Monday Backspin: McDowell's toughness; more from Pebble

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One by one, they all faltered. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Gregory Havret.

Graeme McDowell joked after winning the U.S. Open Sunday night that his name didn't quite belong among the list of past champions at Pebble Beach. But when it mattered most, he was every bit as good as Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Tom Kite and Woods.

"I stuck to my game plan," McDowell said. "Did my job."

McDowell obviously got a lot of help in the form of Dustin Johnson's complete disintegration, but he also stayed within himself when the pressure was at its highest.

Though McDowell might not be the household name of a Woods or Mickelson or Els, he's put in the time to get to this point, which is a big part of why he seemed so unflappable and why he felt going into the final round that he was ready to win a major championship.

Champion's Replay

Want to hear what Graeme McDowell said about his win at U.S. Open? Click here U.S. Open: Final results, points More coverage: • McDowell's dad revels • Tiger Woods interview • Complete tourney coverage

Prior to Sunday, it wasn't as if McDowell had some sort of journeyman career. He had five wins around the world and has now finished in the top 17 in all four majors. Going back to his days at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, McDowell had 12 starts in which his scoring average was 69.6. That's better than Luke Donald and Tiger Woods were in their respective stellar collegiate careers. Professionally, McDowell also reached 28th in the world in 2008.

"I played in plenty of tournaments where I made the mistakes," said McDowell, who became the first European to win a U.S. Open in four decades. "I've served my apprenticeship a few times. I've been in positions going into a weekend at majors and not done the job.

"I just have so much more confidence in my ability, and my game. I worked hard. I felt my game improve as the years have gone on. I really -- I walked away from a win in Wales and really felt like I was playing the golf of my life."

Now he has the win of his life, and he got to share it with one of the people who has seen nearly every single shot of his career, his dad, with whom he shared an emotional embrace afterward.

"My father said there's only one thing I wanted for Father's Day, and I wasn't quite sure whether I was going to be able to deliver that," McDowell said. "It was a tough present to come up with, but there you go."

Stock up

Ernie Els: You can't overlook the 40 on the back nine Sunday, but Els, now on the other side of 40, is having his best season in years with two wins and a chance at a third career U.S. Open title. FedExCup rank: 1 (1 last week) Phil Mickelson: Three bogeys on the back nine ended Mickelson's chances at Pebble Beach, but he still managed a ninth career top-10 in the U.S. Open. That's a dubious achievement for a guy like Mickelson, but he's had a pretty strong couple of months with four top-17 finishes in five starts, including his win at the Masters. FedExCup rank: 2 (3 last week) Lee Westwood: Westwood never really contended at the U.S. Open, but he played well enough to tie for 16th, which comes on the heels of four straight top-10s, including his first TOUR win in a dozen years. FedExCup rank: N/A

Stock down

Tiger Woods: The world's No. 1 player tied for fourth the same way he did at the Masters -- he scratched out a good result without his best game. Woods still looks out of sync, though. The third-round 66 was spectacular, but he still seems distracted. FedExCup rank: 100 (145 last week) Lucas Glover: The 2009 U.S. Open champ said Pebble Beach just didn't set up very well for his game. That was evident with his tie for 58th at 15 over. Glover has just two top-10s this season and hasn't fared better than a tie for 44th his last three starts. FedExCup rank: 48 (45 last week) Geoff Ogilvy: Ogilvy has been a complete non-factor in the year's first two majors, tying for 26th at the Masters and missing the cut at the U.S. Open, where he shot 79-71. In between, he also missed the cut at THE PLAYERS Championship and still has just one top-10, his win in Hawaii, on the season. FedExCup rank: 156 (147 last week)

THE BACK NINE: 9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. The more you look at Graeme McDowell, the less shocking his victory is. He leads the European Tour in greens in regulation, has worked incredibly hard on his short game and had performed well in his first Ryder Cup in 2007. Pebble Beach also isn't long as far as U.S. Open tracks go and it suits his eye well -- McDowell went there in 2001 as a college player and said it immediately reminded him of his native Northern Ireland.

2. Don't read much into the apparent disagreement between Tiger Woods and Steve Williams on the 10th hole Sunday. While there was some question as to whether Woods should hit his approach right at the flag, he didn't blame Williams for the ensuing bogey. Woods knows the problem was his ball-striking, not how Williams thought he should play that hole.

3. Speaking of Woods, he said Sunday that he feels like he can play now, that he has a feel for his game and the shape of the shots and what he's been working on. What's troubling, though, is he admitted to making some mental errors Sunday, leaving the ball in the wrong spots on the greens. That tells me he's still distracted by everything that's going on outside the ropes. How can he not be?

4. Winning the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and winning the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach are two entirely different things, and Dustin Johnson found that out the hard way with the worst final round by a 54-hole leader at the U.S. Open in nearly 100 years. I'm not sure it would have made a difference, but the impatience of youth seemed to help unravel his game pretty quickly in that 82.

5. So much for that European drought. Not only did McDowell's victory end 40 years of U.S. Open frustration, it marked the third straight win on the PGA TOUR by a European going back to Justin Rose's at the Memorial tournament. If I'm Corey Pavin, I'm a little worried.

6. Want to know the difference between the front and back nines at Pebble Beach? Just look at Y.E. Yang's scorecard. He shot a combined 17-over 89 through two rounds on the back, compared to a 3-under 67 on the front. Of course, there was also Tiger Woods, who blistered the back with a 31 on Saturday, so take it as you will.

7. The next time Pebble Beach hosts a U.S. Open, in 2019, I'm sure the USGA will take a closer look at how it sets up the par-3 17th hole.

It was impossible to the point of nearly unfair Sunday with only about 8 percent of the field hitting the green in regulation.

8. Can you remember a signature shot from this year's U.S. Open? I can't. Had Woods gone on to win, it would have been that cut 3-wood Saturday to reach the 18th green in two. But there was no defining shot of this year's championship.

9. This was the first U.S. Open in prime time and though I haven't seen the television ratings yet, I'm guessing the numbers are up, even as Woods, Mickelson, etc., faded from contention.

This week's Kodak Challenge hole

HOLE: The par-4, 296-yard 15th at TPC River Highlands THIS WEEK: Unless you're playing for the Travelers Championship title, or you're having the round of your life, take out the driver and have some fun. You will have few opportunities in your life to say you drove a par 4 at a TPC. In windy conditions, the pros often hit an iron off the tee, leaving a full wedge to the green. Click here to tour the Kodak Challenge holes | Current Kodak Challenge standings

The Forward Spin

From one of the hardest golf courses we'll see all season, to one of the easiest. That's what players in the Travelers Championship will get at TPC River Highlands, where Kenny Perry went on a birdie blitz to shoot 22 under to win last year. There will be a lot of late-arriving and groggy players coming off a West Coast U.S. Open, but whoever can get hot with the putter will win. That sounds sort of obvious, of course, but it's fact. Perry, for example, took just nine putts through his first nine holes of last year's final round in which he shot a 9-under 61.