Retief, but No Relief in Sight

Possible New York tabloid headline emanating from Saturday’s third round of the 104th U.S. Open: “COURSE BITES MAN.”

After two days of tepid and tame, the winds kicked up at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club at just about the same time this tournament kicked in.

Shinnecock wiped the smile off Phil Mickelson’s face, turned Vijay Singh’s game to goo and stole six shots right out of Jeff Maggert’s hip pocket.

Only three players out of 66 would break par on a day that might be pitched to reality television as “Survival USGA.”

Here’s how the golf wind blows after 54 holes:

Retief Goosen, the 2001 U.S. Open champion, shot one-under-par 69 and holds a two-shot lead entering today’s final round.

Goosen sits at five-under 205 and you could say he inherited the lead as much as he seized it.

Five players held the outright lead Saturday at various points -- but obviously had a tough time keeping it.

Goosen has a two-stroke margin over fellow South African Ernie Els and Mickelson, both at three-under 207.

Mickelson kicked himself all the way to the clubhouse after shooting three-over 73 and closing with two bogeys after playing a bogey-free second round.

Els shot even-par 70 and appears his usual self, steady as a stanchion.

Fred Funk and Shigeki Maruyama are at 208 and three shots behind Goosen. Funk shot 72 on Saturday and Maruyama, the 36-hole co-leader, finished at four-over 74.

The only other players under par, at one under, are Tim Clark, whose four-under 66 was low round of the day, and Maggert.

Maggert wasn’t bragging about his day, though. He held the outright lead at seven under when he birdied the par-five fifth hole, but spilled oil down the stretch and finished at 74.

In other words, this is still anyone’s U.S. Open to win or lose, especially if the wind continues to ripple the flags.

In news that should produce great ratings south of the equator, Goosen and Els will be paired in today’s final round.

Els has two U.S. Open titles in his bag (from 1994 and 1997) to Goosen’s one -- a playoff victory over Mark Brooks at Southern Hills.

Els and Goosen have known each other since they were kids. They served in the South African Air Force together and they own houses on the same street in Orlando, Fla.

“The first time I met Ernie was at a South African Junior Championship in a place called Bloemfontaine,” Goosen said.

And here they are again, as adults, squaring off for a chance to win the U.S. Open.

For what it’s worth, the leader or co-leader after 54 holes has won the last five U.S. Opens.

“Retief, he’s got the perfect temperament and a hell of a game,” Els said of Goosen.

Mickelson, the Masters champion, is still very much in the hunt, of course, although he wasn’t pleased with Saturday’s effort.

His double bogey on the par-three seventh hole was almost comical.

Mickelson wasn’t the only player to struggle on the 189-yard hole -- the toughest and most aggravating patch of grass on the course.

Only 27% of the golfers who played No. 7 on Saturday managed to hold their tee shots on the green.

This perilous par-three swallowed Els, Funk and dozens of others.

Mickelson was six under par and cruising when he came to the seventh.

His tee shot landed on the green but it was a short visit, his ball skidding off the back end. Mickelson chipped up past the hole, but his putt for par trickled left past the cup and kept rolling.

“And it just never stopped, it just kept going,” Mickelson said. “It could have gone even farther, I was lucky it stopped right there.”

Mickelson walked along with the ball as it drifted away, waiting to mark it the second it came to a rest.

Then, he missed the comeback putt and walked off with a double bogey.

Maruyama, his playing partner, actually stopped his ball on the green and he still made bogey.

“They were putting downwind, downhill, downgrain, downworld, and it was very difficult to stop those putts,” Walter Driver, chairman of the USGA championship committee, said of No. 7.

Asked by a reporter if the seventh hole was a fair test of golf, Mickelson said, “I don’t know, you tell me.”

Mickelson rallied after his double, making six pars before getting a birdie at the par-four 14th. That put him back in the lead at five under.

He then made two more pars before closing with bogeys on the par-three 17th and the par-four 18th.

On No. 17, he knocked his tee shot into the bunker and couldn’t make his up-and-down.

On No. 18, he made it to the green in regulation but three-putted for bogey.

Mickelson knows he’s still in a great position to win his second major, even as he knows how much Els is looking to exact revenge for the Masters.

Two months ago, Mickelson drained an 18-foot putt on the finishing hole to beat Els by a stroke.

Els said last week the defeat still sticks in him like a knife.

Mickelson proved at Augusta he could rally from behind. He shared the 54-hole lead at the Masters but lost it on the front nine.

Is Mickelson poised to win the second leg of golf’s Grand Slam?

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” he cautioned. “I have a lot of golf left. I’m two shots back. I have a lot of work left. I don’t feel like it’s far off.”