Every Rose Has Its Thorn

Even when Justin Rose won his first major, it had a runner-up feel.

There was that time when Justin Rose stood atop the golf major mountaintop, drinking in the cheers and hoisting a championship trophy on a sun-dappled Sunday.

But somehow it still felt like he was the runner-up.

The 113th U.S. Open was held at Merion Golf Club, the course equivalent to a baseball stadium band box, with much shorter fairways and a cozy venue tucked into the affluent Main Line suburbs.

Among the juicy plotlines entering the 2013 tournament was the buzz that Phil Mickelson could finally break his U.S. Open hex and slay the past five runner-up demons, including at Winged Foot (“I am such an idiot”) and Pinehurst.

Mickelson even made things interesting before the first round at Merion began, when he sandwiched his teenage daughter Amanda’s middle school graduation – in California – into his U.S. Open itinerary, flying all the way across the country and landing in Philly in the predawn hours Thursday, with a 7:11 a.m. tee time as his arrival present.

“Had a few hours’ sleep,” Mickelson said of his whirlwind jaunt. “We had a rain delay here, so I went and slept for an hour. I feel great. So this is not that out of the ordinary. I do this about six, 10 times a year where I fly back east, red-eye, play some outing and then come home. So it’s not out of the ordinary.”

Not out of the ordinary, except… Lefty had never pulled that rollercoaster travel blur during a major.

Then there was Tiger.

Still searching for his first major win since 2008, and still climbing out of the 2009 morass of his infidelity scandal, Tiger Woods was hoping to end the championship drought at Merion and get one step closer to Jack Nicklaus’ Everest milestone of 18 major wins.

Oh, and Tiger was also newly dating Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn… who was in attendance.

Mickelson bolted out of the gates and was in the lead after a rain-delayed first round. He stayed atop the leaderboard the next two rounds, setting up a potential epic Father’s Day Sunday, given his yeoman dad efforts in the preceding week.

Woods and Rory McIlroy – a two-time major champ at that point – were never factors leading into the final round at Merion. Woods garnered more headlines for having Vonn on his arm as they walked onto the course that Friday. I just happened to be at the media station when they strolled down the path together, trying to be incognito. I quickly ripped off several photos on my iPhone and later sent them to the Daily News with a quick online story.

When Vonn parted company with Woods, I walked up to her and asked if she would be open to an interview. She looked at me like I had two heads. The officials simultaneously put up a rope separating her and a small group of others from the media and the rest of the public.

It was understandable why Vonn may have given me the Heisman right away, especially after I announced my employer. Only a few weeks earlier, my Daily News colleague Nate Vinton had written several stories about Vonn’s relationship with an East German doctor named Bernd Pansold, who ran an Austrian training center on behalf of Vonn’s main sponsor, Red Bull. Pansold had been responsible for past doping scandals in the 1970s and ‘80s.

As soon as I identified my outlet, Vonn put the freeze on. I still snapped a photo of her, though, a scowl running across her face and her Red Bull cap visible in the sea of colors. Moments later, she blended into the masses following Tiger during his round. (Maybe as a bit of karma, later in 2013 I dropped my work computer at home, which in turn resulted in the loss of much of my photo stash from that year, including all but a few of the U.S. Open shots).

(Lindsey Vonn takes in the golf action at Merion Golf Club during the 2013 U.S. Open)

McIlroy, meanwhile, faded early and the only stir he created was when he told reporters that he had jogged up the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum prior to the tournament, a la Rocky Balboa.

“A few people suggested I go see (the steps), so it was good fun. I had a few good photos to take from it, a few nice reactions on Twitter,” McIlroy said.

McIlroy and Woods were paired together that Friday, along with Adam Scott, as rain continued to drown the course. I snapped a photo of one of Woods’ tee shots and posted it on Twitter, but was soon reprimanded by the golf equivalent of Big Brother. The rebuke was conveyed by my colleague Hank Gola.

“C, did you take a photo of Tiger and post it on social media?” Hank texted.

“Yes. Why?”

“The tour officials are barking to not do that.”

(Tiger Woods tees off at the 2013 U.S. Open while Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott watch)

When the skies finally cleared Sunday, Mickelson was right where he wanted to be, with a chance at the elusive brass ring. Then it all fell apart and it was déjà vu all over again. Lefty double-bogeyed the third and fifth holes, but regained the lead with an eagle on the 10th. Rose, meanwhile, worked his way into contention with a mix of five birdies and five bogeys through 16. Mickelson’s chance to tie Rose on 16 came up short as he missed a birdie putt. He then missed par on 18 and dropped into a tie for second place with Aussie Jason Day.

Rose was the winner of his first major. Little did we all know that he’d still be searching for No. 2 major win over a decade later.

But amid his finger point to the sky in honor of his late father, Ken, and cradling his U.S. Open trophy, Rose’s win was lost in the hoopla of another almost by Mickelson. The scene was reminiscent of Mickelson drawing all of the attention after his 2006 Winged Foot disaster. That year’s U.S. Open champ was Geoff Ogilvy, although you never would have known it with the tiny media audience (me included) around him afterward.

Seven years after Winged Foot, Mickelson was trying to wrap his head around another second-place finish.

“This one’s probably the toughest for me because at (age) 43 and coming so close five times it would have changed the way I look at this tournament altogether and the way I would have looked at my record. Instead, I just keep feeling heartbreak,” Mickelson said at Merion.

Rose, in turn, was every bit the gentleman in the winner’s circle.

“Obviously Phil Mickelson is a crowd favorite, very popular with everybody,” said Rose. “But definitely I felt very, very supported by the crowd for sure. It feels fantastic. I committed myself to the process this week. I committed myself to putting a strategy in place that I hoped would work in five to 10 years in delivering major championships. Going forward, this gives me a lot of confidence. I don’t know if it takes pressure off, but it’s a moment where you can look back and think childhood dreams have come true.”

This past Sunday, Rose was on the other side of the adulation, after losing to McIlroy at the Masters in a sudden death playoff. Rose drained a birdie putt on 18 in the final round to force the playoff, but then lost when McIlroy sunk a birdie of his own, and in victory, completed his career Grand Slam.

“It’s the kind of putt you dream about as a kid,” Rose said of his birdie in regulation. “To have it and hole it, it was a special feeling. And unfortunately, the playoff, they always end so quickly. That’s sudden death, you don’t really get an opportunity – if you’re not the guy to hit the great shot, or hole the great putt, you know, it’s over. That’s the nature of sudden death. Not really anything I could have done more today.”

At least Rose will always have his U.S. Open win. Mickelson is still chasing his.