McDowell comes up just short

Golf:Its legend as a graveyard for favourites lived on, almost as if the ghosts of past upsets returned to haunt players coming down the stretch in this 112th edition of the US Open at the Olympic club. Nobody hurt as much as Jim Furyk, who had the famed trophy in his grasp for much of the final round only to falter when it truly mattered as his fellow-American Webb Simpson claimed a maiden major title.

Furyk wasn’t alone in feeling a sense of what might have been. Graeme McDowell, too, the champion of 2010, could reflect – somewhat ruefully – that this latest major was there for him to claim. But the birdies, when they came, arrived too late; and, ultimately, the Ulsterman’s closing 73 for 282, two-over-par, left him in a share of second with Michael Thompson, a shot behind Simpson.

For Pádraig Harrington, a closing 68 for 283 left him in a five-way tie for fourth. It constituted the Dubliner’s best finish at a US Open although a closing bogey – when his approach with a sand wedge was pulled into a greenside trap where he was left with a “fried-egg” lie – brought a sharp end to a glorious run that yielded five birdies between the seventh and 17th holes.

Simpson, a 26-year-old from North Carolina, claimed his first major with a performance over the weekend that was better than anyone else. Back-to-back rounds of 68 enabled him to leapfrog his way to the very top of the leaderboard when it mattered most, at the finish!

Despite having missed the cut in the two previous tournaments (the Players and the Memorial) coming into the championship, Simpson – who enjoyed a stellar season last year when winning for the first time and claiming second place on the US Tour’s FedEx Cup standings – eclipsed all that had gone before in his career with a nerveless performance that produced four birdies in five holes from the sixth followed by a run of eight straight pars.

Simpson found the sanctuary of the clubhouse, but had to wait until those out on the course – most notably Furyk and McDowell – had finished before he could be acclaimed as the champion.

Whilst Furyk faltered badly coming in, with bogeys at the 16th and 18th, McDowell – who found only three fairways all round – fought gamely to force a play-off. The Northerner suffered four bogeys on the front nine but claimed back-to-back birdies on the 11th and 12th before bogeying 13th and 14th and then giving himself a chance down the stretch with a birdie on the 17th.

On the final hole, where Furyk’s woes continued with two visits to greenside bunkers, McDowell gave himself a chance to force an 18-hole play-off. His wedge approach to the 18th green finished 24 feet above the hole. It was a putt he’d worked on in the practice round – but his quest to force a head-to-head with Simpson came up short, as the putt slid by the hole.

“There's a mixture of emotions inside me right now,” said McDowell afterwards. “Disappointment, deflation, pride; but mostly just frustration, just because I hit three fairways (in the final round). You're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to hit it in some fairways. And that was the key really for me . . . . so it hurts. You want it really badly, you practice so hard to be there and it hurts.”

McDowell’s runner-up finish earned him $696,000 and effectively sealed his position on Europe’s Ryder Cup team for the match with the United States in Chicago in September. But it was getting another taste of contending in a major that meant more than anything. He added: “This is sort of a new experience for me, I suppose, finishing second at a Major Championship. I would rather have tried and failed than have never tried at all. I think someone fairly famous must said that. Yeah, I'm disappointed. But the way Jim did it, to play as well as he did and then just to kind of not get the job done coming in, that's more disappointing for him.”

For Harrington, his tied-fourth finish on the back of his tied-eighth placing at the Masters, confirmed his competitive juices flow at the majors. He was in stunning form towards the turn, overcoming bogeys at the second and sixth holes with a hat-trick of birdies from the seventh. He also chipped in for birdie on the 13th and added another birdie on the 17th before dropping that shot on the last.