Justin Rose WINS at Merion for first major as Phil once again falls just short

ARDMORE, PA-Justin Rose won the 113° US Open on a wild Sunday who had four players short of the lead on the final stretch difficult holes at Merion Golf Club. Rose won after pars on the final two holes. The victory was the first major championship of roses. English 32 years had won four times on the PGA Tour before this week. Her best previous finish at a major was third at last year's PGA Championship, but his performance more popular was when he finished fourth as an amateur 17-year-old at the 1998 British Open.

The day began with Mickelson at 1-holding a one-shot lead over Hunter Mahan; Rose was two strokes behind Mickelson, and Jason Day was back to three strokes. Mickelson traded places in the standings for most of the day, with Mahan and day close behind. Mahan and day dropped back with more final six holes each bogeymen. Mickelson was one shot back on hole 18, but missed a long birdie chip give Roses.

Before the tournament, many predicted that it would not be able to withstand the onslaught of today's professionals hit along the relatively short course of Merion. The open was not played to its historic course of suburban Philadelphia since 1981. However, Merion has proven to be a hard test for professionals who struggled with the rough thick and difficult to read greens on the course, and neither player finished under par Rose was 1-over for the tournament after shooting for Sunday. Mickelson shot 74.

One for players to fight in Merion was made favorite Tiger Woods, who finished at 13-over. "I struggled with the speed, especially right around the hole," said Woods. "Putts were breaking a lot more, I gave a little bit more break and then would hang. That's kind of the way it was this week. "

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Phil once again failed to win the title he craves most, and there's only one word for that

"Every time I think outside of United States," Phil Mickelson said, "I think of heartbreak." And your B.S. alarm went off, because the real heartbreak is a consequence of mourning, unrequited love or scandal. Finishing second in the US Open for the sixth time, as Mickelson did Sunday, the better it is categorized as a "disappointment".

But the sport is different from the life. In sports, arsenal champions and also-rans depressed, but second place gets roasted on the grill of public accountability. Ask the coach of each team that lost the championship game. Ask the quarterback of Super Bowl loser. Ask LeBron James.

We have a winner-take-all. Not literally-Mickelson collected about $ 700,000 for her heartbreak at Merion-but certainly atavistic level. How else to explain the despair by Tom Watson on his missed putt on the 72nd hole at Turnberry in 2009? If his putt rolls true, Watson 59-year-old won a record-tying sixth British Open and merges the gods on Mount Olympus. If it wobbles off to the left, he's just a pathetic old man who almost did something great.

Too hard? For sure. But that is how it seemed the self reproaching Watson, namely as it looked to Mickelson Sunday evening, when the wound is still fresh. "This is probably the toughest for me," he said, "because at 43 and coming so close five times, would change the look at the tournament as a whole and the way he looked at my records."

But that is the source of heartbreak by Mickelson-the way of looking at records. This year's champion, Justin Rose, has two top 10s in the u.s. Open, but has missed the cut in half of his open appearances and also failed to qualify seven times since he turned Pro in 1998. Mickelson, on the other hand, was low amateur in his first two attempts (1990 and 91), was cut only twice (1992, 2007) and has racked up 11 top-10s in 22 US Open starts.* too bad lead on goals from year to year; Mickelson could win the Decade.

* Tiger Woods, if you were wondering, he "only" eight top-10s in the U.s. Open, and finished 10 shots behind Mickelson on Sunday. But Woods has three victories.

As it is, there is an argument to be made for Lefty as the best US Open player of his generation. "I love the way he plays the game," Rose said after his victory. "He plays golf without fear. He keeps everyone guessing. He is funny. And I feel lucky to be able to beat a world-class player like a day like today ". Mike Davis, the USGA's feelings echo Squad, saying: "Phil has been fantastic, and to be a racer, six times the National Open Championship, is not only a record, but it"

And that is where he left Davis. Mickelson, if asked to finish the thought, might have said, "but it's empty." But Phil was already on his way home, his birthday and father's day spoiled because he had failed, but once again, to win the title he covets more than any other: US Open champion.

Heartbreaking? Yes, maybe.

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