Peter McCleery has a review of NBC’s coverage of the US Open. He says that there was way too much punditry.

I agree. I thought that it was a bit like coverage of the last election where the big media was sure that the “brilliant” John Kerry was going to defeat the “moron” George Bush. On Saturday night, NBC had all but given Goosen the trophy.

So much for pundits.

Not since Gil Morgan in 1992 has there been a final day collapse of the type experienced by Retief Goosen (+11) and Jason Gore (+14). It was ugly to watch.

It was Goosen’s Open to lose, and he did. The growing legend of the unflappable South African has been shattered.

But that’s not to take anything away from New Zealand’s Michael Campbell, who shot one of just four rounds under par for the day. Campbell, if you will remember, was once considered one of the top up-and-coming players when he just missed out on a playoff at the 1995 British Open.

His career has been less than spectacular since then (he has won six times on the European Tour, but this was his first US victory), but at 36, he is still young enough to make a go of it.

Aside from the Goosen collapse, I think that the most interesting thing about the day was that Tiger finished second. Why is that interesting?

Its only his second, second place finish.

Consider this: While Jack Nicklaus won 18 majors, he also finished second 19 times. Tiger has nine majors and just two second place finishes.

In my mind, even if Tiger wins 19 or more majors, he won’t be considreed Jack’s equal until he also matches those seconds.

It sounds petty, but all of those seconds show that Jack was grinding it out and staying in contention. My perception (wrong or right) of Tiger has been that if he’s not in the lead, he’s not contending.

So I really enjoyed hte way he fought from the pack to get himself into second. That shows real character.

Anyhow, here are the top ten finishers at the US Open:

Jason Gore is curently tied for second at the US Open, and he’s playing with Retief Goosen in the final pairing tomorrow.

But who is he? USA Today has the answer.

And then there was one.

After Day Three of the US Open, only Retief Goosen remains under par, at -3.

Unknowns Olin Browne and Jason Gore are tied for second at even par. Michael Campbell and Mark Hensby are next, at plus 1.

David Toms got back to +2 with a 70.

Peter Hedblom, Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood and K.J. Choi all are at +3.

Then there’s the surprise of the day: 51 year old Peter Jacobsen, a player on both the PGA and Senior Tours shot a 69 to get himself to +4, and a tie for 11th. His spectacular round included a hole in one on the 175-yard ninth hole.

Score one for the old guys. As one of the old guys, I’m rooting for him.

But back to Goosen. If he wins—and it certainly looks as though he will, he would join Curtis Strange as the only back to back winner in 50 years. He also would join an elite group of just five other players with three or more US Open titles (Willie Anderson, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Hale Irwin).

But the course will have the final say.

On day two of the US Open, the course is winning.

We all knew that it would. The USGA was not going to allow sacred par to be violated by mere mortals.

And mortal they did appear. One by one, the pretenders fell by the wayside. Mickelson imploded, as did Toms. Even the mighty Tiger drew a reprimand from the gods of the USGA for his unseemly outburst of frustration over his play.

There now are just five players under par: Olin Browne, Retief Goosen and Jason Gore are at -2. K.J. Choi and Mark Hensby are at -1.

Michael Campbell, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood all are at even par. There are a host of others at +1. The cut was +8.

Some notables who missed the cut were Padraig Harrington, Chris DiMarco, and Robert Allenby.

Sergio has said that he believes even par will win the tournament by at least a stroke. He could be right.