After days upon days of rain involving more pictures of grounds crew working squeegees across flooded greens than I ever cared to witness, the 109th playing of the US Open golf tournament ended in something like familiar fashion.  A guy most folks never would have selected as the winner of this event on Wednesday played better than anyone else on the back nine during the final round of the tournament and gets to take home a nifty trophy atop a wheelbarrow full of money. 

It took until Monday for the golf to overcome the weather as the story of the week.  Phil Mickelson finished in second place for a record fifth time, doomed by his putter and a week full of feast or famine shots.  Missing two par putts on the last four holes sent Mr.Mickelson home to more important matters with another almost but not quite finish in our national championship.  

 The fourth round began Sunday night with Rickey Barnes at 8 under par one shot ahead of Mr. Glover and five ahead of everyone else.  Even though Mr. Barnes had held the 36 hole lead in record fashion, and still led after 54 holes, I don’t think I was the only one watching who figured 3 or 4 under would be enough.  I mean really, when Mr. Barnes got to 11 under par and the talking heads were dragging out Gil Morgan and his sprint to 12 under at Pebble Beach followed by his drop thru all seven layers of hell, did anyone really believe he was going to continue to walk on water all the way to the trophy?  No.  He shot 40 on the front nine in the final round,  not surprising considering the circumstances.  Admirably he hung tough around the back nine to finish tied for second with Mr. Mickelson and a name from another decade, David Duval. 

That’s correct, David Duval, looking like he was enjoying himself for a change and playing like he used to play, hitting the ball straight, long, accurate, and making putts from all over.  He began the day on the 238 yd par 3 third hole at 3 under par.  One triple bogey later he was even par and I figured he was finished.  Granted he caught a terrible break, pulling his iron shot from the tee just a bit left and into one of those gargantuan seeming sand traps where the ball just happened to bury under the lip.  A no shot dead lie if I’ve ever seen one, which turned out to be the case.  My mistake was thinking Mr. Duval would fold up his I’m the 882nd best golfer but I used to be number one on the planet tent and vanish into the land of the many over par.  He didn’t fold at all.  He did what no one has seen him do in a long long time.  Continue to play quality golf shots, make some putts and crawl back into the lead.   Only to watch a 5 foot par putt do a 180* back at you on the 17th green.  This while Mr. Glover made his lone birdie of the day on the par 4 16th hole, acquiring a two shot lead as he marched onto the 17th tee.  I really hope that Mr. Duval is back as a player.  What a comeback script that would make.  From number one in the world to number 882 and back to say the top five in only 10 years.  A tale of one man’s inability to quit on himself when the rest of golfdom buried him long long ago.  Very cool. Although probably a psychologically questionable personality flaw, it’s a flaw I have to admire. 

Tiger Woods had numerous chances to get himself into the mix the final two days, but his putter refused to comprehend the lack of speed on the greens.  A US Open can not be won without cooperation from the flatstick.  Won’t happen.  And yet he still finished tied for 6th only four shots out of first.  If you kept score, he was four over on the 15th hole for the week.  Whatever your opinion on him, the guy is just absolutely amazing at playing this game. 

And so there was drama on the final nine, even though it was Monday morning rather than Sunday afternoon.  Lots of players with a chance to win and or lose the tournament.  Make no mistake, Mr. Glover won the trophy by playing better golf than anyone else.  He is a worthy winner as deserving as every other of the names etched on the trophy he now holds.  Congratulations.

As a small aside, I never hope the talking heads have so much time to fill ever again.  When weatherman Al Roker is the star talking head something is amiss.  Normally I can tune out the voices, but they reached the level of the ridiculous so quickly today, and then went way beyond that in short order, I was throwing things at my television and yelling at them to shut the heck up.  The inanity reached such a level that I neglected to realize I could hit the mute button, but like rubberneckers at a six car- semitruck accident I had to keep an ear out for every gory sentence.  It may take some time before I can forget statements like Dan Hicks made about Mr. Barnes after a chip shot finished tap in distance from the hole.  Something to the effect that "once again he’s responded to the pressure"  this after Mr. Barnes had yanked three successive tee shots into the deep do do and even hit a second shot further left.  The guy is melting in front of my eyes and just about to come out of skin, but he’s responding to the pressure in a good way.  HAH!  I just threw a pair of socks at the computer.  Time to say goodbye.