Tiger Woods only finished second at the US Open on two occasions, with the second of those runner-up finishes coming at Oakmont in 2007.
There has arguably not been a US Open which has been more brutal since the 2007 event at Oakmont, with Angel Cabrera finishing the week on five over par to secure his first major title.
Tiger Woods went into the weekend five shots back of the lead and just outside the top 10 after posting rounds of 71 and 74 over the first two days.
That meant that he was paired with Englishman Nick Dougherty for the third round in Pennsylvania. Dougherty had been leading after an opening round of 68, before a 77 on Friday saw him fall down the leaderboard.
Nick Dougherty recalls playing alongside Tiger Woods at Oakmont during the 2007 US Open
Woods went on to play one of the finest rounds of the week on Saturday. His 69 meant that he was one of only two players to break par in the penultimate round, alongside Steve Stricker.
The performance left Woods just two shots back of new leader Aaron Baddeley, while it left Dougherty in absolutely no doubt about just how good the then 12-time major champion truly was.
Speaking on the Sky Sports Golf Podcast, Dougherty admitted to making a costly error as he sensed he was getting under the American’s skin.
“With Oakmont, I drove it pretty good, and my short game was electric. I remember feeling like it was starting to annoy Tiger a little bit. A little bit. Because he was playing so good. I led the US Open, but I keep wanting to go to Saturday,” he said.
“Johnny Miller said it could arguably be one of the greatest US Open rounds ever played – he only shot one under, Tiger, but he hit 13 of 14 fairways and 17 of 18 greens, and he only missed the 18th fairway by this much in the right rough. And the rough was so thick in ’07, you just couldn’t reach the green, so hence that was the only green he missed. And he holed nothing, but didn’t putt bad. So he grazed edges all day long, but didn’t putt badly. The bit that shocked me, it was the time when I realised how he was different to what I was. All the other players, I played with the great players at that time, whether it be Ernie or Vijay, I played with all those great players. On my day I thought I might beat you, on my day. When I watched Tiger there, if I played golf, he was doing something else. It was called something else, because it looked easy.
“He had complete control off the tee, but then he hit it down the middle of every green, bled it to the right flag, drew it to the left flag, giving himself the buffer, the Scheffler way of playing, but of course, he came before. And he was under no pressure. And I think I actually played quite well that day, purely because all I was watching was ‘this isn’t that bad’. I made a fateful error though, I was level par after 14 holes which was remarkable, amazing on a Saturday at a US Open, and I remember walking and I said to my caddie Stretch, I was like, ‘we can do him today, mate’. I might have said different words, there might have been an expletive in there, but I was pumped. ‘We could do him today, imagine that, duffing up Tiger Woods in the US Open and have a bit of that’. And I took my attention away from being fully focused on that golf course which requires all of it, especially with my ability, I didn’t have anything spare out there. And I dropped four in the last four.
“It was the greatest round for me, because as much as someone wins a major championship each week, to see Tiger when he was in his prime and play with him in the tournaments that he wants to win, that’s not something that’s coming around again now. It’s gone that. He’s not going to be that guy anymore. And Rory and Scottie have stepped into that void, but for me, there will only ever be one Tiger Woods and I was lucky enough to be alongside him in one of those things.”
How Tiger Woods reacted to his brilliant third round at the 2007 US Open
Of course, Woods was at a stage of his career where he had never failed to win once he had a 54-hole lead of a major championship. The only time that happened came two years later at the PGA Championship when Y.E. Yang triumphed.
So had he managed to hole a couple of putts, it would have sent out such an ominous message to everyone else on the leaderboard. Certainly, Woods felt that he was extremely close to producing a special round.
“Obviously it could have been really low but on these greens, if you look at it, yeah, I had probably, what, three putts that I probably — two to three putts that I probably could have made,” he said.
“Even the putts that just slid by the hole that were shorter, like on five and seven, they were both down downhill breaking two, three feet. Those putts you can’t take a run at. The closest I had was on seven, I thought it was right there, easy putt. And you go, well, I’ve got to play this out three and a half feet, and I’ve got a 12-footer.
“The putt I thought I made was on 13, I thought that was a really good putt.”
A double bogey on the third round on Sunday put a big dent in Woods’ hopes of victory. He would play the rest of the round in level par to finish one shot behind Cabrera.
Dougherty, meanwhile, would perform slightly better on Sunday, with his 71 leaving him in a tie for seventh. It would prove to be the only top 10 of his major championship career.
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