2008 U.S. Open (golf)

2008 U.S. Open

Tournament information
Dates	June 12–16, 2008
Location	La Jolla, California
Course(s)	Torrey Pines Golf Course, South Course
Organized by	USGA
Tour(s)	PGA Tour European Tour Japan Golf Tour
Statistics
Par	71
Length	7,643 yards (6,989 m)[1]
Field	156 players, 80 after cut
Cut	149 (+7)
Prize fund	$7,500,000[2] €4,766,396
Winner's share	$1,350,000[2] €858,181
Champion
Tiger Woods
283 (−1), playoff
«2007 2009»

The 2008 United States Open Championship was the 108th U.S. Open, played June 12–16 at Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California, north of San Diego.^[3] Tiger Woods won his third U.S. Open championship and 14th major title by beating Rocco Mediate on the first hole of sudden-death playoff following an 18-hole playoff. With this victory, Woods joined Jack Nicklaus as the only two in golf history to win the career grand slam three times. The U.S. Open was held at the Torrey Pines for the first time, and took place on the South Course.

It was an unlikely victory for Woods, who entered the tournament considerably short of match practice and was plagued throughout the week by an ailing left knee. Two days after the championship, Woods revealed that he would miss the remainder of the 2008 season after undergoing knee surgery. Through the 2017 U.S. Open, this is his last win in a major championship.

Field

About half the field each year consists of players who are fully exempt from qualifying for the U.S. Open. Below is the list of the 72 players that were fully exempt for the 2008 U.S. Open. Each player is classified according to the first category by which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses:^[4]

1. Last 10 U.S. Open Champions
Ángel Cabrera (8,11,17), Michael Campbell, Jim Furyk (8,9,17), Retief Goosen (11,17), Lee Janzen (8), Geoff Ogilvy (9,12,17), Tiger Woods (3,4,5,8,9,10,12,13,17)

2. Top two finishers in the 2007 U.S. Amateur
Michael Thompson (runner-up). (2007 U.S. Amateur champion Colt Knost turned professional, thereby forfeiting his invitations to the Masters, U.S. Open and The Open Championship.^[5])

3. Last five Masters Champions
Trevor Immelman (17), Zach Johnson (9,17), Phil Mickelson (5,9,12,13,17)

4. Last five British Open Champions
Ben Curtis, Todd Hamilton, Pádraig Harrington (9,11,17)

5. Last five PGA Champions
Vijay Singh (9,12,17) (Shaun Micheel withdrew prior to the tournament.^[6])

6. The Players Champion
Sergio García (9,11,12,17)

7. The U.S. Senior Open Champion
Brad Bryant

8. Top 15 finishers and ties in the 2007 U.S. Open
Stephen Ames (17), Aaron Baddeley (9,17), Paul Casey (11,17), Nick Dougherty (11), Niclas Fasth (11,17), Jerry Kelly, Hunter Mahan (9,17), Justin Rose (9,11,17), Steve Stricker (9,17), David Toms, Scott Verplank (9,17), Bubba Watson

9. Top 30 leaders on the 2007 PGA Tour official money list
Robert Allenby (17), Woody Austin (17), Mark Calcavecchia, K. J. Choi (13,17), Stewart Cink (12,17), Tim Clark (17), Luke Donald (17), Ernie Els (11,17), Steve Flesch (13), Charles Howell III, John Rollins, Rory Sabbatini (17), Adam Scott (17), Heath Slocum, Brandt Snedeker (17), Boo Weekley (12,17) (Brett Wetterich withdrew prior to the tournament.^[7])

10. All players qualifying for the 2007 edition of The Tour Championship
Jonathan Byrd, Camilo Villegas

11. Top 15 on the 2007 European Tour Order of Merit
Søren Hansen (17), Colin Montgomerie, Andrés Romero (17), Henrik Stenson (17), Richard Sterne (17), Lee Westwood (17)

12. Top 10 on the PGA Tour official money list, as of May 26
Ryuji Imada, Anthony Kim (17), Jeff Quinney (17)

13. Winners of multiple PGA Tour events from April 25, 2007 through June 1, 2008
Daniel Chopra

14. Top 2 from the 2008 European Tour Order of Merit, as of May 26
Miguel Ángel Jiménez (17), Oliver Wilson (17)

15. Top 2 on the 2007 Japan Golf Tour official money list, provided they are within the top 75 point leaders of the Official World Golf Rankings at that time
Shingo Katayama (17), Toru Taniguchi (17)

16. Top 2 on the 2007 PGA Tour of Australasia official money list, provided they are within the top 75 point leaders of the Official World Golf Rankings at that time
None (neither Craig Parry nor David Smail were ranked in the top 75)

17. Top 50 on the Official World Golf Rankings list, as of May 26
Stuart Appleby, J. B. Holmes, Robert Karlsson, Martin Kaymer, Justin Leonard, Rod Pampling, Ian Poulter, Mike Weir (Sean O'Hair withdrew prior to the tournament.^[8])

18. Special exemptions selected by the USGA
None

Sectional qualifiers
Japan: Artemio Murakami, Craig Parry; Europe: Phillip Archer, Robert Dinwiddie, Johan Edfors, Ross Fisher, Alastair Forsyth, Thomas Levet, Ross McGowan; USA: Michael Allen, Eric Axley, Craig Barlow, Rich Beem, Jason Bohn, D. J. Brigman, Bart Bryant, Chad Campbell, Ben Crane, Robert Garrigus, Mathew Goggin, Jason Gore, Fredrik Jacobson, Brandt Jobe, Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Michael Letzig, Davis Love III, Jarrod Lyle, John Mallinger, Steve Marino, Rocco Mediate, John Merrick, Jon Mills, Joe Ogilvie, Mark O'Meara, Jesper Parnevik, Pat Perez, Carl Pettersson, Brett Quigley, Patrick Sheehan, Kyle Stanley (a), Scott Sterling, Nick Taylor (a), D. J. Trahan, Kevin Tway (a), Nick Watney, Dean Wilson

Local and sectional qualifiers
USA: Charlie Beljan, Yohann Benson, Brian Bergstol, Travis Bertoni, Jeffrey Bors, Garrett Chaussard, Jay Choi, Bobby Collins, Jordan Cox (a), Chris Devlin, Andrew Dresser, John Ellis, Sean English, Derek Fathauer (a), Fernando Figueroa, Philippe Gasnier, Robert Gaus, Michael Gilmore, Hunter Haas, David Hearn, Jimmy Henderson (a), Justin Hicks, Chris Kirk, Brian Kortan, Joey Lamielle, Ian Leggatt, Scott Piercy, D. A. Points, Michael Quagliano (a), Rob Rashell, Kevin Silva, Kevin Streelman, Chris Stroud, Peter Tomasulo, Jon Turcott, Jeff Wilson (a), Casey Wittenberg

Alternates

1. Rickie Fowler (a) (sectional) - replaced Shaun Micheel^[6]
2. Gary Wolstenholme (a) (sectional) - replaced Sean O'Hair^[8]
3. Andrew Svoboda (local & sectional) - replaced Brett Wetterich^[7]

Past champions in the field

Made the cut

Player	Country	Year(s) won	R1	R2	R3	R4	Total	To par	Finish
Tiger Woods	United States	2000, 2002	72	68	70	73	283	−1	1
Geoff Ogilvy	Australia	2006	69	73	72	74	288	+4	T9
Retief Goosen	South Africa	2001, 2004	76	69	77	67	289	+5	T14
Ernie Els	South Africa	1994, 1997	70	72	74	73	289	+5	T14
Jim Furyk	United States	2003	74	71	73	75	293	+9	T36

Missed the cut

Player	Country	Year(s) won	R1	R2	Total	To par
Lee Janzen	United States	1993, 1998	75	78	153	+11
Ángel Cabrera	Argentina	2007	79	76	155	+13
Michael Campbell	New Zealand	2005	78	83	161	+19

Course layout

South Course

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Out	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	In	Total
Yards	448	389	195	488	453	515	461	177	612	3,738	414	221	504	614	435	478	225	441	573	3,905	7,643
Par	4	4	3	4	4	4	4	3	5	35	4	3	4	5	4	4	3	4	5	36	71

Source:^[1]

Round summaries

The U.S. Open is played over four days with an 18-hole round being played each day, for a total of 72 holes plus practice rounds. Players outside the top 60 and ties and outside ten strokes of the leader will be "cut" after 36 holes.

First round

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The leaders after the first round were two little-known American players, Justin Hicks, a 33-year-old Nationwide Tour player, and Kevin Streelman, a 29-year-old PGA Tour rookie. They both shot 3 under-par 68s to lead four other players at 69 (−2), including the 2006 champion, Geoff Ogilvy. The top three ranked players in the world were paired together for the first two rounds, but none of them broke par for the day: Woods 72 (+1), Phil Mickelson 71 (E), Adam Scott 73 (+2). Woods was playing his first event since the Masters, after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery, and Scott was playing with a broken little finger on his right hand. The World Golf Rankings were also used for three other pairings, making four pairings include the top 12 golfers in the world. Defending champion Ángel Cabrera shot 79 (+8). Mark Calcavecchia withdrew after playing nine holes with an injured knee and foot. In all, 11 players shot sub-par rounds and the scoring average was 75.58.^[1]

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par
T1	Justin Hicks	United States	68	−3
	Kevin Streelman	United States
T3	Stuart Appleby	Australia	69	−2
	Eric Axley	United States
	Rocco Mediate	United States
	Geoff Ogilvy	Australia
T7	Robert Allenby	Australia	70	−1
	Ernie Els	South Africa
	Rickie Fowler (a)	United States
	Robert Karlsson	Sweden
	Lee Westwood	England

Second round

Friday, June 13, 2008

The first round co-leaders both fell well down the leaderboard: Justin Hicks shot an 80 (+9) to drop to a tie for 49th and Kevin Streelman shot 77 (+6) to drop to tied for 22nd. Stuart Appleby carded a 70 (−1) to take the lead at 139 (−3), one stroke ahead of Robert Karlsson, Mediate, and Woods. Woods shot a 30 on the front nine, one stroke more than the U.S. Open record for nine holes set by Vijay Singh in 2003. Singh made his 14th consecutive cut at the U.S. Open, the longest current streak. Miguel Ángel Jiménez shot the low round of the day −5 (66) and moved into a tie for 5th.

The cut was at +7 (149), 10 strokes from the leader, and 80 players made the cut. Defending champion Cabrera shot a 76 (+5) for at total of 155 (+13) to miss the cut by six shots. Ian Poulter withdrew with a wrist injury after playing 15 holes. Three amateurs made the cut: Derek Fathauer (+4), Michael Thompson (+5), and Rickie Fowler (+7).

In all, 19 players shot sub-par second rounds. The scoring average was 74.96 for round two and 75.27 overall.^[1]

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par
1	Stuart Appleby	Australia	69-70=139	−3
T2	Robert Karlsson	Sweden	70-70=140	−2
	Rocco Mediate	United States	69-71=140
	Tiger Woods	United States	72-68=140
T5	Miguel Ángel Jiménez	Spain	75-66=141	−1
	Davis Love III	United States	72-69=141
	D. J. Trahan	United States	72-69=141
	Lee Westwood	England	70-71=141
T9	Robert Allenby	Australia	70-72=142	E
	Ernie Els	South Africa	70-72=142
	Geoff Ogilvy	Australia	69-73=142
	Carl Pettersson	Sweden	71-71=142

Amateurs: Fathauer (+4), Thompson (+5), Fowler (+7), Stanley (+8), Taylor (+10), Tway (+11), Cox (+15), Wilson (+17), Henderson (+21), Wolstenholme (+23), Quagliano (+25).

Third round

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Overnight leader Stuart Appleby shot 79 (+8) to slip back to T-19 at 218 (+5), while playing partner Rocco Mediate shot 72 (+1) to finish two strokes behind at 212 (−1). Many of the leaders struggled on day three. Karlsson and Jiménez dropped back to 215 (+2), Davis Love III to 4 over-par and D. J. Trahan to 1 over-par. Lee Westwood finished at 211 (−2) after a round of 70, the only one to shoot par or better in all three rounds. Woods, despite struggling with his knee injury, dazzled on the back nine with some improbable shots, resulting in two eagles and a chip-in birdie from the rough on the 17th to take the 54-hole lead at 210 (−3), a stroke ahead of Westwood.^[9] Brandt Snedeker shot the low round of the day at 68 (-3). In total, 11 players shot sub-par rounds and the scoring average for the round was 74.36 and 75.08 overall.^[1]

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par
1	Tiger Woods	United States	72-68-70=210	−3
2	Lee Westwood	England	70-71-70=211	−2
3	Rocco Mediate	United States	69-71-72=212	−1
T4	Geoff Ogilvy	Australia	69-73-72=214	+1
	D. J. Trahan	United States	72-69-73=214
T6	Robert Allenby	Australia	70-72-73=215	+2
	Miguel Ángel Jiménez	Spain	75-66-74=215
	Robert Karlsson	Sweden	70-70-75=215
	Hunter Mahan	United States	72-74-69=215
	Camilo Villegas	Colombia	73-71-71=215

Final round

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Woods had previously won each of the thirteen major championships in which he entered the final round with at least a share of the lead, and his fourteenth was no different. He lost his lead on the first hole, double-bogeying the hole for the third time in the tournament, and followed that with a bogey on the second, but regained two of the shots with birdies on 9 and 11. He also bogeyed 13, the same hole on which he had sunk an eagle putt the previous day.

Mediate had put together a solid round, only scoring one bogey over the final 13 holes. However, he barely missed a birdie putt on 17 and hit a wedge too strong on 18; his pars on the two final holes kept both Woods and his playing partner Westwood in contention. Both came to the par-5 final hole one shot behind Mediate, who was in the clubhouse at 283 (−1).

Woods and Westwood both hit their drives into bunkers and had to lay up. Woods' second shot went into the rough; Westwood laid up in the fairway. Both reached the green with their third shots, leaving them with birdie putts to force an 18-hole playoff with Mediate. Westwood's 15-foot (4.6 m) putt, which had a severe break to the right, was not successful. Woods' putt was closer at 12 feet (3.7 m), with a much less severe break; his putt lipped the hole before dropping and putting him in the playoff. Both Woods and Mediate became the first to finish under par at the U.S. Open since 2004.

Heath Slocum shot the low round of the day (and the tournament) at 65 (−6). In total, 12 players shot sub-par rounds and the scoring average for the round was 72.87 and 74.71 overall.^[1]

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par	Money ($)
T1	Tiger Woods	United States	72-68-70-73=283	−1	Playoff
	Rocco Mediate	United States	69-71-72-71=283
3	Lee Westwood	England	70-71-70-73=284	E	491,995
T4	Robert Karlsson	Sweden	70-70-75-71=286	+2	307,303
	D. J. Trahan	United States	72-69-73-72=286
T6	Carl Pettersson	Sweden	71-71-77-68=287	+3	220,686
	John Merrick	United States	73-72-71-71=287
	Miguel Ángel Jiménez	Spain	75-66-74-72=287
T9	Heath Slocum	United States	75-74-74-65=288	+4	160,769
	Eric Axley	United States	69-79-71-69=288
	Brandt Snedeker	United States	76-73-68-71=288
	Camilo Villegas	Colombia	73-71-71-73=288
	Geoff Ogilvy	Australia	69-73-72-74=288

Amateurs: Thompson (+8), Fowler (+13), Fathauer (+15).

Scorecard

Final round

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Par	4	4	3	4	4	4	4	3	5	4	3	4	5	4	4	3	4	5
Woods	−1	E	E	E	E	E	E	E	−1	−1	−2	−2	−1	−1	E	E	E	−1
Mediate	−1	−2	−2	−2	−1	E	E	E	E	−1	−1	−1	−1	−2	−1	−1	−1	−1
Westwood	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−1	−2	−1	−1	E	+1	E	E	E	E	E
Karlsson	+2	+2	+1	+1	+1	+1	+2	+2	+3	+3	+2	+3	+3	+2	+3	+4	+3	+2
Trahan	+2	+3	+3	+4	+5	+5	+4	+3	+3	+3	+2	+2	+1	+1	+1	+2	+3	+2
Jiménez	+3	+3	+3	+3	+3	+3	+3	+3	+4	+4	+5	+5	+6	+5	+4	+4	+4	+3
Merrick	+4	+4	+3	+3	+4	+4	+4	+4	+3	+3	+3	+3	+3	+3	+4	+4	+4	+3
Pettersson	+5	+5	+5	+4	+3	+3	+3	+3	+4	+4	+4	+5	+5	+4	+4	+3	+3	+3
Ogilvy	+1	+1	+1	+2	+1	+1	E	E	+1	+2	+2	+2	+2	+2	+2	+3	+4	+4

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par
Source:^[10]

Playoff

Monday, June 16, 2008

The 18-hole playoff was the first playoff for the U.S. Open since 2001. After trading the lead three times on the front nine, Woods built a three stroke lead through ten holes. Mediate rallied on the back nine with three consecutive birdies which gave him a one stroke lead heading to the 18th hole. Like the day before, Woods birdied to tie Mediate and forced the playoff into sudden-death, the third in U.S. Open history (1990, 1994: prior to 1990 extra full rounds were played, the last in 1946). The sudden death playoff started and ended at the par-4 7th hole,^[11] with Woods scoring a par to Mediate's bogey.^[11]

Place	Player	Country	Score	To par	Sudden death	Money ($)
1	Tiger Woods	United States	71	E	4	1,350,000
2	Rocco Mediate	United States	71	E	5	810,000

Source:^[2]

With the win, Woods kept his unbeaten streak alive when he has at least a share of the lead heading into the final round of a major championship (14−0). The streak ended at the PGA Championship in 2009.

Scorecard

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Par	4	4	3	4	4	4	4	3	5	4	3	4	5	4	4	3	4	5
Woods	E	E	+1	+1	+1	E	−1	E	E	E	+1	+2	+1	+1	+1	+1	+1	E
Mediate	+1	+1	E	E	+1	+1	+1	+1	+2	+3	+3	+3	+2	+1	E	E	E	E
Sudden-death Playoff
Woods							E
Mediate							+1

Woods' injury

On April 15, 2008, Tiger Woods had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee.^[12] During his rehab, Woods sustained a double stress fracture of his left tibia. Throughout the tournament it was clear Woods was in pain, and the general feeling was that he was just returning from the initial surgery too soon. He did not reveal the news about the double stress fracture until two days after the U.S. Open was complete. He had surgery to repair his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and needed time to rehab that and the stress fracture. He announced on his website that he would miss the remainder of the 2008 golf season, which meant he would miss the final two majors: the Open Championship and the PGA Championship.^[13]

See also

• United States Golf Association

References

External links

• 2008 U.S. Open official site
• U.S. Open official site
• USOpen.com - 2008
• About.com: – 2008 U.S. Open
• Torrey Pines official site

Preceded by 2008 Masters	Major Championships	Succeeded by 2008 Open Championship

Coordinates: 32°54′14″N 117°14′46″W / 32.904°N 117.246°W / 32.904; -117.246