The most dominant performances at Winged Foot

2006: Geoff Ogilvy

The 2006 Open is recalled today not for Oglivy’s victory but for Phil Mickelson’s late collapse.

Tied for the lead through three rounds with Kenneth Ferrie, Mickelson survived a shaky front-nine Sunday stretch to lead Ogilvy by two with three holes to play. But he bogeyed the 16th and found himself tied with Colin Montgomerie – one ahead of Ogilvy – when Montgomerie birdied the 17th.

That meant both players needed to par the closing par four to stay ahead of Ogilvy. Montgomerie misclubbed himself, leaving a 7-iron in deep rough short and right of the green. He chipped on and three-putted for a double bogey.

Mickelson’s failure was, if anything, even more stunning. His drive missed the fairway badly left, winding up in a refreshment stand area. His second shot hit a tree; his third wound up buried in a greenside bunker. His blast rolled off the green, and his chip to force a playoff rolled six feet long.

Of the 11 top finishers that year, Mickelson and Montgomerie were the only two to double bogey the 18th, and both did so when even a bogey would have set up a playoff. The loss was especially galling to Mickelson, his fourth (of a record six) runner-up finishes in the tournament.

Ogilvy’s win hardly qualified as overpowering. Against the 293.64 four-round field average, it measured just 1.90 standard deviations superior. That makes it the weakest Open win of the five held at Winged Foot.

Since then, only Webb Simpson’s 2012 victory at Olympic (with a 1.84 dominance rating) was a less dominant performance than Ogilvy’s.