Goosen lays an egg in final round

The third-round leader and two-time champion disappeared with an 81 on Sunday.

PINEHURST, N.C. -- Last year, the stoic walk up the final fairway was a victory march for Retief Goosen. This time, the 18th hole felt more like an escape route.

The U.S. Open finally caught up to Retief The Robot on Sunday, turning what was supposed to be a coronation for one of the best players in the game into an out-and-out embarrassment.

He shot 11-over-par 81. He turned a three-stroke lead into an eight-stroke loss. First place became a tie for 11th. A chance at history morphed into an ugly footnote.

"I messed up badly," Goosen said. "I obviously threw this away."

He ended the final round not contending for his second straight Open title but merely hoping to win a friendly bet with playing partner Jason Gore, who was equally awful, over the last three holes.

(For the record, Goosen didn't say what the wager was, but he won it.)

After hitting his final approach, Goosen took off his cap, ran his fingers through his hair and trudged toward the green, the formality of a two-putt the only thing standing between him and the end to a long, difficult day. From the expression on his face, it was hard to tell if he was in first place or last.

But the patient, steady play that had served him so well through his previous seven rounds of U.S. Open competition had left him much earlier in the day. He was an also-ran by the end.

Looking back as far as the records would take them, USGA officials said Goosen's 81 tied Gil Morgan (1992 at Pebble Beach) for the worst final round ever for a U.S. Open leader. Morgan could blame high winds that victimized most of the field.

At Pinehurst, the villain was the course, not the weather.

"It's just one of those rounds," Goosen said. "I haven't putted this badly in a long time. We all have bad rounds. It's unfortunate it happened in this tournament."

Heading into play Sunday, the smart money said the Open was pretty much over, with Goosen ahead by three strokes and journeymen Gore and Olin Browne his closest competition.

Even his competitors were ready to put his name on the trophy.

"I don't think any player is better than him in the U.S. Open, Tiger included," Ernie Els said after finishing around the time Goosen teed off.

And Stewart Cink: "His composure is up there with the best of them and he won't let it go south."

Had either man seen Goosen's front nine, they would have been shocked.

It started going downhill on the second hole, when he missed the green to the right, then overhit his chip and rolled it onto the other side. His putt went 8 feet past and after two more putts, he had double bogey.

His lead over eventual winner Michael Campbell dwindled to one stroke there, and after Goosen three-putted the next two holes -- he left a putt for eagle 6 feet shot on the fourth -- his plunge down the leaderboard began.

"I had a bad start, and from then on, it was pretty much downhill all the way," Goosen said.

By the time the Goose had reached the turn, he was trailing Campbell by two. By the time Goosen hit No. 11, tournament officials had put him and Gore on the clock, not because they're slow by nature, but "because we had just had to hit so many shots," he said.

Goosen's walk up 18 with Gore was strange because, even though they were the last two players on the course, Campbell was already crying and celebrating, his championship having been secured 20 minutes earlier.

"I would have loved to have been in it for at least the last five holes, having a chance," Goosen said. "But after No. 12, I was out of it."

It was a disheartening end to a week that began with Goosen complaining about not getting the attention normally afforded a defending U.S. Open champion and continued with the golf world starting to come to grips with the idea that, boring or not, Goosen really did belong up there with the game's elite.

In the end, he still finished third among the Big Five, behind Woods and Vijay Singh but ahead of Els (15th) and Phil Mickelson (33rd), both of whom played themselves out of the tournament before the weekend.

Still, it was a stunning decline for a player previously thought unflappable. And in the end, even he proved vulnerable to beastly Pinehurst No. 2 and the withering U.S. Open conditions.

"Sometimes, things happen like that," he said. "But it was a great year being the U.S. Open champion and I'm looking forward to coming back and trying again."