South African Retief Goosen, guilty on Sunday night of what Johnny Miller called the worst three-putt in golf history, fully redeemed himself yesterday to become the most unexpected winner of a major since Paul Lawrie.
Goosen won his United States Open play-off with American Mark Brooks by two strokes after the pair had been forced to spend another 24 hours in Tulsa because of his two-foot gaffe on the 72nd hole.
Scoring a level par 70 to the 72 of Brooks, the 32-year-old European Tour player saved himself from being remembered as the man whose three putts from 10 feet cost him a major title.
Instead Goosen returns to his Surrey home $676,000 the richer, top of the Order of Merit, up to a career-high 26th in the world rankings and his country's third winner of the title following Gary Player and Ernie Els.
There is also the promise of millions to come from sponsorship deals and appearance fees, and a place on the US Tour for the next five years if he wants it. "It's amazing," he said. "I don't want to consider what it would have felt like if I had lost."
While many thought he would be bearing too deep a mental scar from what happened on the final green in regulation play, it was, in fact, 1996 US PGA winner Brooks who failed to rise to the occasion.
Regaining his sure touch on the greens - he had just 12 putts in the first 10 holes - Goosen took a five-shot lead into the last eight holes.
There was still five between them with only two to play, but at the 17th Goosen flew the green and bogeyed, while Brooks holed from 14 feet for birdie.
The lead was down to three, but although Goosen came up short of the last green and three-putted from there, this time he could have taken four and still won once Brooks had failed to hole from a greenside bunker.
It was still a little nervy as Goosen left himself a six-footer for bogey, but he made it to complete a day's work that should never have been necessary.
Of the three putts on Sunday evening he reflected: "I hit the first putt too hard through the break. I can't explain the second one, though. There was no way mine should have gone right like it did."
The play-off was between the players ranked 44th (Goosen) and 195th (Brooks) in the world and it meant that if Brooks won he would be the lowest-ranked winner of a major since the rankings started in 1986.
Lawrie was 159th when he won the 1999 Open at Carnoustie, but the biggest upset was John Daly's 1991 US PGA victory. Daly, originally the ninth reserve for the event, was 168th.
Goosen had never previously finished higher than 10th in any major and his best finish on the European tour this season was fifth in the English Open at the Forest of Arden eight days ago. There really was no reason to suspect he was on the verge of something like this.
