U.S. Open: Tiger won on a broken leg, so who will be next to triumph at Torrey Pines?

By Sports Desk June 16, 2021

Tiger Woods began his U.S. Open bid with a double bogey in 2008 at Torrey Pines – "a terrible start", said the man who four days later took the title in a sudden-death play-off, after he and Rocco Mediate could not be separated in a two-man fifth round.

The 18-hole play-off scenario is now history, so there will no repeat of such a marathon effort as the major returns after 13 years to the San Diego course this week, and there will be no Woods either.

That 2008 triumph was a 14th major for the American, yet he had to wait another 11 years until the 15th arrived, the man who once seemed booked in to take the major titles record away from Jack Nicklaus having seen perceptions of his life switch from fairy tale to soap opera.

Woods in 2008 was privately fighting the pain of a double stress fracture of his left tibia that he kept under wraps. Yes, he won the U.S. Open with a broken leg.

Whoever lifts the trophy this Sunday is unlikely to have to overcome the tribulations that faced Woods across that long weekend, and the superstar's absence is sure to be felt ... until the first round begins to take shape and a new narrative plays out.

Back in 2008, tournament organisers upped the intrigue by grouping Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott – the world number one, two and three – together for the opening two rounds.

Local favourite Mickelson recalls the moment when Woods fluffed his opening hole.

"I thought that was pretty inspiring the way he didn't let that affect him," Mickelson said this week. "He stayed to his game plan, stayed focused, stayed patient, and ended up kind of picking his spots where he could get a shot back here or there, and he did, and he ended up winning. That's impressive."

After completing his opening round, Woods said his mindset after shooting six at the first was to "just be patient, long way to go", and he finished one over par.

By the end of day two, Woods stood tied for second place, with Mickelson and Scott in a group sharing 35th position.

"The atmosphere for the whole 36 holes that I played with Phil and Tiger was incredible," Scott recalled earlier this year. "But Thursday morning the energy around the first hole was like I can't compare it to anything else actually.

"It was not even like teeing off at the Masters or anything like that. The build-up ... Tiger obviously being Tiger and Phil, the local hero, one, two and three in the world, of course I was like the third wheel hanging off the back, but it was really fun to be a part of that."

Of course Woods is a once-a-generation talent, but should anyone make a similarly poor start this week, it would be wise to take the blow on the chin and move on.

This course, the long-time home of the annual Farmers Insurance Open, should reward a steady temperament.

Mickelson, fresh from his shock victory last month at the US PGA Championship, where he became the oldest winner of a major, described the Torrey Pines greens on Monday as "very challenging".

"There's a lot of pitch, a lot of contour, and as they get firmer, they're significantly firmer than just the last two days," he said.

"It's very difficult to get it to some of the pin positions, and it's going to be a difficult test. As long as it is at sea level it's going to be a difficult task, but it seems like the set-up is pristine, and it's going to be a fun, very difficult challenge."

 

WHO WILL WIN THIS TIME?

With Woods out of the picture, recovering from the car crash he was said to have been fortunate to survive in February, there will be no repeat of his famous success 13 years ago.

Woods has won the Farmers Insurance Open a record seven times too, so he would have been relishing this week. Brandt Snedeker and Jason Day are both two-time winners of that tournament, and Mickelson has been champion three times, but not since 2001.

Mickelson is seeking the trophy that would give him a career grand slam, but it seems fanciful to expect him to challenge, having rarely been a factor in the majors in recent years until his unexpected win at Kiawah Island.

Stats Perform has taken a combination of factors to build a list of potential contenders, assessing past performance at the Farmers Insurance Open but also weighting displays in majors and recent PGA Tour form.

These scores are built around performance at Torrey Pines from 2016 to this year.

In the calculations, top-10 finishers at the 2021 Farmers Insurance Open receive points on a scale from 15 for the champion down to six points for 10th place. This decreases on a year-by-year sliding scale to 10 points for the 2016 tournament winner and one point for 10th place in that event.

There is also two points awarded per top-10 finish on the PGA Tour in the 2021 season, and substantial points availability for recent major success (10 points per major title in 2020 and 2021, 8pts in 2019, 6pts in 2018, 4pts in 2017, 2pts in 2016).

Not all players in the U.S. Open field have played the Farmers Insurance Open each year, and some are rarely active, if at all, on the PGA Tour, but this may give an inkling of the players who could come into contention at the year's third major.

TONY FINAU, 52 points: Finau followed up three top-10 results at the Farmers (2017, 2018, 2020) by finishing a joint runner-up in 2021, pointing to a clear liking for the course. How he enjoys it later in the year than he usually encounters Torrey Pines remains to be seen. Finau also has seven top-10 finishes of tour in the 2021 season.

JON RAHM, 52 points: His first major title is arguably overdue, given his talent and week-by-week results. Rahm was Farmers champion in 2017 and runner-up in 2020, also finishing top 10 in 2019 and 2021. He has a tour-leading 10 top-10 finishes this season, and would surely have had a win at the Memorial Tournament earlier this month before a positive COVID-19 test ended his title charge after 54 holes.

PATRICK REED, 42pts: This year's champion at the Farmers Insurance Open, Reed was also top six there in 2020, has had six top-10 results on tour this season and landed a Masters title in his not-too-distant past.

RYAN PALMER, 33pts: Palmer tied for second earlier this year at Torrey Pines, just as he did in 2018. Those performances and his four top-10 finishes on tour this year make him perhaps the surprise name on this list.

BROOKS KOEPKA, 32pts: Koepka missed the cut this year at the Farmers and did the same in 2017, and he did not play the tournament in the intervening years. Although Koepka has little left to prove in a wider sense – his mountain of points here is accrued through past major wins and a healthy batch of top-10s this season – he has yet to master Torrey Pines. Koepka has also missed the cut at three of his most recent four tournaments this year.

RORY MCILROY, 31pts: Top-five finishes at the Farmers in 2019 and 2020 augur well for McIlroy, and his five top-10 finishes on tour this season is a tally he will aim to add to over the coming days. It may be asking a lot to expect him to carry off the title, but another high placing would seem realistic.

Next on the list: Justin Rose (30pts), Brandt Snedeker (29), Viktor Hovland (26), Xander Schauffele (26), Jason Day (25), Marc Leishman (25), Hideki Matsuyama (25) and Keegan Bradley (24).

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    World number two Rory McIlroy admits he feels so much responsibility when it comes to the Ryder Cup he starts thinking about it a year out.

    The Northern Irishman won four points from five matches – the best haul of his career in his seventh event – to spearhead Europe’s regaining of the trophy.

    His appearance on the first tee for Sunday’s singles received the biggest cheer and he duly responded with a 3&1 victory over Sam Burns to put his team within touching distance of regaining the trophy.

    “I know my place in the team and I know guys look to me. But I don’t take that responsibility lightly,” he said.

    “It is something that I have to have a lot of respect for and I have to think about it carefully.

    “I want to do all right things and set a good example for the guys coming into the team.”

    Europe’s captain Luke Donald only assumed the position a year ago after Henrik Stenson’s defection to LIV Golf and subsequent resignation of his European Tour membership made him ineligible.

    That was when McIlroy’s thoughts started turning to how to win at Marco Simone.

    “It was probably when Luke got the captaincy and things were certain again, when we had certainty who the captain was and we knew who the six or seven players that were locked in (were),” he added.

    “Maybe about a year ago I really started to think about it and think about how we and could go about getting the Ryder Cup back – which thankfully we did.

    “We want to try to enjoy this for the next couple of years and then get ready for New York (at Bethpage) and try to do something that is very seldom done in golf (win the Ryder Cup overseas).”

    McIlroy has won four majors – albeit none since 2014 – and three big-money FedEx Cups but admits the buzz he gets from being in a Ryder Cup team is something different.

    “It’s amazing. We play an individual sport. Golf is a game where you seldom win – you win two or three times a year and it’s a great year – but we only get one opportunity at this every two years,” he said.

    “To be surrounded by people who care about it as much as you do is very meaningful. The atmosphere we played in this week I don’t think can be replicated in any other golf event in the world.

    “That means something; to be able to play under that pressure and atmosphere, win your point and do what you are supposed to do for your team, it means the world to me and I am sure it means the world to everyone else.

    “These the best days of our lives. This is why we practise, it’s why we sacrifice the time, it is why we put all the hard work and hours in for us to have moments like this where you go out there and be yourself and try to let your talent shine through.

    “I’m really proud of myself because coming off Whistling Straits (where he won just one point in a record 19-9 defeat two years ago) I don’t know if I ever felt so low, not just in a Ryder Cup but in my career in general.

    “The fact the team had the confidence in me to send me out number one on that Sunday and get a point: you can trace my form back over the last couple of years to that last Sunday at Whistling Straits.

    “These guys believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself and to have a group around you that does believe in you, it means the world to me.”

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    Europe regained the Ryder Cup after beating the United States by 16.5 points to 11.5 points at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome.

    Here, the PA news agency looks at the key questions surrounding the 44th contest.

    How important was home advantage?

    Massive and it shows no sign of changing. Eight of the last nine contests have now been won by the home side, the exception being the ‘Miracle at Medinah’ in 2012 where Europe recovered from 10-4 down to pull off a remarkable victory.

    Nine of the US team did make a scouting trip to Marco Simone, but many of the European side had contested the Italian Open at the venue over the last three years, with Robert MacIntyre (2022) and Nicolai Hojgaard (2021) lifting the title.

    Add in a partisan crowd and it is no wonder Rory McIlroy feels winning an away Ryder Cup is one of the biggest achievements in golf.

    What about Europe’s big guns?

    The home side boasted three of the world’s top four and 2022 US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick was also in the top 10, but that was no guarantee of success.

    Fitzpatrick had lost all five of his previous matches, while Viktor Hovland halved two and lost three at Whistling Straits, where only Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia and Tyrrell Hatton won more than a single point.

    McIlroy’s last two Ryder Cups had yielded three points from eight matches but it was a completely different story in Rome.

    McIlroy was top scorer on either side with four points, Hovland and Hatton won three and a half points each and both Jon Rahm and Tommy Fleetwood contributed three each.

    Did Europe captain Luke Donald’s wild cards justify their selection?

    In the vast majority of cases they did, although with six at his disposal a 100 per cent success rate was virtually impossible.

    It was no surprise to see Fleetwood play well and Justin Rose did superbly to partner MacIntyre to one and a half points before running into a motivated Patrick Cantlay in the singles.

    Ludvig Aberg, labelled a “generational talent” when selected by Donald, won a highly creditable two points alongside Hovland and MacIntyre fared even better with two and a half, the only disappointment being Hojgaard taking just half a point from three matches.

    How about Donald himself?

    It is fair to say Donald’s captaincy was an unqualified triumph.

    He took over in difficult circumstances when Henrik Stenson was sacked after joining LIV Golf, but formed an instant rapport with his players and left no stone unturned in his preparation, even taking lessons to ensure he could deliver the first part of his speech at the opening ceremony in fluent Italian while counterpart Zach Johnson grappled with the few words and phrases he used.

    As a former world number one who was never on a losing Ryder Cup side, Donald also had the respect of his players and made good use of the detailed statistics provided by vice-captain Edoardo Molinari.

    What did the Americans get wrong?

    Johnson was accused of pandering to a powerful clique of players when selecting Justin Thomas and Sam Burns over the likes of Cameron Young, Keegan Bradley and Lucas Glover, with Burns thought to benefit from his friendship with Scottie Scheffler.

    They duly played together in the first session but lost convincingly and did not play together again.

    In addition, only three of the US team had played competitively since the Tour Championship at the end of August; Max Homa was top scorer with three and a half points, while Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepka each won one and a half.

    Were there tensions in the camp?

    Cantlay claimed reports that he was refusing to wear a USA-branded cap in protest at not being paid to play in the Ryder Cup were “outright lies”, but suggestions that all team members would play the first hole on Sunday without wearing a cap in solidarity proved hit and miss at best.

    Cantlay and good friend Xander Schauffele had missed the scouting trip due to the former’s bachelor party and he was scheduled to get married in Rome immediately after the contest.

    What impact did the lack of LIV players have?

    None whatsoever on the European side, who did not have the chance to call on the experience of the likes of Ian Poulter, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood, but did not miss the veteran trio in the slightest.

    It is impossible to know whether Dustin Johnson – who won all five of his matches in 2021 – or Bryson DeChambeau would have made any difference to the outcome, although the fact that the United States have not won on European soil since 1993 offers a clue.

    When is the next Ryder Cup?

    The Black Course at Bethpage State Park will host the next Ryder Cup in September 2025, while the next on European soil will take place two years later at Adare Manor in Ireland.

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