Lucky Luke?

Lucas Glover’s victory in the US Open makes him the latest in a string of unremarkable and unlikely champions over what are said to be the toughest challenges set before a golfer.

Glover, 29, has only one other victory to his credit, the 2005 Walt Disney (no Mickey Mouse jokes please!) and entered the week in 71st place first on the world golf rankings.

He made the United States Presidents Cup team in 2005 and was also a Walker Cupper as an amateur but his career stalled after that – until the week of his life at Beth Page Black.

Inevitably questions will be asked about the set-up of the course, about the influence of the weather and whether Glover will become a real champion or one of a good number who somehow defied the pointed intentions of the USGA to win on a course that was meant to expose the flaws in their games.

It certainly was an odd U.S. Open given that two of the other contenders, Ricky Barnes and David Duval, really had no right, given their recent records, to even be in the field.

Yet again the debate will be whether the USGA, in trying to identify and not humiliate the best players, tricks up the courses it uses for America’s national championship to such an extent that the element of luck becomes too great.

Certainly there was no indication in Glover’s CV that he was the kind of player to be taken seriously at a U.S. Open.

His only other win had been clinched when he holed out from a bunker to edge Tom Pernice by a single stroke, but if that had been a metaphorical bolt of lightning Beth Page, aptly given the conditions, was a steady downpour as he controlled his nerves best and produced the solid shots required while all around him the pressure was getting to the others in the hunt.

Glover thus became just the sixth qualifier (itself an indication of his lowly ranking) since 1960 to win the U.S. Open and the first since Michael Campbell in 2005 at Pinehurst No.2.

Campbell, ironically, is another who is considered a fluke winner of America’s championship.

The New Zealander held off the challenge of Tiger Woods to win at penal Pinehurst to become the second Kiwi winner of a major title after Bob Charles (British Open in 1963) but the US Open remains his only victory on the PGA Tour and he is now in freefall on the rankings.

In his first full season on the European Tour Campbell, who has eight titles on this tour behind his name, held a two-shot lead after the third round in the The Open at St Andrews but faded to a final round of 76; nevertheless remaining in contention until the final hole and missing the play-off between John Daly and Costantino Rocca by a stroke.

It’s a championship I recall for having made a fool of myself, because of my rugby orientation, at Campbell’s Press conference on the Saturday night. He had been dressed in a dark outfit and I asked him whether he’d deliberately chosen all black. And was my face red when he replied, “it’s actually dark blue!.”

The U.S. Open has thrown up a number of anomalous winner given all the hype about how tough the courses are and how great the pressure.

Some who come to mind are Ed Furgol (in 1954 at Baltusrol), Jack Fleck (in 1955 at Olympic in San Francisco), Dick Mayer (in 1957 at Inverness), Orville Moody (in 1969 at Champions G.C. in Houston), Lou Graham (in 1975 at Medinah), Andy North (in 1978 at Cherry Hills and again in 1985 at Oakland Hills) and Steve Jones (in 1996 at Oakland Hills).

For Jack Fleck the U.S. Open was his first victory in what at the time was described as the “Greatest Upset in Sports History.” Fleck tied Ben Hogan for the ‘55 US Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco and then went on to win the play-off shooting 69 to Hogan’s 72.

NBC broadcast the first TV coverage of a US Open that year, for one hour, and went off the air when Fleck was on the 71st hole with the announcement that Hogan had won his unprecedented 5th U.S. Open. Fleck would end his regular tour career with only two more trophies to his name.

Orville Moody, known as “Sarge,” spent 14 years in the Army playing and teaching golf, then emerged from obscurity to win the 1969 United States Open - his only PGA Tour victory although he would go on to win 11 senior titles thanks to a broomstick putter giving him a new lease on life on the greens.

Andy North’s entire PGA career included just three wins – two of them U.S. Opens and even fiery Tommy “Thunder” Bolt managed to suppress his terrible temper to beat Gary Player at Southern Hills in 1958 – a performance that convinced the little South African that he could be competitive in America.

These oddities are made all the more incomprehensible when you consider the list of those who did not win a US Open – a line-up that is now led by Phil Mickelson who has been runner-up a staggering five times.

Sam Snead won seven majors and a PGA record of 82 tournaments but never a U.S. Open – finishing second four times, third once and fifth once. He had 12 top 10 finishes and made the cut at the age of 61 in 1973.

Some of his close calls were heartbreaking, none more so than in 1939. Believing he needed to birdie the final hole to win, when in fact he needed only to par, Snead played the 72nd hole aggressively, and badly, running up an 8 to blow the title.

Other great champions who missed out were our own Bobby Locke and Nick Price and, of course, Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo.

Heck, even I have held the U.S. Open trophy! After Ernie Els won the first of his two championships at Oakmont in 1994 I received a call from his then manager Sam Feldman. “Have you ever seen the U.S. Open trophy?” he asked. “No,” I replied. “Would you like to?,” he asked. “Of course,” I replied. “Well come up to my office, it’s here,” said Sam.

There’s an aura around major trophies – the Claret Jug of the British Open, the Currie Cup – and it was with something approaching awe that I picked up this one with it’s little female figurine on the lid. I found all the names, Player, Palmer, Nicklaus, Hogan…, so imagine my disappointment when I lifted the lid and found a great glob of dried-out chewing gum! – obviously placed there by some quick-thinking USGA official who wanted to ensure that it did not fall off during a prize-giving ceremony!

*Els won his two championships at Oakmont in 1994 and Congressional in 1997 and Retief Goosen emulated him by triumphing at Southern Hills in 2001 and Shinnecock Hills in 2004.