Golf: Goosen's miss gifts Brooks a play-off chance

In a Major championship which looked set to go down as the one Tiger Woods did not win, 32-year-old South African Retief Goosen made sure he will be remembered too in Tulsa.

European Tour member Goosen, never higher than 10th in any previous Major, was two feet away from being crowned the 101st US Open champion.

But then, incredibly, he missed the putt and instead he has to go another 18 holes with American Mark Brooks today to decide the title.

If Goosen loses, the putt will go down as the one that cost him $278,000 - the difference between the $676,000 first prize and the runners-up cheque for $398,000.

It was the worst miss in a Major since Doug Sanders in the 1970 Open at St Andrews - perhaps worse - and it followed an amazing sequence of blunders.

In a comedy of errors that was anything but funny for those involved, first Brooks three-putted the same green, albeit from 45 feet away.

Then Stewart Cink, tied for the lead with Goosen on the final tee of the final group, double-bogeyed to finish one behind Brooks. His own second putt was little more than two feet as well.

That left the scene for Goosen to two-putt from 10 feet for victory. But his birdie attempt rolled inches further than he wanted it to and, with the eyes of the golfing world bearing down on him, he fluffed the return.

It actually went further away, but he gathered himself and holed for a bogey five that left himself and Brooks on the four-under-par total of 276 and Cink one behind in third.

Defending champion Woods was down in 12th place on three-over after failing to produce the charge he was hoping for and alongside him was disappointed Spaniard Sergio Garcia, who managed only a 77 when just two off the lead with a round to go.

Woods had set himself the target of 64 which was to be achieved by both 51-year-old Tom Kite and Vijay Singh, but a bogey at the second made that unlikely and after birdies at the fourth, fifth and seventh he spun off the ninth green and by taking five dropped his fourth shot of the week there.

He did hole from 15 feet at the 11th and when he pitched to six feet at the difficult 12th there still remained a glimmer of a chance.

But he missed that, failed to birdie the long 12th and bogeyed the 17th for a 69 and three-over-par total of 283.

It was the first time he has finished over par in any of his last 43 tournaments, a sequence going back to the 1999 Open at Carnoustie.

Garcia’s problems started when he tangled with the trees at the second and then drove into sand and hit a wild third on the 642-yard fifth.

That cost him a bogey six, but missing the green and three-putting at the ninth signalled the real beginning of the end for him and Europe’s wait for their first winner of the title Tony Jacklin in 1970 goes on.