Posted: 6/16/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Lenny Ignelzi, The Associated Press Former Illini D. A. Points chips onto the first green during the second round of the US Open championship at Torrey Pines Golf Course on Friday in San Diego. The Pekin, Ill., native finished the tournament in a tie for 69th place at 15-over par.

While the outcome of the 108th U.S. Open remains in the balance pending Monday's 18-hole playoff between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate, a pair of former Illini finished up their major championship campaigns during a gritty weekend in San Diego, Calif., when scores of par or better were scarce.

Steve Stricker, an Illinois standout from 1988-90, finished in a tie for 29th place at eight-over-par 292 on Sunday. The 1990 graduate and PGA Tour veteran was one-over-par for the weekend and stabilized after a shaky start on Thursday and Friday.

After D.A. Points found himself in contention at three-over par after Friday's second round, two straight rounds of six-over 77 sent the former Illini plummeting down the leaderboard over the weekend at the U.S. Open. The Pekin, Ill., native finished in a tie for 69th place at 15-over.

The third alumnus in the 155-man field failed to make the weekend. Garrett Chaussard, only three years removed from his playing days at Illinois, shot rounds of 80 and 82 to miss the 36-hole cut by 11 shots. The wide-eyed 24-year-old, playing in his first-ever major championship, struggled throughout both of his playing rounds after making the field through local and sectional qualifiers. Chaussard said he often struggled to maintain his composure.

"The whole week, I never really got into that comfortable mode," Chaussard said. "I think there were a couple of places where I got really close and hit a few good shots in a row, but for the most part I never really shed that feeling of being (at the U.S. Open) and not taking it like a regular tournament, because in all honesty, for me it's not a regular tournament. It's the biggest tournament that I've ever played in my entire life. It was probably kind of naive for me to think I could just step up and treat it like a regular week."

While Illini alumni scrapped their way around Torrey Pines, the biggest story of the week unquestionably occurred at the top of the leaderboard. Woods, nursing a sore left knee throughout the week following arthroscopic surgery in April, curled in a 12-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to force the first U.S. Open playoff since 2001. Mediate, who missed a 30-footer of his own on 18 that would have sealed the 45-year-old's first major title, will attempt to become the oldest winner in U.S. Open history.

To do that, however, he'll have to take down the world's No. 1 player on Monday.

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