Editor’s note: Meg Mallon’s U.S. Women’s Open title defense ended with a final-round 73 and a total 9-over-par 293, placing her in a tie for 13th place. Entering the tournament fighting a wayward driver, her nemesis for the week turned out to be her putter. Of the 63 players who made the weekend cut, Mallon finished in a tie for 46th in putting. In the final installment of “A Player’s Diary,” the ever-sunny veteran discussed the 2005 Open.
All the way up to today I thought I still had a chance to win. My thought was to get to plus-3; I thought that would be a winning number. And certainly, I’ve had low numbers on Sunday before (Mallon shot an Open-record 65 to win last year). I’ve had that happen, but unfortunately, it didn’t go that way.
I was not disappointed in the way I played today. I played a solid round of golf. I never got the speed of these greens. I never got the ball to the hole all week.
But Cherry Hills was a great venue for us. I talked about it with some other players last night. It’s probably the toughest rough we’ve ever been in in the Open. The ball just sank down, and you couldn’t advance it more than 40 or 50 yards. It put a premium on how you were driving the ball, and that’s good. I think the U.S. Open should be that way. It should be strategy and working your way around and thinking your way around the course.
I did make some strides this week. I feel better about my driver, I hit a lot of fairways this week, and that was very encouraging. The putter will come around. I just never got comfortable with these greens at all.
Usually I come to an Open and I spend a week working on the greens. I came to this Open having to work on my entire game. I think, at the end of the day, that was the difference for me.
-Meg Mallon
