Glover's Open champion good for the game

Mike Dudurich

Posted 2009-06-23

I may be in the minority but I have no problem with how the U.S. Open played out, even though it took five days to play out.

Sure, it’s always exciting when Tiger Woods wins and gets closer and closer to making history.

Phil Mickelson always makes things a thrill-a-minute with his go-for-it style, even though that strategy has yet to result in an Open title. A victory by the big lefty would have been great theatre, the kind of Hollywood-type finish that is almost too good to be true.

Lucas Glover makes for a fine Open champion on a number of levels. First, he gives American golf a big boost, becoming the first 20-something player to win a major title in quite a while. There have been plenty of questions over the last few years about that age group and with the 29-year-old Glover and 23-year-old Ricky Barnes being in the final group Monday certainly is a good sign.

And while Woods can bemoan his uncooperative putter and Mickelson can point to multiple unplayable lies as reasons for their having missed out on a golden opportunity, Glover was the guy who was most consistent for the longest period of time over the water-logged five days at Bethpage.

He hit 71 percent of the fairways, 72 percent of the greens and -- especially in the U.S. Open – that’s normally a really good recipe for success.

The immediate reaction to seeing a Glover or Barnes leading the U.S. Open is one of, “yeah, right. A temporary situation.” No one but Barnes, the former U.S. Amateur champion, played Bethpage Black any better than Glover over the first 54 holes.

The fact that the two of them could play the final round in 73 and 76, respectively, and finish first and a tie for second says volumes about how the other 58 players fared.

But in the final analysis it was Glover having the intestinal fortitude to come back from a bogey on the 15th hole with a pair of superb shots on 16 and then drained a birdie putt that gave him a two-shot lead with two holes to go.

“I knew I needed a birdie on 16,” said Glover of wanting to create some breathing room. “Had a good number with an 8 iron. One of the best shots I hit all week was 17. It was right in between clubs, 4 and 5 iron, right to left wind. I'm a drawer, and I hit a fade up against the wind that I couldn't have been happier about.”

Glover played on the U.S. Walker Cup team and after a good career at Clemson, he turned pro in 2001. He joined the tour in 2004 and had won just once, the 2005 Funai Classic.

He established the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup as goals last year and he put so much pressure on himself that he didn’t make either and actually dropped to 178th in the world rankings, forcing him to get away from the game for a while.

”That was the point of it, to get away … figure out why I got the way I got,” he said. “And I did. I was too hard on myself, and just had a bad attitude when it wasn't going right. The patience issues and the bad attitude and expectations through the roof and not getting results, but practicing just as hard and not getting any better. That was the frustrating thing.”

Another great story that didn’t get written at Bethpage would have been David Duval returning to prominence by winning. The enigmatic Duval was the No. 1-ranked player in the world in 1999 after winning the Players Championship and British Open.

Since then, he’s plummeted off the radar. He left the game for a while, suffering with personal problems and a lack of interest in the game. He remarried and started working on his game and many times over the last several years told the media that even though his scores didn’t reflect it, he was getting close.

Well, he got real close at Bethpage. Had it not been for an unlucky triple bogey on his first hole of the day – the par 3 third – Duval could have come all the way back. He fell to six shots behind the two leaders but, as he said, “I don’t quit.”

Duval got back into it with birdies on 14, 15 and 16, but fell just short. “It's what I want,” said Duval, 37. “It may be arrogance, but it's where I feel like I belong. And I was glad to come up here and hit the golf ball and control myself like I've been saying I've been doing, and how I've been talking about how I know I'm playing a lot better than my results have been showing.

I stand before you certainly happy with how I played, but extremely disappointed in the outcome. I had no question in my mind I was going to win the golf tournament today.”

So in the last three years it’s been Angel Cabrera (2007), Tiger Woods (2008) and Lucas Glover (2009).

Does the fact that Cabrera and Glover not have the pedigree of Woods or Mickelson make the U.S. Open any less of a coveted championship?

Not hardly.

All it does is spice up the mix and shows that the U.S. Open means what it’s called.

Open.

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