Open notes: 'Favorite' means nothing at Olympic

Web posted June 22, 1998

By Rick Dorsey
Staff Writer

SAN FRANCISCO -- You had to get to The Olympic Club rather early Sunday to see the supposed pre-Open favorites tee off for their final rounds.

The Olympic snubs its nose at those with the best odds. And while this week's play of Fred Couples, Justin Leonard, Colin Montgomerie, Ernie Els and Tiger Woods may individually raise an eyebrow or three, collectively it should come as no surprise considering this track's track record.

During these four rounds of grinding, this quintet managed one subpar score, that being Montgomerie's 69 on Sunday. In between, the world's best players were posting scores more symbolic with qualifiers.

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``It's not fair to lump five or six guys into this category of `favorites' because to pick one guy is crazy,'' said Paul Azinger after his 65 Sunday. ``Any given week, any guy out here can do it.''

This week, the fan favorites certainly did not.

Couples, 17-over par. Els, 16-over. Leonard, 14-over. Montgomerie, 10-over. Woods, 10-over.

``To be honest, I lost interest after seven or eight holes Saturday,'' said Couples, a two-time Tour winner this season and second at the Masters.

``I'm happy we went out first today and played fast. You cannot be a hair off line, and this week it felt like I was a scalp.''

And Olympic can mount more favorites' scalps inside its majestic clubhouse.

All five were even fortunate to survive the cutline, and none posted any threat to challenging come-from-behind winner Lee Janzen, never among the favorite's list coming into U.S. Open play.

``I found out what I was doing wrong on the practice ground this morning, which is a bit late, unfortunately, when you're 11-over par,'' said Montgomerie, 10-over for the championship.

``My alignment was wrong, and I struggled from day two onwards. I've had happier weeks.''

Leonard, supposedly a natural for Olympic for his ability to shape his iron shots, never sniffed par. Bookend 71s surrounded a 75 and 77.

Woods had trouble keeping his tee balls in the fairways, and his putter continued to falter. And Els, plagued by a bad back that forced him out of the Buick Classic the week before, never allowed his spasms to become the reason for his 16-over par finish.

``I couldn't swing through a lot of my shots, but my putter was more of a problem this week than my back,'' said Els, the defending Open champ.

This Open week proved how humbling this game can be, especially when you've got 18 tilted holes, with good-gracious rough and slippery slope greens.

``This course doesn't turn men into boys, it turns men into children,'' said Chris Perry, who limped home as well. ``It makes us pros who are the best in the game, the top one percent of people who play golf, look like 15-handicappers.''

ONE LINERS: John Daly returned his driver to his bag, went out and claimed to have struck the ball better than he had all week, and still finished with a 78 Sunday. ``I'm beginning to wonder if you hit it good at the U.S. Open, are you going to score bad?'' he asked. ... Granted a USGA exemption, Scott Simpson returned to the site of his 1987 Open victory and finished 20 shots over par 11 years later, 17-over on the weekend.