No, you just chip in on 17 instead. It was the most fun ending to a US Open when par was basically a birdie!

Cheeko1111 Yup. Hard to win a U.S. Open hitting 2 out of 14 fairways

Brian Ferris Phil was running out of gas he had been playing great golf for almost a year straight at that point, he was desperately trying to keep the momentum going. His driver had already been failing him for months, earlier this same year (2006) at the BellSouth Classic he had dominated the field playing 2 drivers (a draw driver and a fade driver) as a test for Augusta, and had won the Masters a week later employing the same 2-driver setup. But at Winged Foot he needed 13 other clubs to deal with the harsh setup of the course, so he could only afford to put one driver in the bag. He needed to find a way that week to somehow get it in play, but he just was never able to. I’m not surprised he was taking desperate measures in the final minutes before his tee time, everyone including Phil knew that he was extremely fortunate to be leading and that if he continued to drive it like that, it likely wouldn’t be good enough to win. As it turned out he continued to play like that and it was luckily good enough for 17 holes… but to not hit 4 wood at 18 was criminal, he should have played it as a 3 shot hole with 5 being the worst score he could make. I personally believe that Phil hit driver because he figured he had a better chance of hitting one driver in the fairway now than he did of getting his driver to behave for an entire day tomorrow in a playoff. But I still think laying up off the tee was the right play because even if that was Phil’s logic, he probably would at least have a better chance of making par from short of the green than he would be from the trees.

DoubleOhTheG but van de velde got very unlucky. His second shot cleared the burn and should have been fine. But it hit a grandstand and came backwards. Grandstands arent part of a course.

@@brianferris9323 he was clinically insane for hitting a 2 iron from a terrible angle 40 yards right of the fairway

I thought they were cute

No caddie can veto a choice the player is adamant about.

jpracingph I think Matthew Peterson is referencing the fact that Phil gives Bones one veto per year, no questions asked.

James that is exactly what I was referring to.

Matthew Peterson Phil has said many times that the big mistake wasn't actually the driver but the 2nd shot. He had 185 to the front of the green and had to hit a 3-iron cut shot around a tree and he overcut it and hit it dead smack into the tree and it moved back towards him. Amazing that he did not consider chipping out to 100yds and trying to get up and down for the win. Had he not been able to, he would have secured himself a playoff. Hindsight.

+rm1133 Foresight. Even before he walked up to the ball people were talking about laying up short of the green.

M M yep it would have been his 3rd straight major victory and a chance to equal the Tiger Slam, what people were calling the Mickelslam, at Hoylake. However Mickelson not only blew this but then saw Tiger win the final 2 majors and end the year on a 6 tourney winning streak. This was the best and most realistic chance Phil or Vijay or Rory or anyone else has had to get fully on Tiger’s level.

Should be awesome

Was that his 3 putt from about 12 feet ?

Me too

Firm, a lot of slope and at least 13 on the stimpmeter.

Chaos

He was not hitting it straight with his fairway woods either and the hole was a long par 4.

+cedrictrent92 To be fair he was spraying the ball with his long irons and fairway woods as well.

+DanielSong39 I agree but I still think that with a one shot lead on the 72nd hole Bones should have been handing Phil a 5 wood. Play the percentage shot and give himself the best chance of putting the ball in the fairway. But yeah, he was wayward.

+cedrictrent92 The percentage shot was to hit driver and hit it straight enough to not be blocked out by the trees. If he hits it 10-20 yards off-line he can still gouge the ball close to the green and has a much better chance of getting it up and down. On a long par 4, you have to hit driver and take your chances.

DanielSong39 I disagree. If that was the percentage shot, then why did it go so far off? it's because he was missing left and right with his driver all day. If he tried something different, say a 5 wood, the chances it's not horrible is waaaayy lower.

Phil was missing with all the clubs all day. Actually he was pretty lucky to even have a chance to win. Probably should have shot 77 or worse the way he was hitting the ball.

with phils distance he can prob hit a 3iron 250 off the tee and hit a 6 iron from 200 and 2 putt. but i see your point

If the 3 iron goes only 220 you have 230 to the green and you still have a problem. If the 3 iron goes only 220 and into the rough it's an automatic 5.

bambino bambini yeah, he somehow made the putt

Nah, Monty was in the middle of the fairway.

Totmarbz I agree. But Phil’s play this week is a perfect example of what can be done. When you think about it, if he doesn’t hit the elm tree with his second shot on 18 he’d probably win the US Open and win it with hitting tee shots that the average player wouldn’t come close to making the cut with.

He finished with 4 pars

@@stephenmacdonald76 He bogeyed 4 of 7 holes before finishing with 4 pars, not exactly a strong finish He had the worst score of all the players who finished in the top 5 for the final 11 holes

@@DanielSong39 4 pars when it counts when you know what you have to get when the rest are collapsing around you, is a strong finish in my humble opinion

five majors how many you got