Morgan trips on the Cliffs of Doom

Golfing Disasters Part 12: "I kind of fell out of the sky. It felt like my parachute had a hole in it." The words might have been uttered by Retief Goosen following the final round of the US Open at Pinehurst last Sunday. In fact, they came from the mouth of Gil Morgan after he blazed into a record-breaking lead at the 1992 US Open at Pebble Beach and then, buffeted by winds howling off the Pacific, dropped down the leaderboard like a stone sinking to the bottom of nearby Carmel Bay.

It was a tournament to remember for many reasons. It marked the professional debut of Phil Mickelson who opened with a four-under par 68 only to miss the cut with a second-round 81. Cash-strapped qualifier Andy Dillard caught everyone's attention when he birdied the first six holes and remained in contention until the final day.

Ken Green, temperamental at the best of times, chucked his putter into the ocean after his first round 76. Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson who had duelled so thrillingly at the previous Pebble Beach Open in 1982 both missed the cut. The final day carnage saw defending champion Payne Stewart and Davis Love each shoot 83, and the 1987 champion Scott Simpson slink home in 88 shots.

For a long time Morgan stood apart from all that. The 45-year old optometrist from Oklahoma wouldn't have featured among the pre-tournament favourites. For a start he was bidding to become the oldest winner in the event's history and six of his seven Tour victories came before shoulder surgery in the mid-1980s which he reckoned robbed him of some of his prime golfing days. He was studious more than spectacular.

Nonetheless, Morgan took the lead by carding a superb 66 on the opening day. Overcast skies and the lightest of breezes made for ideal scoring conditions and altogether 19 players broke par. Morgan followed up with a 69 for a nine-under aggregate and a three-shot lead over Dillard with previous major winners Ray Floyd and Wayne Grady two further back in a tie for third. The cut was only three over.

Morgan's serene progress continued early in the third round. USGA officials must have been apoplectic when he holed a 25-footer at the third to become the first player in the tournament's history to reach 10 under. They probably couldn't watch as he then birdied the sixth and seventh to go 12 under and build a seven-shot lead. If the officials had gone to pray then their invocations were answered with a moderately strengthening breeze.

Over holes eight to 10, the so-called Cliffs of Doom, Morgan went double bogey, bogey, double bogey and then continued bogey, bogey, par, double bogey. He had dropped nine shots in seven holes and although he steadied for a 77 and still led by one, he had brought a slew of players back into contention including Tom Kite, Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam.

There was nothing moderate about the breeze on the final afternoon. Colin Montgomerie played early and brilliantly for a 70. His level par 288 looked good enough for Nicklaus to suggest he'd won the title as outside the leaders battled US Open rough, small, rock-hard greens and 40mph gusts. "Brutal," said eventual runner-up Jeff Sluman. "A joke," was Floyd's assessment of the course set-up.

Several players needed five-irons at the 107-yard seventh. Morgan's 81 was far from the worst score but he was out of the reckoning long before the end. Instead Kite who topped the career money list at the time but had blown up in the final round three years previously, ground out a 72 to finally shed himself of the tag he admitted bugged the living daylights out of him, that of "best player never to win a major".

Neither Morgan, who still competes on the Champions Tour, nor Montgomerie ever made that major breakthrough.