‘STUPID’ SHOT THAT KILLED MONTY’S MAJOR DREAM
Scot choked at Winged Foot in 2006 with glory in sight
COLIN Montgomerie and Phil Mickelson have nine runnerup finishes between them at the US Open, and so could write a book on the litany of ways that America’s national championship can remain tantalisingly out of reach.
But, when it comes to the chapter titled Sheer Heartbreak, their collaborative effort would focus on the fateful day of June 18, 2006, and the last time the event was staged at Winged Foot.
If you want the appetite whetted for this week’s edition at the brutal New York state venue, slip back to that unprecedented afternoon in Majors history, when four world-class players came to the 18th hole with a chance to win — and couldn’t muster so much as a par between them.
Jim Furyk still gets hacked off thinking about the missed 4ft par putt that cost him his chance of catching the unlikely winner, Australian Geoff Ogilvy. Padraig Harrington, who closed with three straight bogeys to finish two back, is just thankful that ‘my choke was small in comparison to others’.
That leaves Monty and Mickelson, and two double-bogeys that almost defy comprehension. Well, certainly Monty’s. Mickelson? Needing a par to win, another awful drive was no surprise, nor the miracle shot he attempted that struck a tree flush and almost came back to his feet. ‘What an idiot I am,’ he said at the end of his calamity.
Fourteen years on, aged 50, he’ll be back on merit — the world’s top 60 are exempt, and he’s 51st. Monty has gone mute, refusing all interviews. In Dubai last year, I caught him in a more loquacious mood, and it was clear the pain will never go away.
‘I had five secondplace finishes in all in the Majors but that was the one where I stupidly threw it away,’ he said. ‘The shot to the 18th green is the one I’ll always regret, the shot that I’ll always want back. That’s the Major that still disturbs my sleep.’
He was five days shy of his 43rd birthday, and it all looked to have come together. He’d holed a 50ft putt on the 17th. Needing a par to win, he’d split the difficult 18th fairway. All he had left was his stock-in-trade, a soft fade with a mid-iron to a flag on the right of the green.
My sports editor was almost beside himself. It was the midnight hour in these parts and he called after that monstrous putt. ‘Blimey! He’s only going to finally do it, isn’t he?’ he said.
Such were the tight final edition deadlines, I had two intros ready, as he stood over that approach shot. I still have them.
Either: ‘All the years of heartache in the Majors are now a passing memory for the great warrior Colin Montgomerie, following an afternoon of rapture in New York as he finally won the US Open.’
Or: ‘Colin Montgomerie has experienced some gut-wrenching final afternoons at the Majors but none come close to the agonising manner in which he threw away the US Open at Winged Foot yesterday.’
Following an interminable wait involving playing partner Vijay Singh, came an anguished wail. ‘What kind of shot is that?’ Monty cried, after a seven iron finished woefully short. Sadly, it was the kind known as a choke.
It left the Scot in position Z and, with no shot, he chipped 40ft past and three-putted. To complete the woe, he made front and back pages after barging a state trooper on his way to the locker room.
‘I know I can still compete in Majors,’ he whispered afterwards. But he never did.