U.S. Open Notebook | For Westwood, it was close, but no playoff

SAN DIEGO — Lee Westwood waited so long to come up this short.

Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate will face off in an 18-hole tiebreaker for the U.S. Open championship today without Westwood, who would have joined the playoff party if his 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole hadn't come up inches shy of the cup.

"I'm struggling to even think who is in the playoff," Westwood said. "It's not really in the front of my mind, to be brutally honest."

After his putt rolled off right of the cup, a dejected Westwood, who had gone toe-to-toe with Woods just as he had predicted, tapped in and watched Woods do what he couldn't.

Woods holed his 12-foot birdie putt, the ball curling into the right side of the cup to force the playoff with Mediate.

Woods said the green "was a little wobbly down there" and needed so pure a stroke "because once it starts rolling down there, it's kind of like playing Plinko. You don't know what's going to happen."

That tricky final green turned Westwood's hopes of a tiebreaker into a heartbreaker.

"All in all I played pretty good all week," he said, "and if somebody said you're going to have a chance from 20 feet for a playoff on Monday, then I would have probably taken that at the start of the week.

"So while I'm disappointed, I'm pleased with myself and I think that I've proved to myself and a few others that I think there is a major championship in me."

Westwood's 284 earned him a consolation prize of $484,595.

Few complaints

for Torrey Pines

Most years the only golfer who leaves the U.S. Open happy is the guy who won.

Everybody else is mad about the golf course, and specifically the setup presented by the U.S. Golf Association. The rough was too heavy, they say, and the greens were too firm; the championship was decided more by luck than skill.

This year was different. The Torrey Pines setup created by the USGA's Mike Davis and his staff has received mostly rave reviews from the players — even those disappointed by their finish

"The golf course was the fairest setup I've ever seen," said Phil Mickelson, a San Diego native who tied for 18th. "The mixture of tee boxes and pin placements was perfect to give the best players a chance to separate themselves."

The past two Opens, at Winged Foot in '06 and Oakmont in '07, were won at 5-over par. The last time an Open was won at under par was in 2004, when Retief Goosen finished 4 under at Shinnecock Hills on Long Island.

That Open was one of the most controversial, because the setup was so difficult that some greens were watered after the final round began.

"We're so used to coming to the Open year after year and facing 480-yard par 4s with high rough," said Stewart Cink, who shot 67 Sunday to finish tied for 14th.

Next year the Open moves back east to Bethpage Black, where in 2002 some holes were so long that some pros couldn't hit the ball far enough off the tee to get past the rough into the fairway.

Cink doesn't expect that to happen again.

"In the past it's always been us against them," said Cink, meaning the players vs. the USGA. "They don't want the players to go away complaining because it makes everybody look bad."

Moving on

Either Woods or Mediate will hoist the trophy after today's playoff. As far as consolation prizes go, John Merrick and Carl Pettersson scored two big ones Sunday.

They tied for sixth at 3-over 287, good enough to earn an invitation to the Masters and an exemption from qualifying for next year's U.S. Open.

Not bad for two guys who had to go through qualifiers to get here.

The top eight get Masters invites and the top 15 are welcomed back to the U.S. Open.

Pettersson, of Sweden, shot a 3-under 68 on Sunday. Merrick had a 71.

"To play well like this is pretty gratifying," Merrick said.

Also earning invitations to the Masters and an exemption from qualifying for the 2009 U.S. Open were Lee Westwood (even-par 284); Robert Karlsson and D.J. Trahan (286); and Miguel Angel Jimenez, who tied with Merrick and Pettersson.

Notes

• Heath Slocum gave himself a nice Father's Day gift with a 6-under 65, the best score in a U.S. Open since Vijay Singh shot 63 in the second round in 2003. He finished tied for ninth at 4-over 288.

"That was obviously one of the better rounds I've ever played," Slocum said after making six birdies and no bogeys. "I hit the ball pretty good at times, but I kept it out of bad trouble."

• Davis Love III was two shots behind after two rounds and wound up in a tie for 53rd with a 76-78 weekend. It wasn't hard to see how he did it. Love failed to make a single birdie on Saturday or Sunday and played the par 5s in 3 over.

• David Dixon shot a 5-under 66 to win the Saint-Omer Open in France and earn his first victory on the PGA European Tour. The Englishman, who was nine shots off the lead in the opening round, finished at 5-under 279 to beat Christian Nilsson of Sweden by one stroke.

The Associated Press, Gannett News Service and Detroit Free Press contributed to this report.