Goosen fends off Mickelson charge

Golf: Outwardly, Retief Goosen, to use an old expression, appeared as calm as a cucumber. Inwardly, who knows how he felt?

The bottom line is that the 35-year-old South African - who single-putted 11 greens in a final round of 71 for four-under-par 276 - retained his composure in the cauldron that was the 104th US Open at Shinnecock Hills yesterday to claim a two-shot winning margin over US Masters champion Phil Mickelson. It gave him his second major title.

Goosen, who had started out with a two-stroke lead over Mickelson and Els, remained the frontrunner at the turn. While Els, inexorably, fell away completely - having three double-bogeys in his first 10 holes - the championship developed into a dogfight between Mickelson and Goosen.

The intrigue was remarkable, with Goosen - with a one-shot lead at the turn - showing magnificent resilience in the face on Mickelson's back-nine onslaught. This was exemplified on the 13th, where it would have been possible for him to run up a really high number after firstly driving into heavy rough and then pulling his recovery into a horrible position in the left rough. He played a brilliant chip to eight feet, and holed the par putt.

On the 14th, his approach shot landed in a bunker where, with a terrible stance, he could only barely clear the lip and the ball finished in heavy rough.

His chip ran 25 feet by the hole, but Goosen holed the bogey putt. On the 15th, he holed a 10-footer to save par.

While he was battling for his life, Mickelson - just as he did on the back nine of Augusta in April - was on a charge.

The American holed a 18-footer for birdie on the 13th to move two behind Goosen; rolled in an eight-footer for birdie on the 15th; and then sank a six-footer for birdie on the 16th to go four-under and into a one-shot lead. It didn't last long. Goosen also birdied the 16th, to draw level, and as the emotionless South African walked onto the 17th tee he could see Mickelson missing his six-foot par putt on the green 179 yards away and, then, incredibly missing the five-footer back to record a double-bogey.

There and then, the pendulum had swung Goosen's way.

He made a brilliant sand-save for par on the 17th, and finished off the job with a two-putt par on the last hole. He required just 25 putts in his final round.

"I played some of the best golf of my career, and just didn't do it," remarked a philosophical Mickelson.

It was a traumatic final round for most players, with the dried-out links playing tougher than any of the previous three days. "Probably the toughest round of golf I've ever had to play," remarked Robert Allenby, whose round of 70 enabled him to leapfrog over many players into a top-10 finish.

Incidentally, Sergio Garcia finished with an 80 for 291, which left him as the leading European in tied-20th.

In particular, the seventh hole, a par three of 169 yards, proved to be an uncontrollable demon. After three players in the first two pairings had walked off the green with triple-bogey sevens on their cards, a decision was taken by the USGA to "lightly syringe" the greens with water to take away some of the bite.

Even so, only 11 of the 66 players in the final round managed to hold the seventh with their tee-shots.

The first player of the final round to actually make a par there was Padraig Harrington, who said he didn't see "any great problem" with the USGA's decision to artificially affect playing conditions by watering the parched greens. "I've actually come across worse situations through my career," said Harrington, who finished with a 75 for 15-over-par 295, leaving him in tied-31st position overall.

All in all, though, the consensus was that the course was too difficult.

The strongest criticism came from Jerry Kelly, who thought it was all "a little comical."

When he exited the recorder's tent, Kelly spied Vijay Singh and shouted over to the Fijian. "Hey Vij, how'd you shoot?" To which Singh sarcastically replied, "78 . . . par!"