Ogilvy Ties with 14 Others for 21st Place at 2006 U.S. Open
True or False? At the 2006 U. S. Open – -
1. Tim Herron who finished last was only one stroke behind Geoff Ogilvy. T F
2. David Howell finished first one stroke ahead of second place finisher Steve Stricker and three strokes ahead of Nick O’Hern, Robert Allenby, and Ted Purdy who tied for third. T F
3. Of the 63 finishers only 28 had worse scores than Geoff Ogilvy. T F
4. Ryuji Imada and Kent Jones had the same score. Ryuji tied for 12th. Kent tied for 48th. T F
5. Thirteen players finished ahead of Phil Mickelson and six tied Phil. Vijay Singh was one of the 14 players who tied Geoff for 21st place. T F
Of course you know that all of the above statements are False, but they all would be true if the winner was decided by the players Gross Negative Score (GNS), that is, the total of birdies and better.
Geoff Ogilvy’s GNS was -9 as was the GNS of 14 other players including Vijay Singh.
David Howell’s GNS was -16, seven strokes better than Geoff’s -9. So how come Geoff finished first and David tied for 16th? Because Geoff’s Gross Positive Score (GPS), that is bogeys and worse, was +14 and David’s was +27.
If the lowest GPS determined the winner Geoff would have won. Of course Geoff did win and most weeks on the PGA Tour the winner is the player with the lowest GPS not the lowest GNS. This year’s U.S. Open was just a little more dramatic than most tournaments.
We will be watching highlight films of the 2006 U.S. Open for many years to come. Mostly we will be seeing shots of birdies and an occasional eagle plus shots of Phil’s and Monty’s play on the 18th hole. The highlight film we should be seeing is Geoff’s parring the last three holes.