U.S. OPEN

Bogey: Tiger Woods. He should have carried a tape recorder for his post-round interviews.

Woods could have simply hit the play button every time he was asked about his performance at Bethpage Black.

The sad refrain: He couldn’t make a putt.

“I striped it this week,” he said. “I hit it just like I did [in the victory] at Memorial. Unfortunately, I didn’t make anything. My good [putts] were not going in, and my bad ones weren’t even close. I left a lot of putts short. And then when I tried to hit it harder, I gunned it past the hole.”

Woods needed 120 putts over four rounds, five more than Phil Mickelson and four more than Lucas Glover. Appropriately enough, Woods finished four shots behind Glover at even par.

Give Woods credit for putting up a fight. At one point Sunday, he trailed leader Ricky Barnes by 15 shots. After making birdies on Nos. 13 and 14 on Monday, he cut that deficit to four.

But on No. 15, he flushed a five-iron over the green on what he called his “best swing” of the week. He hit a so-so pitch and missed an eight-foot shot wide left for a bogey.

He also gets a bogey here -- not so much for his failure to win but his inability to contend on a course he dominated seven years ago.

Birdie: Bethpage Black. Despite soggy greens that rendered the course defenseless, the winning score of four-under par was only one better than Woods’ victorious number in 2002. “If this course was firm,” said Nick Taylor, who tied for 36th, “it would have been scary how hard it would have been.”

Bogey: Angel Cabrera. The Masters champion appeared to mail it in after falling out of contention. He played the “weekend” in 11 over to tie for 54th.

Birdie: The USGA’s Mike Davis. His fourth-round setup featured several novelties, including a front pin on No. 14 that played to 127 yards and forward tees on No. 18 (354 yards to the pin) that induced many players to hit driver. Traditionalists will gripe that Glover won a major hitting six-iron, nine-iron on the final hole. Had he been leading by one shot going into 18, rather than two shots, his club selection would have sparked rounds of debate.

Bogey: Mother Nature. Thanks for not forcing the Open to spill into Tuesday.

-- Teddy Greenstein