Goosen's Egg Turns Into Gold

By CHRIS DUFRESNE

June 19, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

TULSA, Okla. —

Retief Goosen sank a putt on No. 18 to win the 101st U.S. Open and Mark Brooks packed his bags and went home.

Just the way it was supposed to end . . . on Sunday!

Goosen got a rare “do-over” on the world stage and this time didn’t yip it.

His three-putt collapse on No. 18 a day before will never be stricken from golf’s record, but Goosen was allowed to set the record straight.

Fewer than 24 hours after giving away the U.S. Open, he took it back, defeating Mark Brooks by two shots Monday in an 18-hole playoff at Southern Hills.

Goosen held a five-stroke lead with two holes left but walked to the par-four, 466-yard 18th with only a three-shot lead after he bogeyed No. 17 and Brooks birdied it.

Another major meltdown?

Not this time, although Goosen made things interesting.

The South African’s second shot came up short of the green and trickled back down the fairway. Goosen pulled out his putter while one wondered how Jean Van de Velde would have played it--but “Goose” coolly rolled his third shot to within 20 feet.

His par putt came up eight feet short--”The first putt wasn’t going to race past again,” he said--but he drained his bogey putt for the win.

“It was great relief,” he said. “Sometimes you stand over a shot and you still can’t believe you’re standing there playing for the U.S. Open. It feels funny.”

It was a funny week.

Goosen, 32, won his first major with a bogey on No. 18 on Sunday and finished Monday’s playoff round bogey-bogey.

Yet, he led the tournament high-wire-to-high-wire, holding at least a share of the lead for four rounds.

He is the quiet type. He makes a sloth look demonstrative.

Yet he knew his Sunday collapse had been duly recorded, put in the pantheon along with Van de Velde’s collapse at the 1999 British Open, when the Frenchman blew a two-shot lead on the 72nd hole.

“Yeah,” Goosen said. “I know what Jean Van de Velde went through at Carnoustie,” he said. “You play so well for 71 holes and then suddenly on one hole you can lose, you lose--the tournament. And that’s how golf is. You play the whole week and it all comes down to one shot at the end of the day.”

It had been quite an emotional ride.

Goosen’s three-putt on No. 18 Sunday forced the playoff with Brooks.

Goosen was so shaken he admits he might have lost the tournament had there been a sudden-death format, but the U.S. Open is the only major tournament that requires an 18-hole playoff the next day.

A night’s reflection did Goosen good.

Three years ago, he would have been cooked, this fact being confirmed by Jos Vanstipoult, Goosen’s sports psychologist for the last 2 1/2 years.

Vanstipoult came to the rescue after Goosen broke his arm in a 1999 skiing accident.

Vanstipoult said Goosen’s self-confidence was “the lowest I had ever seen.”

Like Rome, Vanstipoult said, Goosen’s psyche had to be built “brick by brick.”

Vanstipoult was pleasantly surprised when he entered Goosen’s room Sunday night, hours after his collapse.

“How you doing?” Vanstipoult said.

“I’m OK,” Goosen said.

The psychologist then asked Goosen what positive thought he could take from the situation.

Goosen replied: “Now, I know I can beat these guys.”

Vanstipoult considered it a breakthrough.

Goosen had only four European Tour victories since 1993, but his play this week proved he belonged.

“I was so proud of him,” Vanstipoult said. “But it took a couple of years. Then I knew he was going to win. Not many people know Goosen, but I say one thing: ‘Watch Goose now.’ ”

Goosen also received “buck-up” phone calls from Nick Faldo and Ernie Els.

“Nick, he just saw what happened, and it’s happened to him and I’ve just got to keep my head down and play hard,” Goosen said.

The amazing thing about Monday was that Goosen putted brilliantly.

He needed only 11 putts on the front nine, although it was Brooks who opened an early one-shot lead when he birdied the par-four No. 4 hole.

Goosen caught Brooks when he answered with birdie on the par-three sixth hole and held the lead at one-under when Brooks flew his drive on No. 7 into the right rough and ended up with bogey.

The playoff turned on holes nine and 10, when consecutive birdies by Goosen coupled with consecutive bogeys by Brooks expanded Goosen’s lead to five shots.

After a smooth start, Brooks suddenly lost touch with the fairway.

“I got punished severely in the rough,” he said.

Brooks hooked his tee shot on the par-four No. 9 and found his ball nestled against a tree.

He could only chop the ball about 20 yards out and took a bogey.

Goosen got on in two and birdied--a two-stroke swing.

That two-stroke swing coupled with a two-stroke swing on No. 10 effectively ended the competition.

Brooks, the world’s 195th-ranked player, wasn’t that disappointed.

“I’m more disappointed at bogeying No. 18 yesterday,” he said.

Brooks went to the clubhouse Sunday at four-under 276 after missing his par putt on the 18th by less than an inch.

It turned out to be important, because Goosen and Stewart Cink came to the 18th tied for the lead at five-under. Cink double-bogeyed the last hole and Goosen made bogey.

Had Brooks made his par, he would have won the tournament.

This is by far the closest Brooks has come to winning since the 1996 PGA Championship, and the 40-year-old veteran from Fort Worth took defeat in stride.

“It still is just a golf tournament,” he said. “So it’s not that big a deal. It’s important while you’re out there, but it’s not going to change my life one way or another, if I’d won or lost.”

Goosen had more to lose.

“I felt like maybe I needed to win this today, somehow, from what happened yesterday,” he said. “But it is just a game. It’s not a life and death situation. There are a lot of people out there that are worse off than me.”

Like, say, Jean Van de Velde?

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE PLAYOFF

Hole-by-hole look at U.S. Open playoff between Retief Goosen and Mark Brooks. Goosen’s per hole scores listed first:

No. 1--454 yards, Par 4 4-4

No. 2--467 yards, Par 4 4-4

No. 3--408 yards, Par 4 4-3

No. 4--368 yards, Par 4 4-4

No. 5--642 yards, Par 5 5-5

No. 6--175 yards, Par 3 2-3

No. 7--382 yards, Par 4 4-5

No. 8--225 yards, Par 3 3-3