LUCAS GLOVER WINS HIS FIRST MAJOR TITLE

When play started Glover was tied at 7 under with Ricky Barnes who had dropped a shot at the first Sunday evening.He would never relinquish the lead from that point on.

The only interest of the first 12 holes of the last round of this U.S. Open has been a very negative one as Barnes made 5 bogeys in the front nine and Glover 3.Barnes lost 2 more strokes at the 11th and 12th while Glover got back to the game he displayed on the first 3 rounds,putting together a series of par to stay in the lead at 4 under.

It was sad to see that all the hard work those two guys had put together the last 4 days was just being wasted.On the other hand none of their pursuers was taking advantage of the situation until Mickelson played 2 fantastic shots at the par 5 thirteenth hole and sank a short putt for eagle.The roar of the crowd told Glover that his most dangerous rival had tied him for the lead.If he had any doubt a look on the scoreboards confirmed what happened.

At that time various players wher within 1 or 2 shots of the leaders.Ross fisher got it at 3 under,David Duval at 2 as well as Barnes who birdied the 13th.

The race was on with 5 holes to play,you could feel the electricity in the crowds which were going crazy at Mickelson’s every shot Phil let them down when he dropped a shot at the difficult 15th,not really a problem given that most of the players fail to par that hole. Meanwhile Glover bogeyed the 15th and Duval birdies the 16th,we have now a 3 way tie at 3 under.

That’s what the U.S. Open is all about!

Glover birdies the 16th to take the lead by 1 stroke,mickelson had bogeyed it to drop at 2 under and Duval loses a stroke at the 17th.

Suddenly Glover has a 2 shots lead with 2 holes to play.He doesn’t make any mistake at the 17 th and carries that cushion to the 18th, short par 4 last hole.Ricky Barnes almost holed his putt for birdie to get to 3 under and put some pressure on Glover’s 4 footer for par.With 2 putts for the win LUCAS GLOVER holes it to par the 18th and is the109th U.S. OPEN CHAMPION.

As I said in the past article, it was expected that the leaders would feel the tremendous pressure of the last day at the Open and they did,Glover dropped 3 shots and Barnes 6.However none of contenders shot an under par round,Duval(71) and Mickelson(70) only managed to be runner up,courtesy of Ricky Barnes who was kind enough to drop down to join them.You cannot expect to be given a Championship of that magnitude,you have to go and get it!! Tiger Woods never got the feel of the greens and finishes at even par in 6th place.

Phil Mickelson has now a 5 runner up finish in the U.S. Open, a record he would not like to hold.

David Duval resurrected in this tournament and showed that he got his game back,we’ll see him again at the top of the leaderboards.

Lucas Glover played his first 2 rounds in a U.S. Open at Bethpage Black in 2002 he came to conquer the elements,the tough course and the title.