His 74-69 start left him 11 strokes behind Ricky Barnes' record-setting 36-hole pace. It turns out Woods would have needed to tie Larry Nelson's record closing 36 holes (65-67 at Oakmont in 1983) to finish at five-under 275 and win outright. An 11-stroke comeback also would have equaled the largest in U.S. Open history, established by Lou Graham in 1975 at Medinah CC when he tied John Mahaffey, then defeated him in a playoff.
Woods had the blues on the greens in his T-6 at the Black. Photo: Darren Carroll
That Woods narrowed what had grown to a 14-shot deficit after 45 holes was of little consolation to him. Although he has earned nearly a third of his 64 PGA Tour stroke-play victories coming from behind after three rounds (including wins this year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the Memorial), he hasn't done so in a major, and he trailed by nine after 54 holes at Bethpage—too steep a climb even for someone so familiar with the summit.
There was little good karma in the moist Long Island air for being the defending U.S. Open champion, either. Only six people (Willie Anderson, Johnny McDermott, Bobby Jones, Ralph Guldahl, Ben Hogan and Curtis Strange) have won consecutive championships. Woods has fared better than most defending champs in the last two decades. Since Hale Irwin's T-11 in 1991, Woods and Retief Goosen are the only defenders to finish better than 40th in their title defense.
But when you traffic in domination the way Woods does, a top-10, even at a major, is devalued currency. His mood seemed about as dreary as the skies that had given the U.S. Open fits, his mind more on the 120 putts he had taken than the $233,350 he had won.
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