Round 4 - You Can't Win Them All Unless You Win The First Two

Highlights from Round 4 Sunday at Chambers Bay.

The final round of the US Open and another scorcher was on the cards. With each day it had been getting warmer and warmer and the trend continued into Sunday.

I started the day on the par 4 5th hole behind the tee to see Luke Donald's tidy swing once more, before walking down to the right side of the 5th green to one of the few greenside vantage points on the course outside of the bleachers. Colin Montgomerie found the nasty pot bunker in front of the green with his approach, with the pin tucked about 6 paces beyond it leaving a potentially tricky up and down, but it was no bother for Monty as he produced a confident sand save.

My last glimpse of Sergio Garcia for the week came next, with the Spaniard firing an iron shot over the top of the pin and letting the slight slope beyond take his ball back a little bit. He could not convert the oportunity though. Justin Rose was too aggressive and found himself down at the bottom of a swail over the green. He elected to putt from there but left himself too much to do to save par. The last notable action from beside the 5th green was a significant one, Rory McIlroy surprisingly finding the pot bunker with his approach from the fairway but draining a 15 footer for par to a tumultuous response from the gallery. This was a putt that would set the tone for Rory's charge later in the round.

After this I decided to move to the 2nd hole and wait for the leaders to come through, taking a nice position in the grass on the dunes close to the green.  A hole that had been playing relatively easier than most before today seemed to be causing problems with several players finding the fescue rough to the left of the fairway off the tee and then struggling to recover around the green. Henrik Stenson, Brandt Snedeker and Louis Oosthuizen were three notables to make bogey in this manner. Shane Lowry in the fourth last group played the hole nicely, finding a good angle on the fairway and steering his approach to approximately 18 feet, however Shane missed the putt and it was apparent from his reaction that he knew all too well that such chances needed to be taken in order to stay in the mix.

The gallery thickened as the last two groups arrived and Jordan Spieth became the next in the long list to miss the fairway to the left. Jordan saved his par impressively just as a 'Mobile Device Task Force' member weaved through the crowds to reprimand offenders. Throughout all four days I personally did not see one spectator do something to put off a player by using a mobile device. As long as it is done on silent and not when a player is hitting then I see no problem with the use of cameraphones. I took many discrete pictures myself as I will soon demonstrate! The final pairing of Jason Day and Dustin Johnson played two solid irons onto the green but both settled for pars.

As I moved across the gravel path up to the dunes overlooking the third green to see Day and Dustin play two glorious tee shots on the par 3, news was coming through on the radio of McIlroy's back nine charge. I decided to wait by the 16th tee, which was more accessible to spectators as it had been moved forward to lure players into going for the green. By the time Rory reached the 16th tee however he had faltered with a bogey on the 15th and the charge was subsiding, nonetheless it was still good to see him in action one last time as he ripped a 3-wood towards the green.

My plan after this was to head back up the hill towards the 13th green / 14th tee to wait for the leaders come through and then watch the conclusion on the big screen near the exit. I managed to catch Jason Day holing his birdie putt on the 5th en route. I was not expecting to secure a place in the 13th grandstand given the crowd congestion at the lower parts of the course, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a spot available. I also wanted to see the leaders tee off on the intimidating 14th but I could not turn down the grandstand.

Shane Lowry stood in the middle of the 13th fairway at -1 just four shots back. His iron shot took an aggressive line towards the front right pin but turned out just marginally on the short side and caught the mini valley of sin to roll back off the green and leave a very difficult up-and-down. He elected to play a percentage chip shot that was never going to be short (therefore eliminating the risk of coming back down the same steep slope), finishing 15 feet past the hole. The putt looked good but agonisingly hung on the edge and the pain was visible in Lowry's exasperated reaction. He knew that making bogey from the fairway was a blow to his chances, but he still had 5 holes left and marched up the sandy hill to the 14th tee, throwing his golf ball to a kid on the way.

Louis Oosthuizen's late charge was ignited by holing a long birdie putt after a solid and safe approach to the middle of the green. He followed this in even more dramatic fashion within binocular view down the hill on the 14th by holing a pitch for birdie, having missed the fairway off the tee and being forced to hack out well short of the green in two. It was the first back-nine-on-Sunday US Open roar I had witnessed and it was a very loud one.

Spieth and Grace were up next and Grace found the exact same spot as Lowry but chose to putt up the steep slope rather than chip. It paid off when he made what was a very important par to keep him in a tie for the lead. Jordan had played a quality shot to about 20 feet and laboured over the birdie read with caddie Michael Greller. The putt tracked ominously and looked certain to drop but somehow missed on the low side to loud groans in the grandstand, including my own!

In the final group Jason Day had begun to fade but Dustin Johnson was the main challenger to Grace and Spieth and his two blows found Oosthuizen territory on the green 25 feet away. Just as he was preparing to putt, a plastic bottle dropped on the wooden grandstand floor beside me. I don't know if it was loud enough to put off Dustin and it was a still a few seconds before his stroke, but he left his effort well short and missed the next one for a three putt bogey. The Open radio commentators had been highlighting Dustin's exceptional tee-to-green play but he was falling short on the tricky greens. 

Excited by these events I abandoned my plan to watch the conclusion on the big screen and walked back down the hill one last time to see if I could find any sort of decent spot around the 18th. I did alright in the end, finding an area behind the green / grandstand near where the players walk to the scoring hut. I arrived there just in time to see Lowry make a costly bogey on a hole he was probably hoping to have a chance to birdie. He seemed subdued as he walked off but I suspect that he will use the experience to secure a big win very soon.

The radio informed everyone of the drama unfolding along the railroad tracks by 15, 16 and 17. When Spieth walked up the par 5 18th fairway to play his second shot, having just done his best to throw away the tournament by making double bogey on the 17th, I couldn't see the green but was close enough to hear the grandstand ERUPT when his heroic effort landed on the green and tracked to 15 feet away for eagle. An incredible response under pressure by the 21 year old prodigy on a 600 yard golf hole! The putt did not drop but the tap in birdie meant that Dustin Johnson needed a birdie to force a Monday playoff. SPIETHMODE! 

What happened next was both brilliant and cruel to say the least. Dustin also produced two sensational shots to reach the green, the second swing of which I could just make out with the binoculars through a gap in heads in front of me, and his ball also funnelled to makeable distance. When he missed the putt to win the tournament and his first major, the first Monday playoff since Woods and Mediate in 2008 looked all set, however Dustin had already three-putted three times on the back nine and under this much pressure and on such undulating greens this knee-jerker was no certainty. His first putt had just veered sharply to one side as it died, which may have affected his read on the way back, either that or it was just a bad stroke, but it was a harrowing way to lose the US Open.

A few minutes after Dustin walked off the green with his baby, 'Heir Jordan' marched back out to collect the trophy and I was right there to cheer him on as he came past.

So after a memorable week at Chambers Bay, the course stood up and the best player in the field won in a finale fitting of the surroundings.  The course set up received some criticism but what's knew for a US Open, most of it seemed to be unfounded in any case. With all the chatter about the greens it turns out players made more putts per GIR than the previous two US Opens.

 

Don't be surprised if more major events return to Chambers Bay in the near future.  If it does return I would like to see some measures taken to make it more spectator friendly.  I got as much out of it as I could but it was hard work.

As Jordan said in his victory speech: "you can't win them all unless you win the first two" - the SpiethSlam is alive!!