[Terry Lavin]

No offense to Graeme McDowell, because he is a most worthy champiion, but is it just me or are you a bit exhausted with watching all of this grinding and spitting up for four days, only to wind up with somebody who doesn't exactly get into the conversation of the top 50 golfers in the game today.  Is he destined to be Michael Campbell or will G Mac start racking up the victories?

[archie_struthers]

 

I guess you have to know Andy North to really appreciate just how cool it is that he won two 

[jeffwarne]

Terry,
In my opinion McDowell controlled his ball the best .
He also has had good finishes in his last 8 or so majors and is no doubt an up and coming solid player.
It's just a shame putting was completely out of the game.

[Richard Choi]

I personally love the US Open grind. For once in a year, it is nice to see the very best in the world suffer a little

I really liked the USGA setup. The variety of half pars really threw people off. And if you were above the hole, the lack of pace on the putt almost guaranteed that you were not going to make that putt, which further emphasized approach shots.

That was pretty fun for me to watch, and McDowell is one of the most talented young players, I don't think he compares to other flameouts.

[Adam Clayman]

He's top 40 in the world. Undeserving? He's paid his dues and is a worthy champion.

[Wade Whitehead]

Terry: If not McDowell, who deserved to win?

WW

[Terry Lavin]

He's top 40 in the world. Undeserving? He's paid his dues and is a worthy champion.

Who said he was "undeserving"?  I said he was a "most worthy champion".  I only said he was an unlikely winner.

[Doug Sobieski]

Tuesday or Wednesday on The Golf Channel they had Ken Schofield, former Executive Director of the European Tour on the set as they always do before majors. They asked him who was going to win. He said Graeme McDowell.

[Terry Lavin]

Tuesday or Wednesday on The Golf Channel they had Ken Schofield, former Executive Director of the European Tour on the set as they always do before majors. They asked him who was going to win. He said Graeme McDowell.

Now, that's what I call prescient.

[PThomas]

Woods , Lefty and Ernie must be kicking themselves...it was certainly there for the taking but not of them played that well

[rboyce]

Probably not a fair thread title. The Masters seems to have the best winner's list looking back ten to twenty years. The US Open is probably second. Of the majors, the British Open is possibly in last place due to the Ben Curtis - Todd Hamilton - Paul Lawrie period.

[Michael Huber]

Too bad I dont have the time, resources, or know how to put together a spreadsheet and to see which tournament the best players win most often.  The U.S. Open has had some strange winners, to be sure, but I'd be curious to see how strange they are compared to one of the regular tour events.

[J_ Crisham]

The US Open is always a crap shoot unlike the Masters which rarely fails to deliver a "name" champion.  Where is Steve Jones these days? Is this due to course setup or the fact the Masters contestants are already proven champions. I believe it is the setup. I remember the goofy golf at Shinny, Olympic,  etc...    The USGA are trying to identify the best player but it becomes more luck than skill  due to their setup.               Just my thoughts,  Jack          

[Dale Jackson]

No offense to Graeme McDowell, because he is a most worthy champiion, but is it just me or are you a bit exhausted with watching all of this grinding and spitting up for four days, only to wind up with somebody who doesn't exactly get into the conversation of the top 50 golfers in the game today.  Is he destined to be Michael Campbell or will G Mac start racking up the victories?

Without meaning any offence, that is a very American-centric comment.  From the European (and global) perspective he is very much "somebody who  gets into the conversation of the top 50 golfers in the game today".  He made it in the the tournament because he is in the top 50 of the world rankings, was a member of the 2008 European Ryder Cup team and has been a very successful player.  Believe me if you are anywhere other than the US, he has been central to these type of conversations.

[Tom Walsh]

Phil said in his press conference that from a player's perspective Graeme's win is not a surprise. I hope the 'press' agrees.

[John_Conley]

How about the US Women's Open?

Laurie Merten, Alison Nicholas, Hilary Lunke, Eun-Hee Ju, In Bee Park, Birdie Kim, Janet Anderson.

No Ochoa.  No Lopez.  No Ayoko Okamoto. 

[John Moore II]

Well, he's a good player. 5 wins on the Euro Tour, Ryder Cup team member, Top 20 in 6 of the last 8 majors now, and he just won 2 weeks ago, so he was certainly at the top of his game coming into the Open. He might have come out of the woodwork, but no more than it would have been if Dustin Johnson would have won. Now that Frenchman, he would have been an unlikely winner.

[David Stamm]

Probably not a fair thread title. The Masters seems to have the best winner's list looking back ten to twenty years. The US Open is probably second. Of the majors, the British Open is possibly in last place due to the Ben Curtis - Todd Hamilton - Paul Lawrie period.

I say the PGA could give the British a run for it;s money. Yang, Micheel, Beem, Brooks and Grady in the lasy 20 years don't exactly light anyone's fire either.

[PThomas]

am i wrong or did i hear Ernie drop an F bomb today??

[Garland Bayley]

Anyone that thinks the Masters identifies the best players is not paying attention. The way the Masters identifies the best players is to invite who they think are the best players, and then surround them with a bunch of non-contenders. Not exactly your rigorous examination. The US Open played on a fast surface and was won by a player that grew up playing on fast surfaces. Not exactly an unlikely result, especially since the European players and officials were thinking it a highly likely result.

[mike_beene]

Paul,I heard that also.On 13. it perhaps will help some that Woods,Els and Mickelson were right there.To me a flukish major win is one like Paul Lawrie or Payne Stewarts first PGA where there is a collapse in front and the player has a low pressure back in.Graeme played at or near the lead all weekend and showed us a lot of fight.

[RJ_Daley]

It seems to me that the entire approach to the US and British Opens is to give the "unlikely player" a chance, thus it is open.  This year over 9200 entries tried to qualify for those open slots.  Sure the world has its top 50 and so forth who get in, and one expects that one of the worlds ranked top 50 would be likely.  But lets face it, a good unlikely player can get hot.  I think it is more likely that an unlikely player gets hot for a weekend, particularly under the set-up conditions that are somewhat unique and not even the top 50 pros actually play those demanding conditions every week.  So, enter the unlikely, from Ouimet- who outpaced 165 entries, to last minute qualifiers like Campbell who outpaced 9000 entries, there can very well be an unlikely winner in these open tournaments.

[Doug Siebert]

I figured it wouldn't take long for a thread like this...

But the guy is fairly highly ranked worldwide, clearly knows how to win on the Euro tour, and took (OK, was given) the lead early on the front nine and held it all the way.  Tiger, Phil, Ernie, even Davis Love had plenty of chances in the world but couldn't keep their drives in play, missed greens with short approaches from the fairway, and missed putts (in Tiger's case mostly from being too tentative)  Like Miller said, they're probably all kicking themselves realizing how much easier it would have seemed on the first tee if they'd only known that -1 was the score to beat!

Its a pretty quality leaderboard, other than the outlier Havret.

[Bill_Yates]

One little difference, Masters players are INVITED to play (as in hand-picked).  What we see every June is an OPEN (i.e. open to all who qualify) championship.  Perhaps this accounts for a bit of the difference in winner name recognition.

[Matthew Rose]

I actually think he fits in well with some of the recent champions of this event - Ogilvy, Cabrera, etc..

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