McDowell ends Europe's 40-year drought

Pebble Beach Golf Links and the pressure of a major championship prevailed over some of golf's biggest names in the final round of the 110th U.S. Open yesterday, but that dangerous combination didn't keep Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland from being the last man standing at par 284 and ending a 40-year dry spell.

His closing 3-over-par 74 was good enough to make him the first European to winner of the event since Tony Jacklin in 1970. McDowell took advantage of an unexpected collapse by 54-hole leader Dustin Johnson, and then did just enough to hang on for a one-shot victory over unheralded Frenchman Gregory Havret.

Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods had chances to challenge McDowell but were unable to close the gap. Johnson triple bogeyed the second hole and double bogeyed the third on his way to an ugly 82 while playing in the final group with McDowell.

Havret, who shot a closing 72 while the marquee names faltered, made the strongest challenge and had a chance to force a playoff before he missed an 8-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole. Els, who finished alone in third at 286, played the first eight holes 3 under before going 5 over on the last 10 on his way to a 73. Mickelson, struggling with his putter, fell back after a good start with a 73 and tied for fourth with Woods, who stumbled out of the gate and never really recovered on his way to a 75.

Oldgolfdawg returned from a three-day golf junket with friends in time to take in the entire final round and would throw the NBC's broadcast of the drama 4 1/2 dog biscuits from an entertainment of scale of 1 to 5. If anyone would have told you before the round that McDowell would have to stave off a challenge from Havret, the 391st-ranked golfer in the world, you would have thought they were crazy. Watching all of the great story lines of the marquee players get shipwrecked on a beautiful canvas made things interesting, especially watching them negotiate Nos. 8 through 10 and the ridiculously difficult No. 14. It also was neat to see McDowell's father take part in the post-victory celebration on Father's Day.

The fact that an American didn't win the event shouldn't come as a surprise. McDowell is the fifth non-American to win it in the last seven seasons, joining Angel Cabrera in 2007, Geoff Ogilvy in 2006, Michael Campbell in 2005 and Retief Goosen in 2004.

Most experts expected the event to continue its lineage of great champions at Pebble Beach: Jack Nicklaus in '72, Tom Watson in '82, Tom Kite in '92 and Woods in 2000. After all, McDowell only made one birdie -- an 8-foot putt on the fifth hole -- and his final round was the highest score by a U.S. Open champion since Andy North in 1985. But it didn't matter.

"I can't believe I'm standing with this right now," McDowell said, posing with silver trophy. "It's a dream come true. I've been dreaming it all my life. Two putts to win the U.S. Open. Can't believe it happened."

It's likely that Johnson, who held a three-shot lead over McDowell at the start of the day's play, is also in a state of disbelief. It was hard to watch him self-destruct early in his round and to miss a 2-foot birdie putt on the final hole. His 82 as the highest closing round by a 54-hole leader in the U.S. Open since Fred McLeod shot 83 in 1911. Ouch!

McDowell, 30, got into the U.S. Open by narrowly getting into the top 50 in the world at the deadline. He wound up with his first victory in America to go along with five European Tour victories, most recently the Wales Open last month at the home course for this year's Ryder Cup in October. He is almost sure to be part of the European team now, moving up to No. 13 in the world.

Information from ESPN.com, PGATour.com and GolfObserver.com contributed to this post.