ESPN Golf

MAMARONECK, N.Y. -- Ladies and gentlemen, the envelope please. And the winner of the 2006 U.S. Open is ... the West Course at Winged Foot Golf Club. Best job in a supporting role goes to Mike Davis of the United States Golf Association for the way he set up this amazing track. A really big check will be direct-deposited into the bank account of Geoff Ogilvy, who did what has to be done when faced with a golf course that shows no mercy -- he posted the lowest score. It will be Oglivy's name that goes on the U.S. Open trophy, but in truth the truest champion this week was a grand old golf course set up to be difficult but fair. The result was one of the most compelling, if somewhat agonizing, finishes you'd want to see in a major championship.

Forget about par for a moment. Heck, when it comes to Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie and the final hole, forget about bogey. If they had managed even one of those on No. 18 they would have been canceling flights and planning for an 18-hole playoff on Monday. Oglivy proved what had been muttered all week by frustrated players was spot-on in its analysis -- the only safe place to be at Winged Foot is in the clubhouse. He had already signed his scorecard and was hugging his wife when Mickelson was making a mess of No. 18. The drama of this finish established the truthfulness of the mantra chanted by every superintendent who has ever cut a cup on the edge of a false front: Par is an arbitrary number. Just play the course.

Two things come to mind immediately when sifting through the debris of this national championship. First, imagine what we would be saying about Mickelson's 3-over-par finish on the last three holes Sunday if he did not have three major championship trophies sitting at home. In what seems to be an ongoing battle between Old Phil and New Phil, this was a day when Old Phil showed up, as Lefty hit only two fairways in the final round. In fact, after making a birdie on No. 4, Mickelson played the final 14 holes in 5 over par.

It was painful to watch how uncomfortable Mickelson was with his driver under the final-round pressure of the U.S. Open, but that pain was eased -- both for Phil and for his fans -- by the knowledge that Mickelson has learned how to win these things called majors and that this collapse was most likely an aberration, a brief visit back to the land of Old Phil, and not the re-emergence of a painful pattern.

The second impression made from this year's Open is that Monty deserved better, or at least it felt like he deserved better. The one-time irascible grump has morphed into something closer to a cuddly gramp, and the New York crowd adopted him as their underdog of the week. When he made about a billion-foot putt on No. 17 to get to 4 over par and move into a tie for the lead with Mickelson, it seemed as if the soon-to-be 43-year-old Scotsman would at long last get his first major championship. But a perfect drive on No. 18 was followed by a weak second shot in the short-side rough, and the dream tumbled into a nightmare. Thrills don't always come from birdies and eagles. They can also come from bogeys and double bogeys.

Consider this: No one who ended up in the top 15 at this U.S. Open broke par on the back nine Sunday. Only two in the top 15 matched it. The infamous "Massacre at Winged Foot" in 1974 had 7 over par as the winning score by Hale Irwin. As the back nine unfolded bogey by bogey on this bloody Sunday, it appeared as if no one would better Irwin's effort. In fact, in this age of drivers with heads the size of Volkswagens and golf balls that fly far with uncanny forgiveness, only Ogilvy, Mickelson, Montgomerie and Jim Furyk managed a score better than 7 over par.

Say that sentence again: Only four players managed a score better than 7 over par. Now, there will be a lot of grumbling about that, but why? The birdie barrages that occur week in and week out on the PGA Tour have spoiled us into thinking that the only excitement in golf tournaments has to come with birdies. But wasn't it fun on this Sunday to watch extremely talented players trying desperately to squeeze out pars? This may not be what the fans want to see every week -- and it is certainly not what the players want to face every week -- but for one week, for the week in which we determine the United States Open champion, this is the way it should be.

Think about it: To survive at Winged Foot you needed to drive the ball in the fairway, play precise irons to tricky pins, scramble with a solid short game from the bunkers and gnarly greenside rough, and make par-saving putts. Sounds like a pretty complete examination of the game of golf to me. And there is also the one other club tested by this Tillinghast masterpiece: Patience. Ultimately, Oglivy was the guy who did the best at refusing to allow himself to be frustrated by the insults hurled at him by the course.

While it was the six-foot par putt on the 72nd hole by Ogilvy that turned out to be the deciding stroke, the most crucial shot for Oglivy was his chip-in to save par on the previous hole. While that was an example of excellent shot-making, it was also an example of a guy staying focused, staying in the moment and staying locked on the fact that the most important shot in golf is the one you are going to hit next. In that regard, Winged Foot accurately identified the best golfer in the field this week. That's what great golf courses do. And this week, a great course produced a great U.S. Open.

Ron Sirak is the executive editor of Golf World magazine