The US Open

The US Open may well be remembered for two things other than Brooks Koepka’s second successive triumph. The first is the Phil Mickelson incident and the second the severity of the course. For the benefit of our non-golfing aficionados, Mickleson on the 13th hole putted past the hole and then when the ball was still moving hit it again.

This attracts a two shot penalty but the USPGA can impose disqualification if they deem it deliberate. Lefty’s post-comment indicated that it was deliberate: “I took the two stroke penalty it was better than going back and forth”.

A highly-decorated and popular player but one who in golf and life pushes the envelope was clearly confident that he could get way with it and he did. Apart from a rotten example to all golfers, how did it affect his playing partner Andrew ‘the Beef’ Johnston whose game was delayed by 30 minutes as the incident unravelled?

As for the severity of the course, USPGA golfers are used to more benign ones. Yes it was testing in the wind and the greens were so tough that on the short seventh golfers were better to hit the bunker adjacent to the green. However the showpiece event of the USPGA should be testing just as Carnoustie next month will examine the credentials of its competitors.

I was on Dustin Johnson but his meltdown in the back nine was painful to watch as time and time again he hit an accurate well-placed first shot, not necessarily with the big dog but an iron, his pitch to the green should have have resulted in a comfortable two putt but he lost his mojo and twice three-putted Brooks Koepka took a more wayward route to the dancing floor and had to scramble but still made his par.

Mention must also be made of Tommy Fleetwood’s 63.

He has come of Major age and could have won his first one. Sadly for me, I had backed each way another Englishman Justin Rose and the errant Mickelson.