PINEHURST – Standing inside the ropes against the grandstand overlooking the Pinehurst No. 2 18th green and witnessing the riveting theater that most of us only dream about seeing live and up close, you couldn’t slap the smile off my face with a hockey stick yesterday.
Following Payne Stewart, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods around the course in yesterday’s U.S. Open final round, jumping from group to group to soak in the drama and chronicle the goings on, I felt as if I were playing the event.
My heart was beating that rapidly.
The places I went, the things I saw, the noises I heard, the reverberating roars I felt through my body and the moments I experienced were all things that simply cannot be captured by television.
The best thing about yesterday’s incredible U.S. Open final round was that – like the ultimate, perfect event in any sport – it got more and more compelling as it moved toward its climax, and the final act was as memorable as it was improbable.
As Payne Stewart rolled in his unbelievable 15-foot, par-saving putt to win the 99th U.S. Open on the tournament’s final strike of a ball, I turned to a colleague and wanted to say something, but I couldn’t get the words out. I wanted to say, “Can you believe this?” But I was numb and speechless.
When Stewart’s ball disappeared in the cup, he looked like he was going to launch himself right over the clubhouse roof with his right fist leading as it punched through the misty air.
When a golf tournament is decided on the final strike of a ball it’s the same as a basketball game ending on the last shot or a hockey game ending with an overtime goal.
As a fanatic golfer myself, to watch Stewart execute in the exact way he did under such excruciating, pressure-packed circumstances was difficult to comprehend.
The sights, sounds and scenes surrounding the final few holes at Pinehurst are something I’ll never forget and feel privileged to have been a part of.
Behind the 17th green and 18th tee box is a huge corner grandstand that generated the kind of human electricity that Yankee Stadium or the Garden gives off on a big-game night. Adding to that is another big grandstand behind the 16th green, which also overlooks the 17th tee.
The most pivotal moments of this Open championship occurred at this corner of theater yesterday.
First, Woods came down 16 at 1-over-par, two shots off the lead, and stuck his approach shot within eight feet for birdie. When he jammed that birdie putt down the throat of the cup that 16th grandstand exploded. It exploded with the kind of thunder that, back on 15, Stewart and Mickelson knew exactly what had transpired. Tiger was charging.
Minutes later, Woods would pull his 7 iron into the left bunker, leaving the huge crowds moaning as if it had collectively been punched in the stomach. He blasted out of the sand to four feet and, while he hovered over the critical par-save putt, suddenly the stands on nearby 16 erupted, forcing Woods to step away and reset.
Everyone at the 17th green – including Woods – figured it was Mickelson going to 2-under with a birdie.
Woods then jarred his shorty for par around the lip and bogeyed to go back to 1-over, completely deflating the anticipatory buzz of the galleries. Then, as Woods stood on the 18th tee and watched the manual scoreboard change, it showed that Mickelson had bogeyed 16 to drop to even, meaning that had that four-footer dropped he’d be tied for the lead teeing off on the 72nd hole. The gasp heard from that 16th grandstand was actually Stewart holing out a 25-foot par-save putt.
Woods teed off, center cut fairway and long, in hopes of a birdie on the final hole to force a playoff. As he headed up the 18th, both Stewart and Mickelson had stuck two darts close to the pin on 17, sending that corner grandstand into a state of bedlam.
Now Woods knew he’d need a miracle. Mickelson missed his eight-footer and Stewart sank his five-footer to take the outright lead at 1-under to Mickelson’s even and Woods’ 1-over.
Woods’ 25-foot birdie attempt on 18 missed by inches, leaving him doubled over his putter in anguish and the thousands in attendance gasping with him.
Now here came Stewart and Mickelson up 18. Stewart, in the rough off the tee, was forced to lay up, leaving the door wide open for Mickelson, who put his approach shot about 25 feet from the pin. Stewart chipped on, lying three to Mickelson’s two. Mickelson two-putted for par, leaving Stewart with an uphill 15 footer for the win.
Everyone in the place was poised for a Stewart two-putt and an 18-hole playoff today. The buzz from that 18th grandstand and the thousands of fans who enveloped the 18th hole was hair-raising.
Stewart calmly read the putt, stood over it and rolled it true. And when the white of that ball disappeared in the cup, I not only couldn’t speak, I couldn’t hear myself think from the explosion of emotion all around me.
It was at that moment I realized that only a precious few were as fortunate as I to have watched, listened to and felt this event that’ll be talked about for years to come.