Maggert quietly claims third spot

Jeff Maggert started the day as the forgotten man in the final round of the 102nd U.S. Open, with the triumvirate of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia the talk of Long Island.

Maggert, while tied with Mickelson at even-par and five shots behind leader Woods when the final round began, was never talked about as a worthy contender to Woods who started the round with a four shot lead over Garcia.

"Deep down inside I thought it was a four-or five under round today to have a chance, and without being in the fairway often enough I really put myself behind the eight ball," Maggert said of his strategy going in to the final round.

"I didn't drive the ball really well enough to give myself an opportunity to make some birdies."

With a drier and windier course than the players had faced in the first three days, Maggert had a difficult time early, two-putting the first two greens for pars after good drives into the narrow fairways of the Black Course at Bethpage State Park to stay at even-par.

It was his tee shot on the third hole that ultimately put Maggert in trouble and a hole he would have to dig himself out of quickly.

Missing the green on the par three, Maggert found one of the three bunkers that surrounded the 205-yard hole.

Ranked 127th in sand saves on the PGA Tour, getting up-and-down only 45 percent of the time, Maggert half-bladed and half-shanked his shot into the fringe some 30 feet from the hole.

He would need three more shots to get down for a double-bogey five and move to two-over-par.

"Double-bogey on the third hole was definitely not what I was looking for when I'm trying to shoot three or four or five-under today," Maggert said.

"But that was a good comeback, birdies on four and five, to get back to even at that point.

"I liked my chances of being able to shoot a good score from there."

With Maggert's back-to-back birdies he was again in the hunt as Woods would drop shots on the first and second hole to uncharacteristically come back to the field.

At that point, Woods had only a three-shot lead on Maggert, Mickelson and Garcia.

As the conditions got more difficult, Maggert would make a bogey on the par-four seventh to one-over-par and five shots behind Woods.

Maggert would never get closer again as he would bogey the par-four 15th to move to-two-over where he would finish in third place, five shots behind Woods.

"Tiger hung in there tough," Maggert said of Woods.

"He made a couple of early bogeys, but came back with the birdies when he needed them.

"He never really opened the door wide enough for us to get in."