Jordan Spieth © GettyImage

Who could have imagined a few months ago that Tiger Woods, victim of yips according to many observers, is now shining the cards of amateurs (80 or more)? We're talking about the best player (along with Jack Nicklaus) of all time, who is currently moping in the depths of the rankings of the few tournaments in which he participates. While he is not even 40 years old. At the US Open this year, the Tiger largely missed the cut and scored +16 in two rounds. Only three players, including an amateur, did worse in the tournament.

What is terrible about golf is that it constantly tests your nerves, like a trapeze artist moving without a net. The mind certainly plays a determining role in most sports. But in this little game, golf remains out of category. Take tennis, another game of skill that has many connections to golf (many tennis players play golf and vice versa). With the little yellow ball, part of the stress of the competition is diluted in fatigue, physical expenditure. Golf much less. If the heart is beating at 170, it's not because you've just sprinted after a long rally and two hours of play ...

In tennis, you can afford to miss a lot of shots and lose a lot of points, not all of them are equally important. In golf, every shot counts, every missed shot is penalizing, every shot is like a match point ...

And we do not even mention team sports where an individual failure can be compensated by the collective. In golf, you stay alone with your ball and knife, alone in front of yourself and the course ...

Sunday night in the Northwestern United States, the US Open was arguably one of the most dramatic Majors of recent years. A perfect scenario for a film… disaster. They were four detached from the pack at the start of the last round, including three in the world top 10, excuse the little: Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, with referee Brendon Grace. And during this long sunny Sunday, everyone fell in turn, including the future winner! Jason Day was the first to show signs of weakness first. The Australian certainly had extenuating circumstances, victim of vertigo since the first round and very close to retirement on Thursday evening. Then, it was Dustin Johnson's turn to be struck by another kind of vertigo: the fear of winning. In the lead with two strokes ahead at the halfway point, the American multiplied the three putts and messed up a string of short putts. So much so that Thomas Levet, commentator for Canal +, exclaimed: “he putt like a pig there! "

The game of massacre continued. Coleader with three holes from the end, the South African Brendon Grace drove his ball… along a railroad track and derailed in turn, leaving a boulevard to Jordan Spieth for the final victory. Except that the world n ° 2 was also showing signs of great nervousness from several holes. Endless exchanges with his caddy - sometimes only the cup of tea was missing - putting routines longer and longer and finally ... patatras, the double bogey at hole n ° 17. What revived at the same time Dustin Johnson. With a birdie on the par 5 of 18, the native of South Carolina could hang the play-off. A hole of 550 meters which had nothing to scare one of the biggest strikes on the circuit. And for good reason, two huge shots from Johnson even allowed him to land 3,50 meters from the hole with a putt for an eagle synonymous with the first Grand Slam success.

It is not known what then happened in the head of the colossus (1,95 m) American at this precise moment. He remembered all his missed opportunities in Major. As at the US Open 2010, on the legendary Peeble Beach course: well in the lead on Sunday morning, it exploded in mid-flight during the last lap to return a card of 82. He also thought of this USPGA three months later and to those stupid 2 penalty points taken for hitting the sand with his club at address. A major tournament finally lost by… two points. Or did he have the Royal Saint-George in mind during the British Open 2011? One shot from leader Darren Clarke, on hole 14, he sent his drive… out of bounds.

When he grabbed his putter on hole 18 at Chambers Bay, did Dustin Johnson know this quote from Orville Moody, winner of the US Open 1969: "I never put up with a 400? m in two strokes and miss a putt by one yard. “Because he was going to do 550 m in two strokes and take three putts at 3,50 m…. thus joining Jean Van de Velde (Carnoustie in 1999) and a few others in the pantheon of the most terrible tumbles in the history of golf.

Suddenly, Dustin Johnson allowed Jordan Spieth to also write his name in the legend. But more glorious this one. At 21, the Texan becomes the sixth player in history to win the first two major tournaments in the same year (Masters then US Open) since Tiger Woods in 2002. He is also the youngest player to win the US Open for some… Bobby Jones in 1923.

Frank Crudo

* On the subject of the mind in golf, read the excellent article by Philippe Chassepot: the enemy within.