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A Reflection of Greatness
June 16, 2008
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 Even a bad knee couldn't stop Tiger Woods
La Jolla, CA (Sports Network) - It had all the makings of a David vs. Goliath ending, only David didn't have enough to finish Goliath off.
Tiger Woods finally beat Rocco Mediate on the 91st hole of the U.S. Open on Monday, ending an instant-classic major championship with a par at the 19th hole of a playoff.
Woods made a birdie to send the scheduled 18-hole playoff into sudden-death, then needed only a routine par at the next hole after Mediate bounced a bunker shot off the cart path and against the bleachers.
It brought to an end one of the longest U.S. Opens in history, a tournament whose first four rounds played out in primetime on the East Coast. Millions watched one of Woods' most compelling victories. Many of them got their first look at Mediate.
"It was a great battle," said Woods, who won his third U.S. Open title and 14th major championship overall.
Both players shot even-par 71s through the first 18 holes of the playoff on Monday. It was the same score posted by Mediate on Sunday when Woods carded a 73 and needed a birdie putt at the 18th hole to force the playoff.
The 45-year-old Mediate -- pesky, chatty, and one of the most popular players on the PGA Tour -- was seeking the first major championship of his long career. He would have been the oldest U.S. Open winner in history, and the oldest first-time major champion ever.
Mediate rebounded from an early three-shot deficit to take the lead with three holes remaining in the playoff, only to hit a bunker with his 18th tee shot of the day.
He missed an 18-foot birdie putt on the No. 18 green with a chance to win the tournament outright. Then he missed a 20-footer at No. 7 in sudden-death that would have extended the tournament one more hole.
"I threw everything I had -- the kitchen sink, everything -- everything I had at him," said Mediate, who had wanted to face Woods in just this type of situation before the end of his career.
"I got my wish," said Mediate. "I want to do it again."
It may not have marked Woods' greatest victory -- he had record wins at the 1997 Masters and 2000 U.S. Open -- even if the man himself thought it might have been.
With his wife and daughter standing nearby, Woods, winning his second major championship as a father, speculated out loud.
"It's probably the greatest tournament I've ever had," he said.
Woods hadn't played competitively in two months since having surgery to clean out his left knee on April 15, two days after he finished second at the Masters.
Sometimes grimacing, other times using his club as a cane, Woods wrestled with pain through the weekend as he produced three electric finishes in three days to make the playoff. The knee didn't seem to bother him as much on Monday, but one thing was clear during the trophy presentation.
Woods was spent.
"I'm glad I'm done," said Woods. "I really don't feel like playing anymore. The atmosphere is what really kept me going. I could never quit in front of these people."
What they witnessed was Woods pulling within four wins of Jack Nicklaus' all- time record of 18 major championships. He will try to move one step closer at the British Open next month, which might mark the world No. 1's next start. Woods is scheduled to play twice before then, though that seemed unlikely to happen.
"I'm going to shut it down for a little bit and see what happens," said Woods.
Though it was Woods' knee that gave him fits, it was the par-four opening hole at tough Torrey Pines that acted as his Achilles' heel throughout the tournament.
He made three double-bogeys there in regulation, missing the fairway badly on all three occasions. He missed it again on Monday, but got a nice bounce out of the thick rough.
When he saw the ball was in the fairway, he raised his arms in the air and shared a smiling moment with Mediate. Then he went on to make an opening to move one shot ahead.
Mediate showed no signs of backing down, nearly holing out for an ace at the par-three third on the way to taking a one-shot lead. He later bounced back from a three-shot deficit after 10 holes.
Woods had moved ahead by finishing off a stretch of spectacular one-putt holes, but he kept hitting bunkers and eventually the one-putts didn't come anymore.
Hitting a spectacular fairway bunker shot to 10 feet at the 15th, Woods looked to regain his momentum. But Mediate rolled in a curling right-to-left birdie putt from 25 feet for a birdie that put him one shot ahead with three to play.
Never in a situation quite like it before, Mediate remained loose.
He applauded Woods' approach shot into the 18th green, the one that set up Woods' tying two-putt birdie and forced sudden-death.
Taking a free drop after he hooked his second shot into the grandstand on the sudden-death hole -- the par-four seventh -- Mediate pretended to throw his ball up onto the green. It got a big laugh.
"It was the most amazing tournament I've ever been involved in, obviously," said Mediate, a five-time PGA Tour winner who is as much a fan of golf as he is one of its best-liked personalities.
Mediate wore U.S. Open buttons on his hat, including one from Torrey Pines, in a nod to what he had called his favorite tournament.
And he battled for 91 holes as the improbable, 158th-ranked challenger to Woods on a course where Woods had claimed six wins as a professional. It was the position Phil Mickelson was supposed to fill, also looking for his first U.S. Open.
Woods couldn't have been more impressed by his opponent.
"Roc has been unbelievably nice to me, just great to me since I started on tour," Woods said. "To be playing this well at 45 years, I can't wait until five more years when he's off our tour."
Source: [The Sports Network]
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