Campbell Is Latest to Fail in Defense

Michael Campbell joined the long list of players unable to defend their U.S. Open title.

Campbell shot seven-over-par 77 on Friday, finished 12 over through 36 holes and missed the cut.

No player has defended his U.S. Open championship since Curtis Strange won in 1988 and 1989.

The New Zealand native pulled off a huge upset last year when he beat Tiger Woods by two shots at Pinehurst, but this year he and Woods share the distinction of not even playing on the weekend.

“This week was a lesson for me, and I need to go back and reflect on it and learn from it and hopefully learn for next time,” Campbell said.

Other prominent players who missed the cut, which ended up at nine-over par, were 10-time major winner Woods (12 over), and two-time U.S. Open champions Lee Janzen (14 over) and Retief Goosen (15 over).

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Let’s add up those scorecards: This year’s “traditional” grouping featured the reigning U.S. Open, British Open and U.S. Amateur champions -- Campbell, Woods and Italy’s Eduardo Molinari.

So how did they do?

The group finished a combined 37 over par and all three players missed the cut. Molinari finished one shot behind Woods and Campbell at 13 over par.

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At 57, Allen Doyle is the oldest player in the U.S. Open field. After shooting 10 over in the first two rounds, Doyle felt like it.

But he’s hanging in there.

“I had a knee scoped and then when I go back on it, I had that plantar fasciitis in my feet, so they’re a little sore right now,” he said. “We’ll go get off them.”

The reigning U.S. Senior Open champion, from Woonsocket, R.I., missed the cut but finished two shots better than Woods.

“I’m not the only guy that could say he hit it better than he scored,” he said. “What are you going to do?”

Tadd Fujikawa, at 15 the youngest player in U.S. Open history, shot 81-77 and finished 18 over par.

That was better than former major winners Mark Calcavecchia and Nick Price, who both finished 19 over.

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Former PGA Championship winner David Toms withdrew before his Friday round because of a back injury he suffered Thursday on the 12th hole. Toms finished Thursday at nine-over 79 and was scheduled to tee off Friday with the 1:03 p.m. group that featured Vijay Singh and Shingo Katayama.

Toms tied for fifth at the 2003 U.S. Open at Olympia Fields, his best finish.

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Darren Clarke, who shot a two-over 72, isn’t any fan of the greens at Winged Foot. He wasn’t the only one.

“The greens are poor basically,” Clarke said. “They are poa [annua] greens and they are very poor. They are jumping about, and with the combination of the slope and the speed it makes it very tough to hole putts on.”

He’s just six shots off the lead, but Clarke isn’t sure he can contend. He said he needs to start making some putts.

“But I don’t know how I am going to do that,” he said.

Woods, another critic of the greens, said putting was sort of the luck of the bounce.

“Some putts hop a lot,” Woods said. “Others, you play for the hop and blow them by.”

Said Stephen Ames of the greens: “Spongy and bouncy.”

It’s bad enough that Ames isn’t looking forward to the third round.

“I’m going, ‘Oh, no, you mean I have to play this thing again?’ ” he said. “I’m serious. I’m really looking and saying I don’t particularly want to play again.”

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The new weather forecast is actually improved slightly. It’s supposed to be partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the morning. On Sunday, the forecast is for a high temperature in the low 90s with partly cloudy skies.