U.S. Open - Simpson Outlasts Challengers to Win First Major SAN FRANCISCO - After three days of sunshine, the United States Open was blanketed Sunday in a crystallizing two-layer fog. The winner, Webb Simpson, wore a long-sleeved shirt underneath a long-sleeved buttoned sweater and played a game stripped to its bare essence: fairways, greens, pars. Simpson, who began the day four strokes behind the leaders, Jim Furyk and Graeme McDowell, cut through the haziness of a densely packed leader board with a four-birdie binge beginning at No. 6, a par 4 that ranked as the most difficult hole of the week with 15 birdies in four rounds. He then parred out for his second straight two-under-par 68, which included a beautiful up and down from the craggy rough at No. In the clubhouse with a 72-hole total of one-over 281, Simpson waited while the last three twosomes finished. In the final group, Furyk, the 2003 United States Open champion who was ahead with six holes to play, fell out of contention with bogeys at 16 and 18. His playing partner, McDowell, the 2010 Open champion, birdied the 17th and had a 24-foot birdie putt at 18 to force an 18-hole playoff on Monday. "I did not want to play again tomorrow for a lot of reasons," Simpson said. I was just as nervous watching the telecast as I was playing. When McDowell's putt rolled long, Simpson and his wife, Dowd, who is pregnant with their second child, looked at each other in disbelief and exchanged a kiss and hug. As Father's Days go, this is one Simpson, 26, is not likely to forget. On the way to his third tour victory and first major title, Simpson outlasted a group of contenders that included McDowell, Furyk, David Toms, Padraig Harrington and Ernie Els, who have a combined nine major championships. McDowell closed with a 73 and finished at two over, tied for second with Michael Thompson, who produced the day's low round, 67. "I would rather have tried and failed than have never tried at all," McDowell said, adding, "But no, yeah, I'm disappointed right now." Two strokes back, in a tie for fourth, were Furyk (74), Toms (68), Harrington (68), John Peterson (70) and Jason Dufner (70). With a 72, Els finished alone in ninth at four over. On tour, Simpson is viewed as a Clydesdale among Arabians, a plodder who has maximized his talents. Not that there is anything wrong with that. From Jack Fleck in 1955 to Scott Simpson in 1987 to Lee Janzen in 1998, the United States Open has a history of glorifying the workhorse on its Olympic Club track. Of the five winners crowned here, only Billy Casper, in 1966, was considered a thoroughbred. "I never really wrapped my mind around winning," Simpson said. This place is so demanding, and so all I was really concerned about was keeping the ball in front of me and making pars. He added: "One of my thoughts on the back nine was I don't know how Tiger has won 14 of these things because the pressure, I couldn't feel my legs most of the back nine." Tiger Woods, a three-time Open champion who began the tournament as the heavy favorite, posted his second over-par round after moving into a tie for the 36-hole lead. He closed with a 73 and finished tied for 21st at seven over. It was only the second time in 10 majors that Woods failed to win after holding at least a share of the halfway lead. Woods started bogey, bogey, double bogey and was six over after six holes. The par-3 third, which was playing 224 yards, capsulized his day: Woods's six-iron off the tee landed short and right of the green; he hit his second shot over the green, chipped back to 30 feet of the pin and two-putted. "Unfortunately, just got off to such an awful start," Woods said, adding, "The first six I just didn't play well at all." Woods was not the only one to stagger through the first six holes, which the analyst Johnny Miller, the 1973 United States Open champion, described as "awesomely tough." Beau Hossler, the 17-year-old amateur from Southern California, bogeyed the third, fourth and fifth holes on his way to a 76, his highest score of the week, and a 72-hole total of plus-nine. In the final 10 twosomes, not a single golfer negotiated the six-hole stretch in under par Sunday, and they were a combined plus-46. Phil Mickelson played the entire week as if in a fog. He produced three three-putts and zero birdies in his closing 78, his worst score at a United States Open since he carded a 79 in the final round in 1994. Mickelson, a five-time runner-up, finished at 16 over after hitting 40 of 72 greens in the four rounds. "If you played anything less than perfect golf, it was extremely penalizing," Mickelson said. And I played far from perfect. With its tight fairways and small greens, the Lake Course set up well for Lee Westwood, one of the game's best ball strikers. When he pulled to three strokes off the lead after 54 holes, Westwood was hopeful that his first major title in 57 tries was nigh. A gloom descended on Westwood's championship aspirations on No. 5, after his drive was swallowed by one of the trees lining the right side of the fairway. The shot conjured memories of Janzen's tee shot in 1998, which landed in a tree in the same area but dropped into play after a brief delay. Janzen made par on the hole and went on to win. Westwood returned to the tee, split the fairway with his drive and made a double bogey on his way to a 73. He finished at five over, good for his sixth top-10 finish in his past nine majors. But it was Simpson who broke his major maiden, on his fifth try. "If I was honest with you, I believed in myself that I could win a major," Simpson said, "but maybe not so soon."