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American Morning

Retief Goosen Wins U.S. Open

Aired June 19, 2001 - 09:23   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: You know, sometimes it's not how you finish, it's how you start. Retief Goosen came undone on the 72nd hole of the U.S. open on Sunday, as we pretty much all saw. But on Monday, one would have never known that anything disturbing had ever occurred.

Here's CNNSI's John Giannone with more from Tulsa.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN GIANNONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With so many questions swirling about his state of mind, Retief Goosen proved on Monday that his memory is even shorter than that nightmarish putt from the previous day. And because of that, Goosen's open-minded approach made him only the fifth U.S. Open champion born outside the U.S. since 1927.

RETIEF GOOSEN, 2001 U.S. OPEN CHAMPION: I was proud of what I've done so far this week. It's been a pressure week for me since the first round -- leading from the first round, so, you know, I just - today I told myself you're still playing well and you can do it.

MARK BROOKS, U.S. OPEN RUNNER-UP: I figured he'd be ready to go. And he didn't get off to a great start, but he kind of did the same thing he did the last time we played together, he just kept hanging in there and making pars and it proved to be enough.

GOOSEN: It was jumping when I played the last few holes, make no mistake. And that's just where you've got to try and trust yourself and just do it. And there is - I'm not going to say I wasn't shaking playing the last hole, that's for sure.

GIANNONE: The great irony of Monday's playoff is that Goosen was so successful on the green where he one-putted nine times. And he did it with that same diabolical putter that put Goosen in so much peril on Sunday, a moment that's now a two-foot footnote -- a gaffe, now a laugh.

GOOSEN: I started hitting the ball a lot better a few weeks ago and just the putter wasn't working. And this week -- put a new putter in the bag last week and it just helped. I mean I made everything I looked at.

BROOKS: You know he hit great shots and, you know, guessed right and he made a lot of putts on the back nine that were, you know, small but in the end, they were big.

GOOSEN: When I hold the putter on the last hole, I think that was quite a relief. You know after what happened yesterday, and I wasn't going to let it happen again, and just kept my nerves together and, you k.ow, I finally done it which is a great feeling.

GIANNONE (on camera): Goosen's victory marked only the second time in 20 years that an international player won the U.S. Open. The other player, Ernie Els, Goosen's close friend, who left a good-luck note in Goosen's locker before the match that was written in Afrikaans, the language spoken in their native South Africa.

At the U.S. Open in Tulsa, I'm John Giannone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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