US Open collapse

I watched, riveted to the TV, as Phil Mickelson walked to the 18th tee on the 72nd hole of the US Open Golf tournament with a one shot lead. Will he do the sane thing and hit the safe shot on the fairway from where he could make par or better or at worse bogey to tie the lead, or will he try to dazzle and bang the driver to god knows where? He chose the driver and the rest is history.

It was a collapse that ranks among the most famous collapses. The day after is usually the day it hurts the most and today must be the darkest day in his career.

Actually, I was rooting for Monty to win the championship and when he made harakiri and bogeyed the last hole to drop out of the lead, I felt really bad for him. I thought his generosity had benefitted Mickelson who was the sole leader at that point and had the championship in his grasp.

In the end, a relatively unknown and unheralded Aussie won. But you couldn't help feel, that he had won, not by his own right - though of course he played well - but by the foolishness and charity of others. It's a victory that at least in the present has a bunch of footnotes attached to it. But with the passage of time, those footnotes will fade and a quarter century from now, all we will remember is that an Aussie won the 2006 U.S. Open.