Harrington Claims Share of Fourth

Padraig Harrington looked at his second shot on the 18th fairway and figured he needed a birdie to have any shot of winning the U.S. Open. After taking aim at a tough pin the Dubliner found the bunker on the left side, ending his hopes of winning his fourth major.

"I was trying hard not to hit it right, and I succeeded very well, actually," Harrington said, laughing slightly at his gallows humour.

Thanks to a three-hole stretch before the turn in which he posted consecutive birdies, Harrington made a strong bid for his first U.S. open title. 

He shot a 2-under 68 that also included a chip-in at 13 for birdie. It was at that point that he started looking at leaderboards.

But he failed to birdie the par-5 16th and his bogey on the final hole left him at 3 over for the tournament.

In looking back at his week, Harrington was in an uphill climb the last three rounds after shooting a 4-over 74 on Thursday that included two four-putts and a three-putt. He knows where this tournament was lost for him.

"There’s four shots easily the first day," he said. "I had a bad day on the greens the first day, not a great day on day three.

"I look back, it wasn’t my ability to play golf this week that was costing me; it’s a couple of decisions here and there. So it’s nice to think you have the ability to win it. But maybe you just have to make the right decisions at the right time."

GMAC Close to Second Olympic Medal

Webb Simpson won the U.S. Open and put two more names into the graveyard of champions.

Overlooked for so much of the week, Simpson emerged on a fog-filled Sunday at The Olympic Club with four birdies around the turn and a tough chip out of a hole to the right of the 18th green that he converted into par for a 2-under 68.

He finished at 1-over 281, and it was enough to outlast former U.S. Open champions Jim Furyk and Graeme McDowell.

Furyk bogeyed two of his last three holes. McDowell had a 25-foot birdie on the 18th to force a playoff, but it never had a chance.

"Oh, wow," Simpson said, watching from the locker room.

Olympic is known as the "graveyard of champions" because proven major winners who were poised to win the U.S. Open have always lost to the underdog. One of those was Arnold Palmer in 1966, when he lost a seven-shot lead on the back nine.

Perhaps it was only fitting that the 25-year-old Simpson went to Wake Forest on an Arnold Palmer scholarship.

"Arnold has been so good to me," Simpson said. "Just the other day, I read that story and thought about it. He's meant so much to me and Wake Forest. Hopefully, I can get a little back for him and make him smile."

No one was beaming like Simpson, who followed a breakthrough year on the PGA Tour with his first major.

No one was more disgusted than Furyk, in control of the U.S. Open for so much of the final round until he snap-hooked his tee shot on the par-5 16th hole to fall out of the lead for the first time all day, and was unable to get it back. Needing a birdie on the final hole, he hit into the bunker. He crouched and clamped his teeth onto the shaft of his wedge. Furyk made bogey on the final hole and closed with a 74, a final round without a single birdie.

McDowell, who made four bogeys on the front nine, at least gave himself a chance with a 20-foot birdie putt on the 17th and a shot into the 18th that had him sprinting up the hill to see what kind of chance he had. The putt stayed left of the hole the entire way, and he had to settle for a 73.

McDowell shared second place with Michael Thompson, who closed with a 67 and waited two hours to see if it would be good enough.

Tiger Woods, starting five shots behind, played the first six holes in 6-over par and was never a factor. He shot 73.

McDowell in Positive Mindset

Graeme McDowell admitted that retaining a positive mindset was would be key to winning the US Open on Sunday.

McDowell knows only too well how to get the job done having won the coveted title at Pebble Beach two years ago, and he shares the lead with Jim Furyk entering the final round in San Francisco.

The Northern Irishman said he needed outside help to get in the right frame of mind to shoot a superb 68 at Olympic Club on Saturday, where composure was once again key.

"I remember at Pebble Saturday being a really difficult day for me, mentally and emotionally," he said.

"Today was the same, to be honest with you. As I was getting ready to come to the golf course today I felt a little nervous and anxious and really kind of not sure how the day was going to go.

"I spent a little time with my caddie (Ken Comboy) and my team just kind of talking about what we were trying to achieve and got my head screwed back on again.

"I was trying to execute my game plan, get in a relaxed frame of mind and give myself an opportunity.

"You've just got to be unemotional as possible as you can on this golf course. I tried to go out and have two emotions - good emotions and neutral ones - and try to shrug off mistakes because they're going to come.

"They're inevitable. I doubt anyone's come close to hitting 18 greens (in regulation) this week.

"I've got great support out here - there might be more Irishmen out here than there are in Ireland - and I enjoyed interacting with them and having a bit of fun. I felt they kept me relaxed."

McDowell proved once again at the Ryder Cup in 2010 that he plays well under pressure, and he says nerves are a good thing.

"It's basically fear. Fear of going out there and messing it all up," he added. "I don't fear success. I only fear failure really - we all do.

"You've got to put the game in perspective. This is not going to be the be-all and end-all for me. Hopefully I've got a few more years in me and I've got to not put it up on a pedestal.

"If it's good enough great, if it's not perhaps I'll drink a cold beer and get over it.

"I think the handicap golfer can probably relate to some of the feelings I had today and they'd be surprised that yes we're human beings and we have negative thoughts.

"Everyone has their ways of dealing with them and I like to verbalise them and talk to my caddie about it. He tells me to wise up and other expletives."

GMAC Shares US Lead with Furyk

Graeme McDowell showed the kind of fight that won him a U.S. Open two years ago down the coast at Pebble Beach. He scratched out pars and finished with a 4-foot birdie putt that gave him a 2-under 68 and a share of the lead going into the final round at The Olympic Club.

Furyk, also bidding for another trophy from golf's toughest test, outclassed Woods in the final pairing with key bunker saves and an 8-foot birdie putt on the 17th for a 70, making him the only player who has yet to have a round over par.

They were at 1-under 139, the only survivors against par.

Tiger Woods, wearing a key lime shirt, turned in a lemon. He fell out of the lead with two bogeys in the first three holes, couldn't make a birdie on the stretch of holes that Olympic allows players to make up ground, and ended with a sloppy bogey on the 18th for a 75.

There were only eight scores worse in the third round. And it matched Woods' highest score when he at least a share of the lead after any round of a major. He also closed with a 75 in 2009 at the PGA Championship when he lost a two-shot lead to Y.E. Yang.

All is not lost for Woods, not to mention another dozen or so players.

In a U.S. Open that is living up to its reputation, it was difficult for anyone to build a big advantage.

McDowell and Furyk were two shots ahead of Fredrik Jacobson, who had a 68. In the group another shot behind were Lee Westwood, whose Saturday-best 67 gave him another shot at his first major, and Ernie Els, who holed a long pitch for eagle on the 17th that carried him to a 68. The Big Easy is a two-time U.S. Open champion, with that first title coming 18 years ago.

Thirteen players were separated by four shots going into Sunday, a list that includes 17-year-old Beau Hossler, who followed bogeys with birdies for a 70.

Woods, who has never won a major from behind, was five shots back. His round ended with a shot from the middle of the 18th fairway that hung up in the right collar of rough, and a stubbed chip that took a hard turn to the left some 10 feet away.

When he two-putted for his sixth bogey, his day got a little worse. Climbing the hill toward the fabled clubhouse at Olympic, a photographer brushed past him and Woods banged his hand into the camera. He shook it several times, but later said he was fine.

The real hurt came from Olympic.

"It was just a tough day on the greens, and most of the day, I just kept getting that half-number, right in between clubs all day," said Woods, who was either well long or short on his approach shots.

Furyk, the only player who has not had a round over par this week, and McDowell played together in the opening two rounds. On Sunday, much more is at stake.

But this was not shaping up as a two-man race for McDowell and Furyk.

"Looking at the leaderboard, you've got to look down as far as the guys at 3 or 4 (over) as having a realistic chance of winning this tournament," McDowell said.

For every bogey Hossler made, he answered with a birdie on the next hole.

His only big blunder came on the 11th, when he was too aggressive with a downhill putt and missed his par putt from 6 feet. Two holes later, he hit a heavy chip from the hazard that rolled back down a slope for another bogey. The kid just wouldn't go away, though, and suddenly he is dreaming big.

Hossler wanted to make the cut. Then, he wanted to be the low amateur. Now?

"My goal now is to win the tournament," he said.

In the 14 majors he has won, Woods was never worse than par in the pivotal third round and had a scoring average of 68.3. There was no way that was going to hold up on a course like Olympic, though Woods was expecting better than what he delivered on this Saturday.

He missed the first fairway, came up short of the third green and wound up with three bogeys through six holes.

Woods wasn't alone in making mistakes. David Toms, tied for the second-round lead with Furyk and Woods at 1 under, played that rugged six-hole stretch in 5 over and fell six shots behind with a 76.

Even with the USGA watering the course Friday night and Saturday morning, Olympic was as relentless as ever.

But it wasn't impossible.

Westwood showed that, as did Els, who called it as easy as the course played all week.

Kevin Chappell, who tied for third last year to earn a spot in this U.S. Open, had a 68 and takes an unthinkable streak of 24 holes without a bogey into the final round. He was at 3-over 213, along with Webb Simpson, who also had a 68.

Asked if the experience at Congressional would help, Chappell gave an apt description of what awaits on Sunday.

"Last year we were trying to make birdies in the U.S. Open," he said. "And here, you're just trying to survive."

Westwood came in right behind Chappell, and while he failed to take advantage on the par 5s, he finished in style with a 40-foot birdie putt on the 18th for a 67. Westwood began this week as the third wheel in a powerful threesome of the top players in the world ranking. Luke Donald, the world No. 1, and defending champion Rory McIlroy have gone home. Westwood now has another chance to pick up his first major.

He twice has missed a playoff by one shot, in the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and the 2009 British Open at Turnberry. He twice as been runner-up in the majors.

A win on Sunday would end that heartache, and return him to No. 1 in the world.

"I think I've probably been in contention in major championships more than anybody else over the last three or four years," Westwood said. "So I'm looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully go out and have some fun and see what happens."

McIlroy in San Francisco Struggle

Rory McIlroy's U.S. Open defense was hanging by a thread after the Northern Irishman made a poor start to his second round at the Olympic Club on Friday.

Needing to shoot a low score to make the cut after opening the tournament with a seven-over-par 77 on Thursday, he slipped further down the leaderboard after two early bogeys.

Starting his round from the ninth hole, McIlroy dropped a stroke on the 451-yard 12th hole when he three putted after his birdie putt narrowly missed and rolled off the green.

He made another bogey on the par-three 13th, the only hole he birdied in the first round, but picked up a stroke with a birdie on the par-five 17th, leaving him eight-over for the tournament midway through his second round.

With nine holes to play, he was outside the top 100, 12 strokes behind overnight leader Michael Thompson, who was yet to tee off. Only the top 60 players, plus players tied for 60th, make the cut.

World number one Luke Donald, playing in the same group as McIlroy, was also facing an early exit after he dropped a shot to be 10-over with nine to play.

The Englishman made a birdie on his opening hole, his first of the tournament after disastrous 79 on Thursday, and a second birdie on the 14th but three bogeys saw him slide further away.

While McIlroy and Donald both struggled early on, Graeme McDowell, the 2010 U.S. Open champion, recovered from a sloppy start to reach two-under and put himself in contention for a second major.

The Northern Irishman bogeyed two of his first four holes but made three birdies, including two in a row, to leapfrog Tiger Woods and David Toms into outright second place.

Woods and Toms were scheduled to tee off in the afternoon after finishing the first round in a five-way tie with McDowell, Justin Rose and Nick Watney at one-under.

Rose made bogeys on the second and fifth holes to slip back to one-over while Watney, who made a rare albatross on the first day, plummeted down the leaderboard when he dropped six shots in his front nine, including a double-bogey on the second hole.