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2007 U.S. Open (golf)

Coordinates: 40°31′34″N 79°49′37″W / 40.526°N 79.827°W / 40.526; -79.827
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2007 U.S. Open
Tournament information
DatesJune 14–17, 2007
LocationOakmont, Pennsylvania
Course(s)Oakmont Country Club
Organized byUSGA
Tour(s)PGA Tour
European Tour
Japan Golf Tour
Statistics
Par70
Length7,230 yards (6,611 m)
Field156 players, 63 after cut
Cut150 (+10)
Prize fund$7,000,000
€5,241,402
Winner's share$1,260,000
€943,183
Champion
Argentina Ángel Cabrera
285 (+5)
← 2006
2008 →
Oakmont  is located in the United States
Oakmont 
Oakmont 
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Location in the United States
Oakmont is located in Pennsylvania
Oakmont
Oakmont
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Location in Pennsylvania

The 2007 United States Open Championship was the 107th U.S. Open, held June 14–17 at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, a suburb northeast of Pittsburgh.[1]

Ángel Cabrera won his first major championship, one stroke ahead of runners-up Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods, who were unable to birdie the 72nd hole to force a Monday playoff.[2] Cabrera's victory marked the first U.S. Open won by an Argentine or a South American.[3][4] It was the first of his two major titles; he won the Masters in a playoff in 2009.

This was the eighth U.S. Open and eleventh professional major held at Oakmont.[5]

History of the U.S. Open at Oakmont

The championship committee of the United States Golf Association chose Oakmont Country Club as the host for 2007 on October 2, 2001.[5] The USGA had also recently decided to award Oakmont its 13th USGA national championship, the U.S. Amateur, only four years before the 14th national championship to be held at Oakmont. Oakmont's prestige in the golf community was irrefutable as the list of champions includes Tommy Armour (1927), Sam Parks, Jr. (1935), Ben Hogan (1953), Jack Nicklaus (1962), Johnny Miller (1973), Larry Nelson (1983), and Ernie Els (1994).[6] Oakmont had already provided the golf world with some of the most exciting championships of golf history including Miller's record for the lowest score shot in a USGA championship, a 63 (−8) in 1973, and the dramatic Monday finish in 1994 between Els, Loren Roberts, and Colin Montgomerie.

Preparation for the 2007 U.S. Open

The 107th U.S. Open was Oakmont's first USGA event since the U.S. Amateur in 2004. The USGA, American Golf's governing body, found setting up and preparing for the Open easier than other locations. Rob Zalzneck, the director of the 2007 Open for the USGA commented on the readiness of the course saying, "We're so far ahead with our plans and what we need to get done, Oakmont is just such an ideal situation for us. The club welcomes us with open arms, and we've had such great championships here in the past. What everyone will see, though, is the unbelievable difference in the size of the event from 1994 (when Oakmont last hosted the Open) and this year."[7] It was thought that the usual Open conditions would still exist, including the lightning fast greens and unusually high rough, as many of these features were common year round at Oakmont Country Club leading up to the Open. In fact, Oakmont's greens were so fast that the USGA directed the club to slow them down for the Open, although they were still much faster than what would be found at a normal tour event.[8]

Preparation began in 2002 and 2003 and included minor renovation to the course, most notably the lengthening of the course for the world's best players, small renovations to the clubhouse, and also the deepening of Oakmont's storied bunkers.[7] Other changes to the course since the last Open in 1994 included the addition of a bridge to connect to holes 2–8, which posed as a major problem causing player and pedestrian jams over the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The USGA recruited some 5,000 volunteers in order to insure the event progresses smoothly. The event was expected to, like the last Open at Oakmont, attract record breaking sell-out crowds. Crowd control was also a major problem for the USGA and its volunteers as huge crowds filled the course during the tournament creating traffic problems. The USGA began selling tickets to the general public on June 15, 2006. The USGA was expected to sell out all of their tickets for the competitive rounds by their deadline for purchase on August 15, 2006. After the sale of all tickets for the competitive rounds, any post-deadline purchases were settled by a lottery.[9]

Partnership with American Express

For the first time in its history, the United States Golf Association entered into a commercial partnership. It entered into an agreement with American Express for an undisclosed amount, which allowed American Express to set up a special "Trophy Room" area at the 2007 U.S. Open for American Express cardholders. Jud Linville, president of American Express U.S. Consumer Card Services, addressed concern about the arrangement commercializing the USGA Championship, saying, “We’re not going to be slapping logos all over the place, we’re trying to broaden the appeal of the game.” Long-time American Express sponsorship recipient Tiger Woods told the media in response to the deal, “It’s a tremendous opportunity, this is two enormous brands coming together to help golf.”[10]

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 2007 U.S. Open. Each player is classified according to the first category by which he qualified, but other categories are shown in parentheses:

1. Last 10 U.S. Open Champions

Michael Campbell, Ernie Els (4,9,10,16), Jim Furyk (8,9,12,16), Retief Goosen (9,10,13,16), Lee Janzen, Geoff Ogilvy (8,9,16), Tiger Woods (3,4,5,9,11,12,16)

2. Top two finishers in the 2006 U.S. Amateur

John Kelly (a), Richie Ramsay (a)

3. Last five Masters Champions

Zach Johnson (9,11,12,16), Phil Mickelson (5,6,8,9,11,12,16), Mike Weir (8,16)

4. Last five British Open Champions

Ben Curtis (9), Todd Hamilton

5. Last five PGA Champions

Rich Beem, Shaun Micheel, Vijay Singh (8,9,11,12,16)

6. The Players Champion
7. The U.S. Senior Open Champion

Allen Doyle

8. Top 15 finishers and ties in the 2006 U.S. Open

Paul Casey (10,16), Luke Donald (9,10,11,16), Kenneth Ferrie, Pádraig Harrington (10,16), Ryuji Imada, Colin Montgomerie (10,16), Nick O'Hern (15,16), Ian Poulter (10,16), Jeff Sluman, Steve Stricker (16)

9. Top 30 leaders on the 2006 PGA Tour

Stephen Ames (16), Stuart Appleby (16), Chad Campbell (16), K. J. Choi (12,16), Stewart Cink (16), Joe Durant (16), Lucas Glover, J. J. Henry, Trevor Immelman (16), Davis Love III (16), Arron Oberholser (16), Rod Pampling (16), Tom Pernice Jr., Carl Pettersson (16), Brett Quigley, Rory Sabbatini (11,16), Adam Scott (11,12,16), David Toms (16), Brett Wetterich (16), Dean Wilson

10. Top 15 on the 2006 European Tour

Thomas Bjørn, Johan Edfors, Niclas Fasth (16), Sergio García (11,16), Robert Karlsson (16), Henrik Stenson (13,16), Anthony Wall

11. Top 10 on the PGA Tour official money list, as of May 28

Charles Howell III (16), John Rollins (16)

12. Winners of multiple PGA Tour events from April 26, 2006, through June 3, 2007
13. Top 2 from the 2007 European Tour Order of Merit, as of May 28
14. Top 2 on the 2006 Japan Golf Tour, provided they are within the top 75 point leaders of the Official World Golf Rankings at that time

Shingo Katayama, Jeev Milkha Singh

15. Top 2 on the 2006 PGA Tour of Australasia, provided they are within the top 75 point leaders of the Official World Golf Rankings at that time
16. Top 50 on the Official World Golf Rankings list, as of May 28

Robert Allenby, Aaron Baddeley, Ángel Cabrera, Tim Clark, Chris DiMarco, Anders Hansen, José María Olazábal, Justin Rose, Charl Schwartzel, Vaughn Taylor, Scott Verplank, Lee Westwood

17. Special exemptions selected by the USGA

None

Sectional qualifiers
Alternates
  • Luke List (Rockville) – replaced David Howell

Course layout

Main article: Oakmont Country Club
Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Out 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 In Total
Yards 482 341 428 609 382 194 479 288 477 3,680 435 379 667 183 358 500 231 313 484 3,550 7,230
Par 4 4 4 5 4 3 4 3 4 35 4 4 5 3 4 4 3 4 4 35 70

Source:[4][11]

The 9th hole was previously played as a par 5; before 1962, the 1st hole was also played as a par 5.

Lengths of the course for previous major championships:

Round summaries

First round

Thursday, June 14, 2007

In the difficult course conditions, only Nick Dougherty and Ángel Cabrera broke par during the first round.[12] World number one Tiger Woods shot a 1-over 71, and #2 Phil Mickelson was at 74, playing with a wrist injury.[13]

Place Player Score To par
1 England Nick Dougherty 68 −2
2 Argentina Ángel Cabrera 69 −1
T3 Spain José María Olazábal 70 E
United States Bubba Watson
T5 United States Olin Browne 71 +1
United States Ben Curtis
United States Jason Dufner
Sweden Niclas Fasth
United States Fred Funk
United States Jim Furyk
United States Lucas Glover
Denmark Anders Hansen
Sweden Peter Hanson
United States J. J. Henry
Spain Pablo Martín
Australia Geoff Ogilvy
England Justin Rose
Fiji Vijay Singh
United States Brandt Snedeker
United States Tiger Woods

Source:[12]

Second round

Friday, June 15, 2007

Ángel Cabrera birdied the 477-yard (436 m) 9th hole (his 18th) after hitting an approach with a sand wedge to within two feet (0.6 m) to take a one-shot lead at the halfway point.[14] The shot moved the cut line from +11 to +10, eliminating 19 players (including Phil Mickelson,[15] who had had the longest current streak of making cuts at major championships at 30).[16]

Paul Casey shot a 66 for the low round of the day when the average score was 76.933, the highest since the final round in 2004 at Shinnecock Hills. Stephen Ames' 69 was the only other score under par for the third round. The cut was at 150 (+10) and no amateurs advanced to the weekend.

Place Player Score To par
1 Argentina Ángel Cabrera 69-71=140 E
2 United States Bubba Watson 70-71=141 +1
T3 Canada Stephen Ames 73-69=142 +2
Australia Aaron Baddeley 72-70=142
Sweden Niclas Fasth 71-71=142
England Justin Rose 71-71=142
7 England Paul Casey 77-66=143 +3
T8 United States Tom Pernice Jr. 72-72=144 +4
Sweden Carl Pettersson 72-72=144
United States Brandt Snedeker 71-73=144
United States David Toms 72-72=144
United States Scott Verplank 73-71=144

Source:[14][17]

Amateurs: Harrell (+11), Ramsay (+12), Kokrak (+16), Davies (+17), Kelly (+18), Kuehne (+19), Golden (+20), Condello (+22), Pettitt Jr (+23), Prugh (+23), Ureta (+23), Lee (WD).[14][17]

Third round

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Aaron Baddeley shot a second straight even-par round of 70, including a birdie on the 18th hole, to take a two-shot lead heading into the final round.[18] Tiger Woods hit the first 17 greens in regulation en route to a 1-under 69, barely needing to work to save par until his only bogey on the last hole, and finished in second place two shots behind Baddeley. It was one of just two under-par rounds on the day (Steve Stricker shot a 68), and placed Woods in the final pairing on Sunday. To this point in his career, Woods had never won a major championship by coming from behind, which he would have had to do to win his third U.S. Open. Four players were one stroke behind Woods at 215 (+5).

Place Player Score To par
1 Australia Aaron Baddeley 72-70-70=212 +2
2 United States Tiger Woods 71-74-69=214 +4
T3 Canada Stephen Ames 73-69-73=215 +5
England Paul Casey 77-66-72=215
England Justin Rose 71-71-73=215
United States Bubba Watson 70-71-74=215
T7 Argentina Ángel Cabrera 69-71-76=216 +6
United States Jim Furyk 71-75-70=216
United States Steve Stricker 75-73-68=216
T10 Australia Stuart Appleby 74-72-71=217 +7
Sweden Niclas Fasth 71-71-75=217
United States David Toms 72-72-73=217

Source:[18]

Final round

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Ángel Cabrera shot a 1-under 69 to become the first Argentinian to win the U.S. Open.[2][3][4] He entered the final round four shots behind, after shooting a disappointing 76 on Saturday. This gave him a 2:20 pm tee time on Sunday, 40 minutes ahead of the final pairing, which included Tiger Woods. After a birdie on the 15th hole, Cabrera was 3-under for the round, with a three stroke lead over Woods and a surging Jim Furyk.

After bogeys on the 16th and 17th holes that reduced his lead to one, Cabrera parred the difficult 18th hole and then had to wait in the clubhouse for Furyk and Woods to finish. Furyk tied for the lead with 3 straight birdies from 13-15 but bogeyed 17 to fall 1 stroke behind. Both Furyk and Woods needed to birdie the 72nd hole to force a Monday playoff but neither did, giving Cabrera the victory by a single stroke. Cabrera and Anthony Kim (67) were the only players to post sub-par scores during the final round. Aaron Baddeley was the 54-hole leader, but opened with a triple bogey and shot 80 (+10). The field broke par for only eight rounds during the tournament, just two players per day on the difficult Oakmont layout, and Cabrera was the only player to break par twice.

Place Player Score To par Money ($)
1 Argentina Ángel Cabrera 69-71-76-69=285 +5 1,260,000
T2 United States Jim Furyk 71-75-70-70=286 +6 611,336
United States Tiger Woods 71-74-69-72=286
4 Sweden Niclas Fasth 71-71-75-70=287 +7 325,923
T5 United States David Toms 72-72-73-72=289 +9 248,948
United States Bubba Watson 70-71-74-74=289
T7 England Nick Dougherty 68-77-74-71=290 +10 194,245
United States Jerry Kelly 74-71-73-72=290
United States Scott Verplank 73-71-74-72=290
T10 Canada Stephen Ames 73-69-73-76=291 +11 154,093
England Paul Casey 77-66-72-76=291
England Justin Rose 71-71-73-76=291

Source:[19]

Full final leaderboard Archived June 18, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
The top eight finishers at the U.S. Open were automatically invited to the 2008 Masters and the top fifteen automatically qualified for the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.

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 4 5 4 3 4 3 4 4 4 5 3 4 4 3 4 4
Argentina Cabrera +6 +6 +6 +5 +4 +5 +5 +4 +5 +5 +4 +4 +4 +4 +3 +4 +5 +5
United States Furyk +6 +7 +7 +7 +7 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +7 +8 +7 +6 +5 +5 +6 +6
United States Woods +4 +4 +6 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6
Sweden Fasth +7 +6 +6 +6 +6 +6 +7 +8 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +8 +8 +8 +8 +7
United States Toms +8 +8 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +10 +10 +10 +10 +10 +9 +9 +9 +9 +8 +9
United States Watson +7 +7 +8 +8 +8 +8 +8 +8 +8 +8 +8 +8 +9 +8 +8 +7 +8 +9
England Dougherty +9 +9 +10 +9 +8 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +10 +10 +10
United States Kelly +8 +7 +8 +8 +8 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +9 +10 +10 +10 +10
United States Verplank +8 +8 +8 +8 +7 +7 +8 +8 +8 +9 +9 +9 +9 +8 +8 +9 +9 +10
Canada Ames +4 +4 +4 +4 +4 +5 +8 +8 +10 +9 +10 +10 +10 +9 +10 +10 +10 +11
England Casey +5 +5 +6 +6 +7 +10 +11 +12 +13 +13 +13 +13 +13 +12 +13 +13 +12 +11
England Rose +6 +5 +7 +6 +6 +6 +6 +7 +7 +8 +9 +9 +10 +10 +10 +10 +10 +11
Australia Baddeley +5 +5 +5 +5 +5 +5 +7 +8 +8 +9 +10 +10 +10 +10 +11 +11 +11 +12

Cumulative tournament scores, relative to par

Birdie Bogey Double bogey Triple bogey+

Source:[4][20]

See also

References

  1. ^ U.S. Open Official Site
  2. ^ a b Ferguson, Doug (June 18, 2007). "Cabrera the most clutch". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. p. C1.
  3. ^ a b Dunlap, Colin (June 18, 2007). "Cabrera last man standing". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. A1.
  4. ^ a b c d Dulac, Gerry (June 18, 2007). "Just Ducky". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. DD-1.
  5. ^ a b Dulac, Gerry (October 3, 2001). "U.S. Open returns to Oakmont in '07". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. C-1.
  6. ^ "2007 U.S. Open Headed to Oakmont" PGA Tour
  7. ^ a b "Pittsburgh Tribune Review "Oakmont Gearing Up for 2007 U.S. Open". Archived from the original on February 23, 2007. Retrieved August 19, 2006.
  8. ^ "Oakmont: Rock & roll (& roll & roll & roll) nightmare". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. June 10, 2007. Archived from the original on October 10, 2007. Retrieved June 10, 2007.
  9. ^ "Ticket Applications Now Being Accepted for the 2007 U.S. Open". Archived from the original on March 11, 2007. Retrieved August 22, 2006.
  10. ^ "USGA Makes Deal With Amex". Archived from the original on January 1, 2007. Retrieved December 7, 2006.
  11. ^ "Baddeley's round 3 scorecard". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. June 17, 2007. p. E-1.
  12. ^ a b Dulac, Gerry (June 15, 2007). "Nicked up". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. E-1.
  13. ^ Dulac, Gerry (June 13, 2007). "It's all in the wrist". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. E-14.
  14. ^ a b c Dulac, Gerry (June 16, 2007). "Angel on high". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. CC-1.
  15. ^ Ferguson, Doug (June 16, 2007). "Back in black numbers". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. p. B1.
  16. ^ Armour, Nancy (June 16, 2007). "Mickelson's run of made cuts in majors ends". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. Associated Press. p. B3.
  17. ^ a b "U.S. Open scoreboard". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. June 16, 2007. p. B3.
  18. ^ a b Dulac, Gerry (June 17, 2007). "Badd is good". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. E-1.
  19. ^ "U.S. Open scoreboard". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. June 18, 2007. p. C4.
  20. ^ "2006 U.S. Open leaderboard". Yahoo! Sports. June 17, 2007. Retrieved May 22, 2013.

40°31′34″N 79°49′37″W / 40.526°N 79.827°W / 40.526; -79.827

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