Slide show

Oakmont images View photographs from the 2007 U.S. Open in Pennsylvania.

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SUPREME FAN
Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor traded her black robe for golf khakis.

“I’m just here to enjoy it,” she said. “It’s fabulous.”

O’Connor is a golf enthusiast and was recently appointed to the U.S. Golf Association’s President’s Council. The advisory committee met Saturday in nearby Latrobe, Pa., so she took the opportunity to make her first trip to the U.S. Open.

She also played a round Saturday with Arnold Palmer.

Aside from the sheriff’s deputy at her side, there was little to tip anyone off that the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court was in the gallery. She sat just off the walkway onto the first tee, applauding enthusiastically when fellow Stanford alum Tiger Woods arrived. She also walked the course for a bit.

Asked if she’d like to be play Oakmont Country Club, O’Connor simply smiled.

“Wouldn’t want to,” she said. “It’s too hard.”

LOW MAN
With nothing to lose, Anthony Kim went low.

Kim shot a 3-under 67 Sunday, the second-lowest round of the week and one of only eight total under par. It raised him 37 spots on the leaderboard, into a tie for 20th.

“I’m almost in dead last, so just fire at some pins and hopefully it works out,” Kim said of his approach on Sunday. “I hit some quality golf shots and got a couple of putts to fall. It could have been a little better, but I’m not complaining.”

Kim said he missed five putts inside 10 feet.

ALL ALONE
Kevin Sutherland was in the first group Sunday and chose to play alone, the first time he could ever recall doing that. He had the option of playing with a non-competing marker — Oakmont head pro Bob Ford, in this case — but apparently was unaware who he was.

“I don’t know who it was going to be,” Sutherland said. “They said the local pro. I don’t know. I didn’t care either way.”

Ford has competed in the U.S. Open and PGA Championship, failing to qualify this year at sectionals. He is one of the most famous club pros in the country, working at Oakmont in the summer (where he has been since 1973) and Seminole in south Florida in the winter.

Sutherland finished his 75 with a 6-iron from 190 yards to 10 feet, which drew quite a roar.

“I think they were just happy to see someone do something on the green besides mowing it,” he said.

DRESS CODE
Lee Westwood could not have picked a better outfit for the final round at Oakmont: black pants and a bright yellow shirt, colors that define this sports-crazy area around Pittsburgh.

Not that he did it on purpose.

Westwood noticed throughout the round that fans were applauding his color coordination, only later learning that Pittsburgh is the only city in America where all major professional sports teams wear yellow and black.

“It was an accident,” he said. “I might not have done that. I’m a Yankees fan.”

BEAR WITH ME
Lions and Tiger and oh, my, that really was a bear. The U.S. Open draws golf fans from the animal kingdom as well as the United Kingdom.

A mother bear and her cub wandered onto No. 7 Sunday morning after play had started, but before any golfers had reached the hole. They roamed around for a few minutes, then jumped back over a fence and disappeared into the woods that line the right side of the par 4.

Bears are a common sight in western Pennsylvania — hunters kill about 1,000 every year — and a few usually rumble through Oakmont Country Club.