Goosen gets bitten but he'll be back

Caddie's Role: On the 16th hole at Pinehurst No 2 golf course last Sunday, at around six o'clock in the evening, two golfers stood on the tee and asked each other if they wanted to play the last three holes for $10. A few hours earlier they both had expectations of becoming the 105th US Open Champion.

But their chances had disappeared into the dust that the northeast breeze was blowing across the renowned Donald Ross course.

Jason Gore, ranked outside the top 800 in the world and a member of the Nationwide Tour, realistically never expected to become the champion. Twice US Open champion Retief Goosen, leading at the start of the day by three shots, had very realistic expectations of winning for a third time and having his name permanently chiselled into the history books.

We had begun our day as we had every other day, with an hour's warm-up session. He hit balls, chipped and putted in preparation for the round.

Retief had hit the ball only averagely all week by his very high standards. He had statistically played very well on Thursday, hitting 11 fairways and 16 greens in regulation. Despite the statistics he was not really on top of his game. But being a great champion he is able to grind out a score when things are not going the way he would like.

We had worked on his set-up during the week, because Retief did not feel comfortable over the ball and he always believes that his bad swings come from a misaligned address position.

He had been trying to wiggle himself into a comfortable position all week. In fact, in the tournament in Washington the previous week he had spent hours on the range in stifling heat trying to figure things out.

So we began our march towards the first tee on Sunday, up, over and down a makeshift bridge, through a tunnel under the vast building of the clubhouse and into a corridor with its walls lined with photographs and paintings of legends of the game.

I marched behind Retief, who was flanked by two bodyguards, as he had been all week. I noticed that he looked at Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan and the architect Ross, who had designed the treacherous course that lay between him and the 2005 US Open Championship.

The photograph of Ross was of him as an elderly gentleman, bespectacled and wearing a tweed floppy hat, he had a friendly enough expression, he did not look vindictive.

Unlike the design of his Pinehurst No 2 course. It had a bark and a bite to match, it is not a course for a golfer to tackle without every facet of his game intact and on high alert.

On the first tee it was audible how much the crowd were pulling for our amiable playing partner, the outsider Gore. There was also a lot of good feeling for Retief. Despite trying to keep your mind on the job, it's impossible to ignore some of the very vocal comments coming from the other side of the ropes.

"It breaks more to the right than you think," one guy bellowed as Retief lined up his par putt on the seventh. "It's playing really long today," another shouted on the ninth tee as we decided what club to hit into the unsettled breeze.

If you are not totally focused there is no doubt these comments rattle around in your head as you try to make a decision.

The simple fact for Retief Goosen during the final round on Sunday was that he brought his B game with him that day to a course and event that needed nothing less than A+.

With the pins cut on the edge of the abyss on most greens, being slightly off was highlighted dramatically.

So Retief seemed to find himself staring out of the abyss on many holes towards a not very inviting pin.

He didn't hit the ball well, he chipped poorly, and he never looked like holing a putt. This is not a great combination for good scoring, least of all on a course as uncompromising as the set-up of No 2 at Pinehurst for a US Open.

I am sure there are mutterings of "choking" and not being able to handle the pressure, probably like there were about Ernie Els last year at Shinnecock Hills when he shot a very high last round.

Ernie didn't "choke"; he just played badly on an uncompromising course. I also believe that Retief did the same thing at Pinehurst a couple of days ago; he simply played poor golf which the course exposed very quickly.

There have been days like that before, there will be again, but hopefully they will be on a Tuesday or Wednesday and not during the final round of a major, which he has a realistic chance of winning.

As the ever encouraging golf fans cheered as Gore and Goosen limped up the 18th fairway, the American smiled at me and said the only previous time he had heard his name being called on a golf course before was to announce his departure on the first tee of a Nationwide event. He humbly added with a big grin: "Americans love a big fat guy".

Retief Goosen is a worthy champion. Like all great champions before him, he handles disappointment with the same dignity with which he embraces success. I am sure he is looking forward to the challenge of competing for the next major championship at St Andrews next month.