A Title for Nicholas, Only Tears for Lopez

It was five feet of futility, and she knew she didn’t have to make the putt, that it wouldn’t really matter if she made it . . . and besides she couldn’t see the ball at her feet.

“I had tears in my eyes because I didn’t really have a chance anymore,” said Nancy Lopez, who still had tears in her eyes an hour later.

“It was tough, that last putt. I didn’t want to miss it, and it was pretty tough to see it.”

She made it, giving her par on the 18th hole, small consolation for the prize that went to Alison Nicholas, a poised Brit who won the U.S. Women’s Open on the fourth hole Sunday, seemingly tried to lose it on the 14th and hung on to make Lopez a runner-up in the tournament for the fourth time.

Nicholas’ final-round 71 gave her a 10-under-par 274, one stroke better than the U.S. Open-record nine-under shot by Pat Bradley in 1981, and one shot better than Lopez, who set a record as the only woman ever to shoot four sub-70 rounds in the Open. She has never played better in 21 tries in the event.

And she still has never won.

Irony hurts.

“I don’t feel snake-bit at all,” insisted Lopez, 40. “I felt really good out there. I have to say this is probably the Open that I remember feeling the best at, the calmest.”

She had begun the day three shots behind Nicholas. The rest of the field was so far back that it didn’t matter.

Lopez knocked her second shot, with a seven-iron, to within four feet of the cup, made the birdie putt and the chase was on. She added a birdie on No. 3, countered by Nicholas, who at five feet resembles Ian Woosnam in stature, doggedness of play and accent.

Eagles landed on the par-five fourth hole five times during the tournament, and the last stuck a talon into Lopez’s heart.

Lopez had hit a sand wedge third shot to within a foot, with most of the 31,700 on hand saluting her impending move to within a stroke of the lead.

Nicholas trumped her, knocking a 56-yard sand wedge on the green, where it hopped twice and rolled into the cup.

Lopez tapped in her putt, finishing a birdie-birdie binge in which she had lost one stroke to Nicholas.

With three birdies in four holes, she was no closer to the lead than when she had gotten up Sunday morning.

“It was kind of a kick in the face, really,” she said, “because I thought, ‘I’m going to pick up a shot here, maybe,’ and I ended up losing a shot and lose the [honor] on the next hole too. It was pretty shocking, I guess I could say.

“My shot looked terrible after she hit that in the hole. My birdie felt like a bogey.”

It felt like the tournament, particularly when Nicholas resumed the fairways-and-greens, two-putt-for-par game that had put her in the lead early in the third round and kept her there.

“I was obviously a bit nervous today,” Nicholas said.

“It was a big day, and obviously playing with Nancy . . . I knew the crowds were going to be behind her.”

But Nicholas kept the pressure on Lopez, who found herself hitting second shots first all day long, a tribute to Nicholas’ power off the tee. Lopez lost a shot on the ninth hole when she hit her tee shot into a fairway bunker, and that gave Nicholas a four-shot lead at the turn.

It stayed that way until the 13th, which Lopez birdied from six feet. Then the moment got to Nicholas, holding a three-shot lead with 105 yards to the 14th hole.

“There’s no way I normally hit [that shot],” Nicholas said. “It was only a three-quarter wedge, supposedly. And it flew forever. Obviously when that went over the green, I can only think it was adrenaline.”

Her 105-yard, three-quarter wedge flew about 115 yards, into some cabbage behind the green on the edge of the woods. Not having a Weedeater in her bag, she took a drop and a penalty shot, then hit her fourth shot over the cup and two-putted back for a double-bogey.

The lead was one shot.

And then it was two shots, when Lopez bogeyed the 15th hole. And one shot when she birdied the 16th. And one shot when both bogeyed the 17th.

Nicholas was getting a lecture from her caddie, Mark Fulcher: “Al, you’ve got to think forward now. Think of the present.”

The present was the 18th hole.

One shot down, Lopez had only one choice on the 18th, and that was to try to negotiate its 494 yards in two shots. She almost did. “It was just thrilling and exciting,” Lopez said. “I know going up to 18, especially when I had to hit my third shot. They kept applauding and they’d stop and start up again.

“I knew I could birdie that last hole.”

Her wedge shot went past the hole, coming to rest 15 feet from the birdie she needed to keep playing Monday.

Nicholas had calmly hit her third shot to within 20 feet. She would easily two-putt for the victory.