Global Golf Post - June 21, 2010

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIFORNIA | It’s a near-lethal
combination, the U.S. Open and Pebble Beach, a
tournament which can ruin your mind and wrench
your wrists, and a course where the sun rarely
shines and the putts hardly fall.
Ten years ago, the blend gave us an aberration,
a runaway by Tiger Woods and a record score at
that, but what we had this year was all the heart-
break and double-bogeys for which Pebble and the
Open both have long been recognized.
There wasn’t going to be any 12-under par
total this time, not with Pebble set up like a devil’s
playground, and not with the wind and fog at times
turning the Monterey Peninsula into a place as
gloomy as any Shakespearian locale.

And not with the so-called big names stumbling
and bumbling as if they were competing in a three-
legged race and not America’s golf championship.

Back in 2000, Woods made it all seem so easy,
but there was nothing easy this time. There was a
champion of course, a surprise champion, and for
the first time in 40 years, a champion from Europe,
Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland. It was a
struggle for McDowell, who didn’t so much win –
with a total of 284, the only score not over par – as
survive.

“I can’t believe how difficult this golf course is,”
was McDowell’s valedictory statement.

Believe it. Believe that Dustin Johnson, who
went into the final round a cumulative 6-under par
and three strokes ahead, who won the past two
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Ams, last year’s and this
year’s, shot an 11-over 82 and tumbled to a tie for
eighth.
Believe that Zach Johnson, the 2007 Masters
champion, began with a 1-over-par 72 and ended
at 22-over-par 306. And that Mike Weir, who was
briefly in the lead on Day 1 was in 80th place after
Day 4.

Fortress Pebble may not have fallen, the nasty
lady along the bluffs of Carmel Bay showing how
tough she can be when the fairways are slick and
the pressure is up.

But Fortress America did fall. Not only did
McDowell become the first Euro winner since Tony
Jacklin in 1970, but in second place was Gregory
Havret of France and in third was Ernie Els of
South Africa.
Els could have won this Open. And Phil Mick-
elson and Tiger Woods, who tied for fourth at 287,
three behind McDowell, could have won this Open.
But they chunked balls into bunkers or over edges
of cliffs.

Tiger, insisting this tournament made him
feel, “I can play now,” bogeyed six of the first 12
holes on Sunday. That’s playing? And every time

IN TOTAL 36 71 39 74 38 72 37 75 40 82

it seemed Woods, Mickelson or Els, who among
them have 21 majors, were making a move, they
subsequently made a bogey. Or double-bogey.
“You can’t fake it around this golf course,” said
Dustin Johnson.

He didn’t fake it Sunday, he, ahem, gagged it.
At the long par- 4 second (normally a short par- 5
the USGA just has to change) Johnson was in the
long grass at the edge of a trap. He whacked (once
left-handed), yanked, smacked and 3-putted for a
7. Next hole he attempted to go over some very tall
trees, lost the ball and took a double-bogey six.
The first few holes at Pebble give up the bird-
ies. Except at the Open. Then a golfer goes to the
109-yard seventh, where the next land beyond the
edge is Hawaii. After that it’s the so-called Cliffs of
Doom, 8, 9 and 10, with a chasm – the eighth – and
terror.
One sensed this would be a weird Open when in
the first round neither Woods nor Mickelson had a
birdie between them. Not what one would suspect
from the golfers first and second in the world
rankings.
One might not suspect McDowell could be
a major tournament winner, either, but he has
played well in the big ones and just took an event
at Celtic Manor in Wales, where the Ryder Cup will
be played in the fall.
McDowell attended the University of Alabama-
Birmingham and has a residence in Florida. Last
December, when after the auto accident and
revelations, it was announced Tiger wouldn’t play
in his own charity event in southern California, the
Chevron World Challenge, McDowell was tracked
down changing planes in L.A. en route from China.