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Media watch: Johnson sends NBC deep into Open files

June 20, 2010

Credit Dustin Johnson with this, at least: He summoned the memory of Fred McLeod, who at the outset of this U.S. Open was not likely to receive notice nearly 100 years later.

Courtesy of NBC's Dan Hicks, we learned that Johnson's final round of 82 was the highest by a 54-hole leader of the U.S. Open since McLeod's 83 in the U.S. Open in 1911 at Chicago Golf Club.

Sunday's telecast of the final round of the Open at Pebble Beach again was a Johnny Miller showcase. The highlights (or lowlights, depending on your view of Miller):

-- On Shaun Micheel, who made a double-eagle two at the sixth hole and a double-bogey five at the short par-3 seventh hole: "He made the score on six that he should have made on seven and a score on seven he should have made on six."

-- On Johnson's reported emotional even keel: "His caddie Bobby Brown says he flatlines. He actually needs an electric shock right now."

-- On Davis Love III, after he left a short birdie putt short to get within three of the lead at the eighth hole: "That's been Davis' nemesis when he has a chance to win something big. He starts getting tentative and leaving putts short."

-- On Tiger Woods choosing putter from 30 feet from the green on the eighth hole: "I'm surprised. This takes so much talent and a little luck. You don't know how that fringe is going to slow it down. You'd think he's going to come up way short here." He did, resulting in his fourth bogey in eight holes.

-- On the collective inability of the field to deliver anything positive on the back nine: "I don't know who's leaking more oil, the field or British Petroleum."

-- John Strege