Crash and Burn

The man who played best during the amazing and tumultuous final round of the British Open was not proclaimed the Champion Golfer of the Year at the awards ceremony. He wasn't even in the dramatic playoff between eventual winner Padraig Harrington and Sergio García. No, the golfer who played best, Andrés Romero, left Carnoustie simply as the Man Who Should've Won the Open. A raw but talented 25-year-old from Yerba Buena in northwest Argentina, Romero finished third, a shot out of the playoff, even though he tore apart Carnoustie with a championship-best 10 birdies during a four-under 67 that, unfortunately, also included a pair of double bogeys, the most damaging of which occurred on the 71st hole when he held a two-shot lead. "Andrés played very well right from the start," said Jim Furyk, Romero's playing partner on Sunday. "Obviously, he played super. I feel badly for the finish, but he should be proud."

Romero, whose nickname is Pigu ("which, as I'm often asked, does not mean anything," he says), was a member of a small cast of disappointed contenders who beat themselves. Steve Stricker, playing in the final group with García, was betrayed by his putter in the final round, just as he had been at the U.S. Open, following a Saturday 64 with a 74 to tie for eighth. Ernie Els, who missed greens and putts in a very un-Ernie-like manner down the stretch, wound up with a 69, placing him two strokes out of the playoff and in a tie for fourth. Stewart Cink, who had quietly played his way into contention, bogeyed three of the last 10 holes to finish with a 70 and a shot behind Els, in a tie for sixth.

Romero, though, was the only one of the group to actually wrest the lead from Harrington and García. The Argentine, who turned pro in 1998 and has won three times in South and Central America and once on Europe's Challenge tour, made four birdies on the front side, including virtual tap-ins after stiffing iron shots at the 3rd and 4th holes. After a bogey at the 9th he sank a 25-footer for birdie at the difficult 10th. He was in trouble at the 11th, in a bad lie in a greenside pot bunker, but holed out for an unexpected birdie to get within a shot of the lead at seven under.

Romero was not as fortunate at the par-4 12th, where he pushed his two-iron approach into a huge gorse bush and had to take an unplayable lie. He was forced to drop about 75 yards from the green and play a blind wedge shot over the gorse and wound up making a two-putt double bogey. Romero responded with four straight birdies, holing putts from 12, 15, 15 and 16 feet. Suddenly, he led the Open by two shots with two holes to play, and that's when his round turned Jean Van de Veldeian. "I was aware I was leading," Romero said. "The pressure certainly caught up with me."

He pushed his tee shot at the par-4 17th into a poor lie in the right rough. Even though the Barry Burn winds across the fairway, Romero went for the green with a two-iron. The deep grass grabbed the club, turned it over and sent the ball in a low line drive to the left. It appeared headed for the burn, which would've been bad enough. What happened was worse. Romero's ball caromed off the steps in the wall of the burn, flew 50 yards left and rolled beyond the out-of-bounds fence adjacent to the 18th hole.