US Open 2012: Webb Simpson sees off Graeme McDowell to win first major

Webb Simpson holds the US Open trophy after winning his first major at the Olympic Club. Photograph: Jason O'Brien/Action Images

There will be those who will argue that the 2012 US Open lacked inspiration and drama, that it is was more a battle for survival enlivened only by sight of US Golf Association chief executive Mike Davis assuming the role of bouncer as an interloper in a Union Jack hat who interrupted the presentation ceremony.

Davis huckled the guilty man away, leaving the stage to the man of the hour, Webb Simpson, whose final round 68 was good up to hold off Graeme McDowell and Michael Thompson by a single shot. It was the American's first major championship and it was by any measure a very worthy victory, even if it is unlikely to embraced by the wider sporting public.
It is hardly Simpson's fault that he is not a well-known name in the States – few golfers are except for Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson – and it certainly isn't his fault that the Olympic Club golf course served a tournament that didn't allow the best golfers in the world to showcase much more than there survival instincts.
In the circumstances Simpson did the best he could, and his best was exceptional. To shoot 68 in Saturday's third round was a great effort in itself but to then shoot a round of 68 on Sunday, when the conditions and the set-up were more difficult and the pressure was at its maximum, was champion stuff indeed. He was a deserved winner in what was only his fifth appearance in a major championship.
"I never really wrapped my mind around the idea of winning,'' he said afterwards. "This place is so demanding, and so all I was really concerned about was keeping the ball in front of me and making pars."
All of this was obvious from the television pictures beamed from the locker room at the Olympic Club showing Webb and his wife, Dowd, watching the television coverage of those still out on the course as they tried to match his four-round score of 281, one-over par. It was compelling viewing, watching this young couple staring at the prospect of a life-changing moment.
At least four players had a realistic chance of denying the Simpsons but as quickly as the opportunity arose for the likes of Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington it was squandered; by an overhit approach to the 70th hole in the case of the South African, and by a couple of poor approach shots by Harrington on the last two holes.
In the end, it came down to the third round leaders Graeme McDowell and Jim Furyk, both of whom could have forced a play-off with a birdie on the final hole. It wasn't to be. Furyk – who had earlier squandered a winning position with a shocking tee shot on the par-five 16th which led to a bogey – hit his approach into a bunker. McDowell rolled his 20-foot downhill putt for birdie past the hole. And that was it, bar the rather sheepish grin from Simpson as he released that another man's failure had handed him a life's ambition. He had no need to feel embarrassed. He won fair and square.
As for those who came up short, there was no shortage of disappointment and self-recrimination. Furyk in particular sounded particularly bereft and who could blame him after a day in which he had the tournament seemingly in his control.
"I have no one to blame but myself,'' he said. "I was tied for the lead, sitting on the 16th tee. I've got wedges in my hand, or reachable par fives, on the way in and one birdie wins the golf tournament. I'm definitely frustrated."
McDowell was no less disappointed, although he was a little more eager than Furyk to find the positives in what was ultimately a disappointing day. "I will take away a large cheque and am probably very close to locking my Ryder Cup place which is more important to me,'' he said. "I will take a huge amount of belief away that I can compete on the biggest stage and win. To have the chance to win and come up one short the way I was hitting it even when I wasn't on top of my game, I believe I can win more major championships. My heartache is not as bad as Jim Furyk's right now because he had it and couldn't quite finish the job. It was never really in my grasp but I nearly got there."
The Northern Irishman is heading home now, where he will get ready for the Irish Open in his home town of Portrush. After that, it is on to Royal Lytham St Annes and the Open Championship. "I fancy a run at the Claret Jug, I really do."
He is not the only one, of course. In this new era of golfing parity, anyone in the world's top 50 is justified in thinking they could win a major. However, perhaps Lee Westwood has a greater right than anyone to believe he is owed one of the sport's biggest prizes. It seems the Englishman is a perennial fixture on the leaderboard at major championships and this US Open was no different. What was different this time was the degree of bad luck that under-pinned his demise. After parring the first four holes of Sunday's final round, the Englishman looked to be in championship-winning fettle when he hit his drive on the fifth hole marginally off-line. It sailed into a tree and was never seen again.
"These things happen but you'd rather they didn't happen in the last round of the US Open when you've got off to a pretty decent start. I was hitting some good shots and that was another good shot,'' Westwood said afterwards. "You try to forget about it and get on with the job but that little niggle in the back of your head says 'here we go again'. It takes the wind out of your sails when you have a bit of momentum."
To the Englishman's credit he didn't entirely slip off the leaderboard and finished in a tie for 10th place at five-over par. Indeed, he might have finished higher had his second shot at the par-five 17th dropped in rather than finishing a few inches from the hole. "I don't how it missed. It looked in all the way,'' he said.
Perhaps one week the breaks will fall Westwood's way and he will get the major his talents and endeavours deserve. Until then, or at least until the Open Championship begins next week, it is time to celebrate Webb Simpson – not the most charismatic of major champions but on this occasion a very worthy one.

Sourced:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jun/18/us-open-webb-simpson-graeme-mcdowell?newsfeed=true

US Open: Tiger Woods battles to share of lead as Rory McIlroy misses the cut

Tiger Woods wrested an even-par 70 from an unforgiving Olympic Club course on Friday to seize a share of the US Open second-round lead alongside Jim Furyk and David Toms.

On the prowl: Tiger Woods has show flashes of his old form at the US Open Photo: GETTY IMAGES

4:36AM BST 16 Jun 2012

On a day when the testing conditions saw names rise and fall on the leaderboard in the blink of an eye, with even 17-year-old amateur Beau Hossler briefly taking the solo lead, it was a trio of battle-tested veterans who topped the leaderboard on 139 – the one-under total making them the only players under par after two rounds.

Woods, of course, is a 14-time major champion, while Furyk won the 2003 US Open and Toms won the 2001 USPGA Championship.

Olympic's Lake Course, with its small, sloping greens firming up minute by minute in the sunshine and crisp breezes of the afternoon, made Woods work for the share of the lead he regained after birdies at the 10th and 13th.

At the par-five 16th, he saved par from a bunker, where he popped out to about 15 feet despite an awkward stance.

At the par-five 17th, his approach rolled like a rocket through the green and down a steep bank at the back.

He spun his third shot up to about 10 feet and two-putted for par.

At 18 he was again in the fairway, but from there found the front greenside bunker. He blasted out and made his par-saving putt.

"That was not easy," Woods said. "Just had to stay as patient as possible and I did a really good job of that today."

Furyk made his way methodically around the 7,170-yard course to a one-under 69, while Toms posted a 70.

"I feel good about the score," Furyk said. "I kept the ball in the fairway pretty well ... I feel solid and in control so far."

Furyk, who teed off on nine, rattled in a putt at the par-four seventh for the last of his three birdies on the day.

Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell, winner of the US Open at nearby Pebble Beach two years ago, led the group sharing fourth place, two strokes back on one-over 141.

Playing alongside Furyk, McDowell moved as low as two-under but bogeyed three of his last four holes for a two-over 72. "That's what this golf course can do to you in a heartbeat," McDowell said.

McDowell was joined at one-over by Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts, the Volvo World Match Play Champion who carded a 69, American John Peterson (70) and overnight leader Michael Thompson, who surrendered his lead with a bogey and double-bogey at his third and fourth holes – the 11th and 12th – and finished with two double-bogeys in a 75.

McDowell, a fan of testing US Open conditions, said the course was fast, fair but certainly no fun.

"My day was as equally unenjoyable as yesterday," he said. "It's just a brutal test of golf."

Woods, seeking his first major title since he hobbled to a play-off victory at the 2008 US Open, sent a jolt of electricity around the course when he jumped to the top of the leaderboard with a birdie at the par-three third.

But he strung together three straight bogeys from the fifth, his approach at the sixth hanging up in dense rough on the lip of a bunker and leaving him an awkward shot out.

After finding a bunker at the 288-yard par-four seventh, Woods ended up three-putting for a costly bogey on a hole that should have offered a birdie chance.

"I knew that pin was dicey," Woods said of the seventh. "The practice rounds I had run that putt by ... and I still missed it on the low side and it ran out and I missed the second putt."

Woods moved back to one-under after birdies at 10 and 13.

His miscues on the front nine had opened the door for Hossler, who followed a birdie at 18 with a rare birdie at the 520-yard, par-four first to move atop the leaderboard.

Whether it was the excitement of seeing his name up there or the sheer difficulty of the course, the California high school student promptly bogeyed the second, and added a double bogey at the fourth.

His three-over 73 gave him a share of ninth, all the more impressive given the elite names that were laid low by the Lake Course.

Four-time major champion Phil Mickelson did enough, a birdie at 18 giving him a 71 for seven-over 147.

Masters champion Bubba Watson had two birdies in the last four holes for a 71, but that left him at nine-over, one outside the cut line.

England's Luke Donald, the world number one who topped both the US and European tour money lists last season, was headed home after following a first-round 79 with a 72 for an 11-over total of 151.

Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy carded a 73 for 150, finding the hillside course a world away from the rain-softened Congressional layout where he marched to a record-setting US Open triumph last year.

sourced: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/usopen/9335547/US-Open-Tiger-Woods-battles-to-share-of-lead-as-Rory-McIlroy-misses-the-cut.html

US Open 2012: I executed my game plan well, says Tiger Woods, after opening-round 69 at Olympic Course

Tiger Woods is beginning to show the poise that made him a 14-time major champion, adapting to a treacherous Olympic Club course to get his US Open challenge off to a solid start.

Back in business: Tiger Woods's short game is returning to its best Photo: EPA

 

"I was really, really surprised at how much it had changed," Woods said, after shooting a one-under par 69. "We knew the greens were going to be a little quicker, but I didn't think they would be this firm this early in the week. So we had to make a couple of adjustments with that.

"But I'm really excited how I was able to execute my game plan all day and pleased with a one-under par round."

Woods is three shots off the pace set by first-round leader Michael Thompson (66).

He is joined on 69 by 2001 USPGA Champion David Toms, 2010 US Open champion Graeme McDowell, England's Justin Rose and American Nick Watney.

Woods, whose pursuit of Jack Nicklaus's record 18 major titles has been slowed by scandal, injury and swing changes, raised expectations that he could lift his first major trophy since 2008 with victory at The Memorial a fortnight ago.

Playing partner Bubba Watson, the reigning Masters champion who staggered to a 78 yesterday, said Woods showed every sign of being back in major title form.
"Tiger, that was the old Tiger," Watson said. "That was beautiful to watch. He hit every shot shape he was trying to hit. I didn't see any bad swings. I didn't see any bad shot really."
Woods, who acknowledged at The Masters that he wasn't "dialed in" with his re-tooled swing, was also "very pleased" with his ball striking.
The firmer course, some gusty winds and variations in the teeing grounds changed some of his planned club selections. And on the small, firm, sloping greens he was often content with two putts.
"I felt I putted well today," he said. "Most of my putts were lag putts. I was trying to get the speed right and have kick-ins. I did that all day."
Woods opened his round with five straight pars - an impressive enough run on a US Open course featuring the usual menacing rough along with Olympic's narrow, tree-lined fairways.
At the par-four 14th his approach shot hit the green and bounced into dense rough, and he took his first bogey of the day.
Woods rebounded with a birdie at the par-five 17th, then made back-to-back birdies at four and five. After one more bogey at the fifth, he closed with two pars and said he was delighted to see his game stand up to major championship pressure.
"I know I can hit the ball this way, and I know I have been hitting the golf ball this way, and I was able to put it together in a major championship," he said.
"I'm going to need it the next three days. This golf course is only going to get faster."

sourced:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/usopen/9333366/US-Open-2012-I-executed-my-game-plan-well-says-Tiger-Woods-after-opening-round-69-at-Olympic-Course.html