No Robert Horrys in golf, Retief Goosen on his own to deal with U.S. Open collapse

While Rebel Blogger makes a halfway decent point with his Robert Horry, clutch role player analogy, the hat man is missing the big picture.

There are no Robert Horrys in golf. No role players with guts galore to carry a star when they’re feeling the pressure. An Horry can bail out a floundering free-throw clanking and put-back missing Tim Duncan in an NBA Finals game. But no one can help Retief Goosen hit a fairway in the final round of the U.S. Open.

Golfers are on their own, more naked under pressure than almost any major sports star (even the auto racer can blame the car or the crew and tennis players can always put it on their crazy parents). Which is another reason why Retief Goosen is done as a major player after his Pinehurst No. 2 collapse.

Retief can only carry these demons himself, and no one recovers from that kind of historic collapse with a lead in a major. Not when you were all but being handed the trophy on Saturday night.

As for Horry, even he will not be able to rescue Duncan, one of the most overrated players in NBA history, from his clutch failings in Game 7 on Thursday night. Horry is nothing more than this year’s Brian Scalabrine to the Pistons.

Speaking of fellow Pistons believers, where’s Brandon Tucker when you need him? I’m starting to think our Brandon blogger attended a lecture from our favorite Nutty Professor and hasn’t woken up yet.