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Daily Madden: Merion Was Also A Winner At U.S. Open

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - Justin Rose won the U.S. Open Sunday by shooting one over par over the four rounds, beating Phil Mickelson and Jason Day by two strokes.

"Sometimes the players beat up the course," John Madden told the KCBS Radio morning crew. "But sometimes the course wins. Do you root for the bull or the bull fighter? Do you root for the course or do you root for the player? At the U.S. Open I've always rooted for the course. And the course really won, because no one played that course for four days at par...You know how hard golf is for you and everyone else you really know, and you don't like to see it be so easy that they just whip the heck out of par."

Runner-up Phil Mickelson was the center of attention through the last three rounds.

"The story of who lost the U.S. Open is a bigger story than the guy who wins it," John said. "You take Justin Rose, the guy that wins, he's not as big a story as the guys that lose. The biggest story is Phil Mickelson loses. Tiger Woods really lost. He was really bad. And then, oh by the way, Justin Rose won."

San Antonio leads the NBA Finals series 3-2 after beating the Heat 114-104 Sunday night. John likes the Spurs' chances to take the trophy.

"Maybe because I'm rooting for San Antonio, but I kind of felt that (the Spurs) just look stronger," Madden said. "Miami looks fragile to me for some reason. They can get beat up and bounce back and play pretty well. But I think now having to get two straight, I think would really be tough." (8:40)

Daily Madden

(Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM.)
(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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