Choke! Choke! Choke!

Today was a great day. The World Cup was full of action as Brazil beat Australia and France was once again handed disappointment by tying Korea. I don't know why, but I love watching the French suffer.

Okay, so I know why.

But the really great moment of the day came on the golf course. Just as it looked like Phil Mickelson was on his way to claming his first US Open title, he pulled out his driver and promptly snatched defeat away from the jaws of victory.

Mickelson arrived at the 18th tee with a one shot lead over Geoff Ogilvy. Completely ignoring the fact that he hadn't hit a fairway on the entire back nine, Phil went for it and put his drive deep into the lefthand rough.

A simple chip back into the fairway would have been a smarter, more conservative approach, but Phil would have none of it and went for the green.

That's when things really got ugly.

His second shot hit a tree and only went about 25 yards further up the rough. His third shot ended up buried in a greenside bunker. Playing his fourth shot out of the sand, he now needed to hole it to win the tournament. His lie was horrible though and the shot rolled through the green and wound up in more rough on the other side.

Faced with a near impossible chip-in just to force a playoff, Phil found himself unable to perform miracles and wound up with a double bogey on the hole and in a tie for second place. It was a truly a great day.

Congratulations to Geoff Ogilvy for winning the US Open, and special thanks to you, Phil, for putting an ear-to-ear grin on my face. As a token of my appreciation, I leave you with this image: