FRANK NOBILO and Fred Funk never had a send-off like it. As they drove off the first tee in the final round of the US Open at Congressional CC yesterday, a sea of faces craned anxiously from behind the ropes. Three and four deep in places, the lines stretched down to the green, 402 yards away.

But there was no cause for the players to put a rein on their ego. They knew the crowd had simply got there early, to be in position when the Phenom and the Man of Ice took the Open stage.

I was on my hunkers when the cry went up: "Any of you guys in front stand up and we're throwing our shoes". A woman's voice, fearsomely strident, added: "We paid our money". Another observed: "With all the press, you'd think we had the leaders".

Nick Faldo was first to appear on the tee. "He's like ice on the course," remarked Ms Strident Voice to no one in particular. "And he's pretty moody too." To an expectant hush, Tiger Woods emerged from behind the tee, in a familiar red and grey shirt. "Go Tiger. Go get 'em Tiger. You can do it man.

As golf-watching goes, it was a long, long way from the relaxed atmosphere of the South of Ireland at Lahinch, where manana conveys a sense of urgency with which locals are not familiar. Indeed, it seemed decidedly odd that these spectators should be expecting explosive action from their hero in such a rigidly-controlled game.

Faldo split the fairway with a three-wood, hit an approach iron 18 feet past the pin and sank the putt for a birdie. Woods could do no better than a mundane, two-putt par, but still they screamed "Tiger, Tiger" as the players headed towards the second tee. That was when I wished I were at least 20 years younger.

Careful not to provoke the ire off those vocal, cash customers, I had positioned myself on the wrong side of the green from where the players exited. And when it was time to move, younger limbs, mostly belonging to Japanese photographers, went scurrying ahead of me.

Breathless, I made it just as the ropes were being pulled back into place. A bright young face in the crowd smiled. "Go Tiger," he urged. Nine-year-old Washingtonian, Chris Murphy, was cheering his hero. "So, you're from Ireland," his mother, Elyse, beamed at me. "We go back there regularly. Family's from Cork originally."

Watching the cool Englishman and his struggling playing partner, I remembered words that were uttered only a few weeks ago prior to the Volvo PGA Championship at Wentworth. "Tiger has the game throttled," said Faldo. "At the moment, he's playing a different course to the rest of us. He's unbeatable."

That was before Congressional and an opening 74 from Woods. And it was before the grey mist of Saturday evening knocked the sparkle out of his putting stroke on the way to a third round of 73.

Suddenly, it seemed more appropriate to recall comments that Faldo made in Australia at the beginning of this year. When asked on that occasion what he thought of the young man's dominance he replied: "Let's see what happens when he starts to miss some putts."

The time came on Saturday night. And it remained with Woods in the burning heat of yesterday's round when he chipped short and then two-putted for a bogey at the third. That was followed by three putts at both the fifth and sixth for three bogeys in a row.

Now the crowd have suddenly gone silent. They hadn't expected this. Instead of surging through the field, as they hoped he would, their hero was actually being out-played by the Englishman. It was a reversal of events at Augusta earlier this year, when their first-round scores finished 70, 75 in Woods's favour.

Only young voices kept the faith - until the sixth, a brutal par four of 475 yards. Then came the moment all were awaiting. To excited murmurs around the tee, Woods whipped off the famous tiger head-cover and placed that perfect, inter-locking grip on the handle of his driver. It was time for action.

The ball soared away, to finish at least 30 yards beyond Faldo's drive, the only problem being that it was in the rough. In terms of the battle between the pair, however, a dramatic turnabout was at hand.

Faced with a hanging lie for his approach shot, Faldo attempted to steer it away from the water right of the green. But he overdid it disastrously. From a pull-hook left of the green, he pitched too strongly and into the water on the far side. Then came two duffed pitches before he sank a 38-foot putt for a triple-bogey seven.

Woods, meanwhile, reached the heart of the green from the left rough. By the time he was putting out for a par, Faldo was already on the seventh tee with his caddie, Fanny Sunesson. The good ship Tiger had been steadied, but when the cheer came, it was from another part of the course.

At that precise moment, Jack Nicklaus putted out for a par at the 18th and a closing round of 74 to his 150th successive major championship. With an arthritic hip and shortened backswing, he had also completed his 10,000th competitive hole at this level.

That came at Congressional's 10th on Saturday where he carded a bogey. An admiring statistician has estimated that strung together, the holes would stretch from Washington to the Rancho Park course in Los Angeles, where he made his professional debut in 1962.

The sequence started with a birdie on the first hole of the US Open at Inverness in 1957 and ended with a bogey on the formidable, 466-yard 10th of the Blue Course. Recalling the birdie of 40 years ago, Nicklaus said: "It was a 35-foot putt and I used a three-wood and seven-iron to set it up."

He concluded: "I don't know if it is my last (US Open) or not, but I certainly enjoyed playing here. I was on the fringes of playing well, but I just didn't get it to happen. But it was a great four days. I thought I had an opportunity when I got here, but I just didn't get the job done."

Mind you, he didn't do all that badly. With a closing 76, Faldo had an aggregate of 291, only two better than Nicklaus. But Woods finished with a 72 for 286, 35 years after the great man had.