SB Nation Cleveland - U.S. Open 2012: Webb Simpson Comes From Behind For Victory

U.S. Open Golf 2012: Tiger Woods Favored To Win British Open Despite Poor Play At Home

2012-06-19T16:32:50Z

In the final two rounds of last week's U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, California, Tiger Woods managed to squander a lead that potentially could have earned him his 15th career major championship. Despite the blown opportunity, the odds makers in Las Vegas have already penciled Woods in as a 6-to-1 early odds favorite to win next month's British Open, which starts July 19 at Royal Lytham in Lancashire, England.

Lee Westwood is second to Woods with 11-to-1 odds, in addition to players like Rory McIlroy (12-to-1) and the No. 1 ranked player in the world, Luke McDonald (14-to-1). Reigning U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson is a longshot 40-to-1 odds favorite to win consecutive trophies at Lancashire.

For a complete list of odds for the 2012 British Open, click here.

For all your news and updates in the run up to the 2012 U.S. Open at Olympic, visit SB Nation's dedicated golf hub. Be sure to head over to USOpen.com for even more coverage from the event.

2012 US Open: Cleveland Native Jason Dufner Moves To No. 8 In Rankings, Maintains Money Lead

2012-06-19T15:57:51Z

After his career-best showing at last week's U.S. Open, Cleveland native Jason Dufner moved up to No. 8 in the world rankings -- and maintained his No. 1 ranking among the PGA Tour money leaders.

An article from the Opelika Auburn News -- Dufner played college golf at Auburn -- broke down where Dufner stands following his strong showing at the U.S. Open:

Dufner maintained his lead on the PGA Tour money list, receiving a check of $276,841. He now has earned $4.077 million through 15 events this season, almost $822,000 more than second-place Hunter Mahan.

The former Tiger also received 114 FedEx Cup points, maintaining his lead in the standings with 1,849 this season. He has 340 more points than Mahan, who is second.

Open champion Webb Simpson gave the World Golf Rankings top 10 its biggest change, climbing nine spots to 5^th place. The top three were unchanged, even though No. 1 Luke Donald and No. 2 Rory McIlroy missed the cut while No. 3 Lee Westwood had a top 10 finish at the Open at 5-over.

Last weekend was the fourth time this season that Dufner has finished in the top four at a tournament. He notched his first career win at the Zurich Classic at the end of April, and a few weeks later got another No. 1 finish at the HP Byron Nelson -- both good for $1 million-plus paydays.

He finished second at the Crowne Plaza Invitational, which netted him another $691,000.

For all your news and updates in the run up to the 2012 U.S. Open at Olympic, visit SB Nation's dedicated golf hub. Be sure to head over to USOpen.com for even more coverage from the event.

2012 U.S. Open: Ratings Up For Final Day At Olympic

2012-06-18T22:26:42Z

The 2012 U.S. Open received a boost in ratings for the final day of competition despite the fact that relative unknown Webb Simpson captured the title. The increase in ratings from the 2011 final, which saw Rory McIlroy come out victorious, can be attributed to how close the competition was for this year's nation's championship.

Via USA Today:

The U.S. Open on NBC Sunday drew a 6.6 overnight. Predictably, that's up from last year's final-round coverage -- by 29% -- when the event's finish wasn't close and, more importantly, it didn't run in East Coast primetime.

But compared to two previous West Coast U.S. Opens that has similar primetime schedules -- in 2008 and 2010 -- NBC's Sunday coverage was down. It was down 22% from 2008 and 4% from 2010.

While the primetime coverage would seem to help the event, it was more than likely the reason why the ratings were down compared to the other West Coast based Opens. Sunday's final round was forced to go head-to-head with Game 3 of the NBA Finals, which seemed to hurt the ratings for both events as viewers were split over what to tune into.

For all your news and updates in the run-up to the 2012 U.S. Open at Olympic, visit SB Nation's dedicated golf hub. Be sure to head over to USOpen.com for even more coverage from the event.

World Golf Rankings 2012: Webb Simpson Rises To No. 5 With Open Win

2012-06-18T21:54:01Z

Following his impressive win on Sunday at the 2012 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club, Webb Simpson has risen nine spots in the World Golf Rankings to the No. 5 position. This is Simpson's third career professional victory as his previous best finish at a major was a tie for 16th at the 2011 U.S. Open.

Despite Simpson's rise, the top-four remained unchanged as players such as Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood and Luke McDonald failed to put together a strong enough performance to mirror Simpson's ascension to No. 5. Graeme McDowell on the other hand was capable of turning a strong outing this weekend into tangible results as he rocketed 10-spots from the No. 21 ranking all the way to the No. 11 spot.

For all your news and updates in the run-up to the 2012 U.S. Open at Olympic, visit SB Nation's dedicated golf hub. Be sure to head over to USOpen.com for even more coverage from the event.

U.S. Open 2012 Results: Jason Dufner Ends Up In Tie For 4th After Exciting Weekend

2012-06-18T13:32:48Z

It was a valiant effort put on by Cleveland's Jason Dufner in the U.S. Open. On a weekend at a course where anything looked like it could happen -- and in the end, anything did as an underdog raced to the finish to win it -- Dufner put on a solid performance and ended up finishing in a several way tie for fourth place.

Dufner was one of the favorites for the tournament at the start, though all of the press was covering the 'superstar' trio that would be golfing together the first two rounds. Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson and Phil Mickelson were together and were all expected to put on a show at the Olympic Club, but the grueling course had other ideas. Both Watson and Mickelson had horrific first rounds, knocking Watson out early and Mickelson by the time Sunday had arrived.

Tiger Woods managed to hold on until Sunday, but his solid numbers never turned into outright dominance and he was never able to pull away completely from Michael Thompson, Jim Furyk, Graeme McDowell and others who ended up near the top as the rounds went along. Webb Simpson was never in contention through the first three holes, though his numbers stayed low enough to keep him solidly rolling along.

Sunday was the important day, and Webb Simpson was the one who took the most advantage. A fantastic -2 final round was enough to put him at the top, and though guys like Furyk and Dufner made great efforts, they all fell just short. Tiger Woods had a terrible final day and didn't challenge much, never coming close to the +1 scoreline that won the Open for Simpson, his first ever Major victory.

They promised excitement at the Olympic Club and that's exactly what we got.

You can find the final leaderboard here at USOpen.com.

For more 2012 U.S. Open coverage, stay with this StoryStream. For more golf coverage be sure to check out SB Nation's golf hub. Also be sure to head over to USOpen.com for even more coverage from the event.

U.S. Open Prize Money 2012: Jason Dufner Wins Decent Amount Of Money For 4th Place Finish

2012-06-18T12:34:31Z

Cleveland native Jason Dufner gave a valiant effort in this year's U.S. Open, ending up in a several way tie for fourth place with three strokes over par after taking on the grueling course well over the weekend. For his efforts, he won a decent amount of the purse in the end, taking home $276,841. Webb Simpson's first place finish, his first ever in a Major, netted him $1.4 million.

Missing, of course, from the group of money winners is anyone from the 'supergroup' of Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson, all of whom fell out of the tournament long before everyone expected that they would.

Here's the full list of money winners and their payouts from this year's Open:

1 Webb Simpson (+1): $1,440,000
T2 Michael Thompson (+2): $695,916
T2 Graeme McDowell (+2): $695,916
T4 Jason Dufner (+3): $276,841
T4 Padraig Harrington (+3): $276,841
T4 David Toms (+3): $276,841
T4 John Peterson (+3): $276,841
T4 Jim Furyk (+3): $276,841
9 Ernie Els (+4): $200,280
T10 John Senden (+5): $163,594
T10 Kevin Chappell (+5): $163,594
T10 Casey Wittenberg (+5): $163,594
T10 Retief Goosen (+5): $163,594
T10 Lee Westwood (+5): $163,594

U.S. Open 2012 Highlights: Crazy Fan Interupts Winner's Interview

2012-06-18T03:07:51Z

Webb Simpson achieved the greatest moment of his professional golf career on Sunday by winning the 2012 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, but it was a bizarre fan that stole the show during his winner's interview. As Simpson was speaking with Bob Costas about the weekend's tournament, a fan dressed in a British flag stepped in front of the camera and, for lack of a better term, made a fool of himself:

The fan was quickly escoted out of the shot by security, but it was indeed a strange moment on an otherwise perfect day for Simpson. It is likely that Simpson won't mind the intrusion after winning his first major.

U.S. Open 2012 Results: Jason Dufner Tops Ohio Golfers

2012-06-18T02:51:20Z

With a torrid finish Jason Dufner almost won the 2012 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, but it wasn't enough for the Cleveland native. Dufner finished in a group of five golfers just two strokes off the pace on Sunday, losing to Webb Simpson who fired a one over par for the tournament. Dufner finished at three over par after a final round that was even. He played the back nine at one over on Sunday.

Among other golfers from Ohio Joe Ogilvie did not have as good of a weekend as Dufner. Ogilvie finished last among the 72 golfers that made the cut with a nine over par on Sunday to finish 23 over for the tournament. Jason Day did not do much better. Day was Three over par on Sunday to finish at 15 over for the tournament in 59th place.