazon Jungle and hoping to get out ....

Think about it, if they would have played another 9 holes, we'd probably be looking at a different winner .. whom.?, I don't know.

My favorite didn't win ... but like my great Grand Daddy used to say:
".. too much playing and not enough thinkin' will leave you in the poor house .."

I think he's right .....



Winged Foot --- the great equalizer.!

I hope this course becomes the benchmark for future championships, the "Champs" certainly get paid enough for it.

[joeTM]

I agree this was a great US Open. I was there for the fourth round and sat at 18 at the end. The drama of watching the leader board number changes was great. The USGA deserves a lot of credit. The goal for the US open should not be to see pros beat up a course. It was very exciting to watch some players struggle and see an old course get respect. The championship was in the grasp of a few players, but only Geoff stepped up big.

[iacas]

What is everyone thinking here?

They're thinking that, with three holes to go, a few people who had very good chances to win or get into a playoff choked. This isn't a literal question, or else you could say one person won and 152 others lost. You know what the question's asking: did someone hand away the U.S. Open or did someone go out and do something to win it?

As I said, it's close. Closing with three pars is "winning it" in my book - winning it when it counts, going out and DOING something about it - but the fact that so many BIG names choked when they had the chance - Furyk, Mickelson, and Monty - pushes the balance towards "lost" for me. Geoff is a very, very under-rated player. He did all he had to do to win. It's a fine line, and I'm probably 55/45 on the "won versus lost" thing... but I think that's what people are thinking: so many big names, and they all blew it at the end.