2008 U.S. Open Golf Championship

Infobox_Individual_Golf_Tournament
tournament_name = 2008 U.S. Open


dates = June 12 - 16, 2008
location = San Diego, California
course = Torrey Pines South Course
tour = PGA Tour PGA European Tour Japan Golf Tour
par = 71
yardage = 7,643
field = 156 players, 80 after cut
cut = +7
purse = $7,500,000PDF| [http://www.usopen.com/pdf/moneyList.pdf U.S. Open Championship 2008 Tournament Summary] |371 KB from usopen.com.] (€4,766,396)
winners_share = $1,350,000 (€858,181)
Champion = Tiger Woods
Score = 283 (-1), playoffThe 2008 United States Open Golf Championship was the 108th U.S. Open, played from June 12 to June 16 2008 at Torrey Pines, north of San Diego. [ [http://www.torreypines.com/torrey-pines-us-open-2008.asp Torrey Pines 2008 U.S. Open] ] The U.S. Open was held at the Torrey Pines for the first time, and took place on the South Course. 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. It was an unlikely victory for Woods, who played the whole weekend with an ailing left knee, and two days after the championship Woods revealed that he would miss the remainder of the 2008 season.

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 inparentheses: [ [http://usga.usopen.com/qualifying/full-exemptions.html U.S. Open 2008 - Full Exemptions] ]

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 has since turned professional, thereby forfeiting his invitations to the Masters, U.S. Open and The Open Championship. [cite web|url=http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA100207.03D.NZ.State.GLFtxopenknost.en.3279b1c.html |title=Knost making pro debut at Valero Texas Open |publisher=mysanantonio.com |accessdate=2008-04-09 ] )

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. [http://www.okstate.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=200&ATCLID=1478018 Rickie Fowler Gains Spot In U.S. Open Field] ] )

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 [http://www.pgatour.com/r/stats/2007/109.html 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. [http://www.usopen.com/en_US/news/articles/2008-06-12/200806121213280712500.html Svoboda Replaces Wetterich] ] )

10. All players qualifying for the 2007 edition of The Tour Championship

Jonathan Byrd, Camilo Villegas

11. Top 15 on the 2007 European Tour [http://www.europeantour.com/publish.sps?syndicatorguid=&rmasiteinstanceguid=&pagegid=%7B7E944807-48EC-411A-B82A-D56203FDC915%7D&seasonid=76 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 [http://www.jgto.org/jgto/WG03010100Init.do?year=2007&tournaKbnCd=0 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 [http://www.pgatour.com.au/_content/document/00000640-src.pdf 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. [http://www.majorschampionships.com/2008/microsites/usopen/2008/06/11/ohair_withdraws/index.html O'Hair withdraws citing chest injury] ] )

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, Mike 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

# Rickie Fowler (a) (sectional) - replaced Shaun Micheel
# Gary Wolstenholme (a) (sectional) - replaced Sean O'Hair
# Andrew Svoboda (local & sectional) - replaced Brett Wetterich

Course layout

Third round (Saturday)

Overnight leader Stuart Appleby shot a 8 over-par 79 to slip back to T-19 at +5, while playing partner Rocco Mediate, despite starting strongly, could only manage a 1 over-par 72 to finish in 3rd at -1. Many of the leaders struggled on day three. Robert Karlsson and Miguel Ángel Jiménez dropped back to 2 over-par, Davis Love III to 4 over-par and D. J. Trahan to 1 over-par. Lee Westwood finished at -2 after a round of 70, making him the only player not to be over-par in any of the three rounds. Tiger Woods, despite struggling with his knee injury, dazzled on the back nine with 2 eagles and a chip-in birdie from the rough on the 17th to take a one stroke, 54-hole lead at -3. [cite web|title=Pair of eagles powers Woods to U.S. Open lead|url=http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/usopen08/news/story?id=3443641|work=ESPN|date=2008-06-15] Brandt Snedeker shot the low round of the day at -3 (68). In total, 11 players shot sub-par rounds and the scoring average for the round was 74.36 and 75.08 overall.

After trading the lead three times on the front nine, Woods built a three stroke lead through 10-holes. Mediate would rally on the back nine with three consecutive birdies which once again gave him a one stroke lead heading to the 18th hole. Like the day before, Woods would birdie the 18th hole to tie and force the tournament into sudden-death holes.

udden death playoff

Tiger Woods won the 2008 U.S. Open on the first sudden death hole (hole seven), scoring a par 4 to Mediate's bogey 5. 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).

Woods's injury

On April 15, 2008, Tiger Woods had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. [ [http://www.celebritynews.net/site/articles/134/1/Tiger-Woods-Has-Arthroscopic-Surgery-Will-Miss-A-Month/Page1.html Tiger Woods Has Arthroscopic Surgery, Will Miss A Month] ] 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 British Open and the PGA Championship. [ [http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3450453 Woods set to have season-ending knee surgery] ]

ee also

* United States Golf Association
* Torrey Pines Golf Course

References

External links

* [http://www.usopen.com U.S. Open official site]
* [http://www.torreypinesgolfcourse.com/ Torrey Pines official site]