Lewis and Creamer stumble at the finish

Golf changes on Sunday at the U.S. Open, and so do most golfers. Pulses quicken, grips tighten, and a game that is unforgiving by nature turns punitive.

On this Sunday at the U.S. Women's Open, Paula Creamer and Stacy Lewis played together in the last pairing at Interlachen Country Club. Creamer, 21, has won six LPGA events. Lewis, 23, went 5-0 in the Curtis Cup and won an NCAA championship at Arkansas after overcoming scoliosis.

At precocious ages, both can already be called winners, both are among the brightest young American players, and yet Interlachen's swirling winds and tricky greens turned them into weekend hackers on Sunday.

With a chance to win the most coveted trophy in women's golf, Creamer and Lewis both shot 78s. Lewis finished in a tie for third, Creamer in a tie for sixth.

"It's probably the most frustrated I've ever been," said Creamer. "You play so well to get to today and then you don't have a good Sunday. That's frustrating. I haven't felt this bad in a long time."

Lewis, playing in her first event as a professional, has not dealt with the weighty expectations Creamer faces in every major. "It's hard to be upset," Lewis said. "I finished third in the U.S. Open."

At the end of a round in which they took turns looking devastated, misery found company on the 18th tee. "We were like, man, this is ugly, this round of golf in the last pairing," Lewis said with a laugh.

Ugly, it was. Both opened with pars; both made double bogey on the par-5 second, which had played as the easiest hole on the course all week. Both misjudged the wind, hit the ball over the green and required five shots just to hit the green.

Well, Lewis hit the green with her chip, then watched the wind and slope take the ball all the way off the front of the green.

Creamer made a ridiculously long birdie putt on the par-3 fourth, but only after she turned away in frustration, believing she had left it on the rim. For this pairing, even the good shots felt suspenseful.

The bad shots caused soap-opera-quality angst. Creamer stomped her feet and smacked her club into the ground when her shot from the ninth fairway flew the green, leaving her an impossible downhill chip that ran off the front of the green. That led to her second double bogey on the front nine. "That's just careless course management," Creamer said.

Lewis, less demonstrative than Creamer, flipped her putter at her golf bag once and came close to smacking the ground with her putter another time, but generally she just pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. "I just really don't think I played that poorly," Lewis said.

Both players putted poorly, though, often leaving long putts short and pulling short putts to the left, both sure signs of frayed nerves. Or difficult greens. Or both.

Creamer required 118 putts for the tournament, including 29 on Sunday. She did not make a double bogey in the tournament until Sunday.

After needing only 23 putts on Saturday while taking the tournament lead, Lewis required 35 on Sunday, including two three-putts.

Creamer, even at 21, knows she's expected to win a major soon. On the 12th, after hitting her tee shot into the bunker and blasting her bunker shot past the pin, she walked to the back of the green and found solace in one of the few spots at Interlachen where a player could turn away from the crowd.

Creamer stared at a willow while Lewis putted, then turned, wiped her face and finished the hole.

As she walked to the 13th tee, a few kids called her name. She handed one a ball, and shook another's hand. She smiled, perhaps realizing that her chance to win the U.S. Open, that quickly, was gone.

"This is the most disappointed I've been in a long time," Creamer said.

Her elder -- Lewis, all of 23 -- was better able to savor the experience. "The whole day was just awesome," Lewis said. "The fans were great. Everybody was yelling your name as you walked down the fairway. I mean, I shot a 78, but ... "

Jim Souhan can be heard Sundays from 10 a.m.-noon on AM-1500 KSTP. jsouhan@startribune.com