Major Shortcomings

“I think every young golfer has dreamed of making a putt on the last hole to win the Open. Fortunately, mine was about a foot long.”

--Steve Jones, on his surprising victory in last year’s U.S. Open.

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Unfortunately for Davis Love, his putt was a few rolls longer than Jones’. What made it worse was that his three-foot downhill putt was left after an initial putt of only 20 feet.

Coming up that short in last year’s U.S. Open was the last thing Love wanted. It would be the last thing any pro golfer would want. Heck, it would be the last thing any 15-handicapper would want on a three-hole carryover in a $1-per-hole skins game.

Love missed his three-footer, hitting it so softly it caught too much break and lipped out, leaving him him with a bogey, a second-place tie with Tom Lehman and, after 10 years on the PGA Tour, still a member of a club he wants to leave behind. He is one of several highly successful professionals who seem to have the credentials, but have never won one of golf’s four major championships.

Will one of those players emerge this week at the U.S. Open at Congressional? If recent history is any indication, there’s a good chance. The last five U.S. Opens have been won by players who had not won a major: Jones last year, Corey Pavin in 1995, Ernie Els in ‘94, Lee Janzen in ’93 and Tom Kite in ’92.

Golfers around the world felt for Love a year ago. Some more than others.

“That has to leave scar tissue [mentally],” says Johnny Miller, the NBC golf analyst who stormed to victory in the 1973 U.S. Open with a final-round 63. “Basically, all he has to do is par the last two holes and he wins. If he pars one he is in a playoff.

“He bogeys No. 17, which happens. But that three-putt on 18 was the most sickening three-putt I’ve ever witnessed. I was in agony. . . . I felt like I did it. You couldn’t have had an uglier three-putt.”

Miller, candid to a fault and not leveling some of his remarks at anyone in particular, went on to say that, while “it is possible to win an Open merely by falling into it, most of the time you have to face the music [pressure from others] . . . and when that is the case, very few people have the right stuff [mentally] to win a major.”

For years, one of those people seemed to be Kite. Despite numerous tour victories under that big straw hat of his, he lacked that one major feather for it.

He finished second in the Masters in 1983 and ’86. He had a four-stroke lead early in the final round of the 1989 U.S. Open at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., but his game fell apart and he finished ninth.

Finally, 20 years after turning pro and at age 42, Kite silenced his critics in 1992, winning the Open on a blustery day at Pebble Beach, edging Jeff Sluman and Colin Montgomerie.

He said it felt as if the world had been lifted from his shoulders.

“It was bugging the living daylights out of me,” he said. “I feel really good about Tom Kite and his career and everything going for me, but the only thing most people wanted to talk about was, ‘You’ve done all those other things. How come you’ve never won a major?’ ”

Love, in his forthcoming book, “Every Shot I Take,” says he still isn’t sure what led to his coming unglued--if it can be called that--on the last two holes at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

“I’ve gone over the 17th and 18th holes a thousand times in my mind, trying to come up with something to explain why I did not make pars,” he writes. “The only thing I can come up with is me. That’s why I did not win that Open.”

Love will have himself, and 155 other golfers, to contend with again when the 1997 Open gets under way today.

And unless hr wins, either here or at the British Open or the PGA Championship later this summer, for another year his name will remain high on anyone’s list of the world’s best golfers--you guessed it--never to have won a major.

Here’s one ranking of four top players looking to add a major title to their resume, listed in order of the likelihood of breaking through at Congressional:

DAVIS LOVE III

There’s no arguing that Love, 33, is a superb golfer. He has a smooth swing that has earned him more than $7 million since he turned pro in 1986. He has regularly been among the top golfers in driving and reaching greens in regulation. He is as dedicated to the game as anyone.

He won only one tournament before his father--a respected teacher who played in the 1964 Masters--was killed in a plane crash in 1988. Then he went on to win nine more, three in 1992. He has been second 10 times and has 66 top-10 finishes.

But his best finish in a major has been second. Twice.

Love had a chance to win the ’95 Masters. He led Ben Crenshaw by one stroke after a birdie on the 15th hole. But Crenshaw, playing a week after serving as pallbearer in the funeral of Harvey Penick, his friend and teacher, made a dramatic charge, scoring birdies on 13, 16 and 17 and taking his second Masters before an emotional crowd at Augusta National.

Love, a stroke behind, was lost in the shuffle.

A year later, on the 72nd hole of the Open, he found himself in control of his destiny.

In his book, Love describes what was going through his mind as he stood over his ball on the 18th green at Oakland Hills.

“I knew what was riding on the three-footer,” he writes. “If I made it, and if Steve and Tom [Lehman] made pars on 18--and that was a demanding lot--there would be an 18-hole playoff for the title.

“I have never been more nervous in my life. I stood over the ball, and I could not get an image in my mind of holing the putt. There was no way I was going to putt until I pictured the putt dropping.

“I backed off, swept away some flies that were swarming on the line of my putt. I got back over the ball. The putt was just like the first one, except in miniature: downhill, very fast, right edge. I saw the ball falling in for par in my mind. I made a stroke. I thought it was a good one.”

Lehman, whose drive on the par-four 18th had landed in a fairway bunker, also bogeyed. Jones, a sectional qualifier playing in his first major championship, made par to win the U.S. Open.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE

Montgomerie, 33, is a big man on the PGA European Tour, and he plays some pretty good golf here too. He has been the leading money winner in Europe the last four years.

In the United States, where he usually plays half a dozen or so tournaments a year, he is often breathing down the leaders’ throats, and he would have two majors under his bulging belt had he not been outplayed in playoffs.

In the 1994 Open at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa., he went into an 18-hole playoff with Ernie Els and Loren Roberts. Els and Roberts shot 74s; Montgomerie shot a 78. Els beat Roberts on the second extra hole to win his only major.

In the 1995 PGA Championship at Riviera, Steve Elkington and Montgomerie finished four days in a tournament-record 267. Elkington won the sudden-death playoff--and his only major title--with a 25-foot birdie on the first extra hole.

In the 1992 Open at Pebble Beach, Montgomerie was the leader in the clubhouse after shooting a two-under 70 on Sunday, the lowest score of the day, but could only watch as Kite and Sluman finished strongly to overtake him.

Montgomerie’s time may come.

“If you look back at the last 4-5 years, not many guys have been as consistent as Colin,” Miller says. “He is definitely among the top five players over the last five years. I don’t know if his game is as sharp right at the moment. But he is probably due, and I think he might be ready to make a run in one of the majors.”

PHIL MICKELSON

Mickelson, the baby-faced left-hander, has not won a major, but many believe his time will come this year or next.

“He’s got everything to do it with,” says the venerable Sam Snead, 85, winner of three PGA championships, two Masters titles and one British Open. “He’s inclined to spray it a little bit, but he hits the ball hard and he’s got all those good shots around the green. It depends on what he does with his putter.”

Mickelson, like Tiger Woods, had an exceptional amateur career, one that included a victory on the PGA Tour--a one-stroke triumph over Bob Tway and Tom Purtzer in the 1991 Northern Telecom Open.

Mickelson turned pro at the 1992 U.S. Open, where he missed the cut. Since then, he has progressed nicely. He finished third in the 1994 PGA Championship, fourth in the 1995 Open and third in the 1996 Masters. In five years on the tour, he has won 10 tournaments--four in 1996 and one so far in ‘97--and has earned nearly $4.5 million.

“[Mickelson] has been sort of overlooked because of what Tiger has done, but if you look at his credentials, they are just as impressive. He pretty much did it all as an amateur,” Miller says. “He’s the kind of player you would think will win two to five majors in his career.”

Mickelson, Love and Montgomerie will get an early look at how each is doing when they play as a threesome in the first two rounds.

MARK O’MEARA

O’Meara, 40, has won 14 PGA tournaments--two this year--and has pocketed more than $8 million since turning pro in 1980.

But every time he finds himself in a major he seems to leave his game behind.

Byron Nelson, 85, says he can’t figure it out.

“I know his game and watch him and I can’t pick any thing that would keep him from winning the Open or any other major,” Nelson says. “He’s just a wonderful player.”

Miller, in Golf Digest, has actually listed this entire foursome among his top 10 picks to win this week’s Open. But should one of them three-putt from 20 feet in as critical a position as Love found himself last year, they will probably be scratched off for the next major.

“The more you go into these things and come away empty, the harder it gets, the more you’re ready for the golfing funny farm,” Miller says. “Like Greg Norman at the Masters, I mean that course [Augusta National] was made for him. He has never won a major on U.S. soil and that is ridiculous.”

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DAVIS LOVE III

Age: 33

Years on tour: 12

Second last year and fourth in the 1995 Open, he has 10 tour wins. After he three-putted to lose the Open last year, he struggled for about 12 tournaments. Has occassional putting problems and hasn’t finished in the top three this year.

COLIN MONTGOMERIE

Age: 33

Plays European tour

Has been the leading money winner on the PGA European Tour for four consecutive years, he plays only sporadically in the U.S., six times so far this year. Tied for second in the 1994 Open. Says he’s playing as well as ever right now.

PHIL MICKELSON

Age: 26

Years on tour: 6

Has won 10 times on tour and has been trumpeted as the next great player ever since winning the Northern Telecom Open as an amateur in 1991. Has won $536,911 this year but $270,000 of that came from his one victory at Bay Hill.

MARK O’MEARA

Age: 40

Years on tour: 17

Has 14 victories, two this year, but has been dreadful in majors. Missed the cut in the Open from 1989 through 1994. Has trouble hitting fairways off the tee, which is critical in the Open. Still, he’s fourth on this year’s money list.