BETHESDA, Md. — This week was hardly a strong showing for American golf, but don’t tell that to Robert Garrigus and Kevin Chappell.
The two relative unknowns finished as the low Americans, in a tie for third place at 6-under par. The top-8 finishes in the U.S. Open earned Chappell and Garrigus exemptions for the 2012 Masters.
“Besides it being Father’s Day and to have my son there afterwards and everything, this is a pretty special day,” Garrigus said. “I get into Augusta. That’s probably one of the coolest things I’ll ever get to say is I am playing at Augusta next year.”
Garrigus, who was cheered wildly on 18 after making a big par save putt, said, “It’s so cool to have that many people rooting for you. It’s better than any drug you could ever take. You can’t buy it, you can’t bottle it. I’ll never forget this day for the rest of my life.”
In the 30 majors since 2004, only three other American players have won majors aside from Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson — Zach Johnson in the 2007 Masters, Lucas Glover in the 2009 U.S. Open and Stewart Cink in the 2009 British Open.
“Being low American, that’s great,” Chappell said. “I don’t think the state of American golf is where everyone expects it to be, but I think it shows that someone like myself can play out here and I think it’s definitely going to end up going in the right direction here sometime soon.”
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Phil Mickelson, who shot a disappointing 77 in Saturday’s third round and closed with a 71 yesterday, has now played in 21 U.S. Opens without a victory despite finishing runner-up five times.
“I just didn’t play as I’d hoped,” Mickelson said. “This just gets me more geared up to look forward to the British. I’ll have the next two weeks to try and get my game ready to head over to Europe.”
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Patrick Cantlay, the No. 1-ranked amateur in the world, finished as the low amateur at even par.
“It’s such a great experience to be here, and it’s been an amazing week,” he said. “I’m really excited. Adrenaline kind of kept me in it. It means so much because there’s so much history [being low amateur]. Obviously it’s my first U.S. Open, so it means a lot to me that I was able to compete well in my first one.”
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Lee Westwood must be growing tired of contending in majors without having a win on his resume. He finished in a four-way tie for third.
“I’ve been world No. 1 before, and obviously it would be nice to get back there, but it would be nice to win a major,” Westwood said. “I’ll be looking forward to the [British] Open Championship now.”