GOLF NEWS
Friday, August 29, 2008
Woods tops Mediate in 19 holes for 14th major
Notes from the playoff
U.S. Open playoff history
Monday's best pics
Quotes: Woods
Quotes: Mediate
One shot behind after a collapse no one saw coming, Woods birdied the 18th hole to force sudden death at Torrey Pines against a journeyman with a creaky back who simply wouldn't go away.
But that one extra hole was enough to doom Mediate, trying to become the oldest U.S. Open champion at 45 years, 6 months.
He put his tee shot in the bunker at No. 7, knocked his approach off a cart path and against the bleachers, chipped some 18 feet past the hole and missed the par putt.
On the verge of one of golf's greatest upsets, Mediate instead became another victim.
"Great fight," Woods told him as they embraced on the seventh green.
Woods, who delivered so many spectacular moments over four days along the Pacific bluffs, only needed a two-putt par to win the U.S. Open for the third time, and the first since it last was held on a public course at Bethpage Black in 2002.
It capped a remarkable week for the world's No. 1 player, who had not played since April 15 surgery on his left knee and looked as though every step was a burden. But the knee held up for 91 holes, and the payoff was worth the pain, even if doctors had warned him that he risked further injury by playing the Open.
"I'm glad I'm done," Woods said. "I really don't feel like playing anymore. It's sore."
Woods joins Jack Nicklaus as the only players to capture the career Grand Slam three times over.
Mediate's odyssey began two weeks ago when he had to survive a sudden-death playoff simply to qualify for this U.S. Open. Even more unlikely was going toe-to-toe with Woods -- whom Mediate referred to as a "monster" -- and nearly slaying him.
He had a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to win, but it slid by on the left.
Mediate struggled to keep his emotions after taking bogey on the first extra hole, but he walked off Torrey Pines with 12,000 new friends who crammed both sides of every fairway for a playoff that was tighter than anyone imagined.
"Obviously, I would have loved to win," he said. "I don't know what else to say. They wanted a show, they got one."
Did they ever.
TORREY PINES KNOWLEDGE, SHOTMAKING HELPS WOODS OVERCOME PAIN
By Mike McAllister, PGATOUR.com Managing Editor
LA JOLLA, Calif. -- We may never know the true extent of the pain Tiger Woods endured this week with his surgically repaired left knee, or the limitations he faced on the torque and flexibility required to play the kind of golf no one else can match. He spent the entire week at the U.S. Open trying to downplay the matter, to answer as succinctly as possible -- usually with one word, sometimes just with a slight nod -- when asked about his health.
But we saw the grimaces. We saw how he needed two clubs, acting as canes, to get out of a bunker. We saw him hobble and limp at times, a somewhat disturbing image for a golfer who's still in the prime of his career and remains the fittest on the PGA TOUR. Tiger didn't need to tell us he was hurting, that he wasn't 100 percent. We could see it.
In his own way, though, Woods finally did offer an indication that winning the U.S. Open on Monday was nothing short of a miracle. After all, he essentially defied doctors' concerns that he might suffer long-term damage to his knee by playing this week. Then he held up under 72 holes, making all the big shots when he needed them. Then another 18 holes in a playoff with Rocco Mediate -- and as if that weren't enough, still another sudden-death hole before finally subduing the pesky and endearing Rocco.
MEDIATE PROVES HE CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURE
By Helen Ross, PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents
LA JOLLA, Calif. -- He said he didn't want to get his butt handed to him.
And Rocco Mediate certainly didn't. In fact, the part of his anatomy that was most evident Monday during his 18-hole playoff with Tiger Woods to decide the 108th U.S. Open was his heart.
He may not have won the match -- Woods closed him out on the first hole of sudden death and the 91st the two had played at Torrey Pines this week -- but Mediate walked away with legions of fans and proved something very important to himself.
"I can handle this heat," he said firmly. "I've won golf tournaments, but not this stuff. I can handle this heat. And especially against him with everybody in the world all looking in and everything everyone is expecting me to get my ass handed to me and I didn't.
"And I almost got it done. I almost got it done."
IS 18-HOLE PLAYOFF THE WAY TO GO?
By John Maginnes, PGATOUR.com Contributor
LA JOLLA, Calif. -- I was wrong. Don't tell my ex-wife. The fact of the matter is that at some point I wrote an impassioned defense of the 18-hole playoff that the USGA uses to determine its U.S. Open champion. I spoke of things like equity and the magnitude of winning our nation's most important tournament. Blah, blah, blah.
I stood by that position right up until I cancelled my flight east on Sunday night. The echoing cheers that reverberated around Torrey Pines as Tiger's birdie putt at the 72nd hole curled in the right side of the hole were in direct contrast to the collective silence that enveloped the media center and the workers and volunteers at Torrey Pines.
You would be hard-pressed to find a sportswriter in attendance who would argue for an 18-hole playoff. After all, if golf is, in fact, entertainment then the opportunity to finish with the No. 1 player in the world at the U.S. Open in prime time is too good to pass up. After the high drama of Sunday afternoon, though, the question was posed to Tiger: would he rather finish it on Sunday or have a Monday playoff?
"I would rather go right now, but that is just me," he said.
Rocco Mediate, the other protagonist in this U.S. Open drama, took the opposite view. "I think the 18-hole playoff for the national Open is the way to go," he said.
Mediate went on to say that the title was more important than a sudden death playoff. Of course, he is right. I am not arguing that. And there is no other way to have an 18-hole playoff without playing on Monday morning. So what is the premise for my new position and the foundations for my argument? I admit I have nothing. Sure, you can argue that there are grandmothers all over the country who are missing their "stories" on Monday. But soap operas tend to move about as fast as Tiger and Lee Westwood did on Sunday so I don't think that they will miss much.
| Tiger Woods' career playoff record (11-1) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 4 | Number of majors Woods now has to win to tie Jack Nicklaus. |
| 6 | Top 10s for Woods in a U.S. Open. |
| 17 | Consecutive weeks where Woods has led the FedExCup standings. |
RECORD-SETTING PERFORMANCE
The improbable statistics and amazing records just keep building up for Tiger Woods. With his victory at the U.S. Open, Woods became the fifth player to win the U.S. Open after not playing in a tournament since the Masters earlier in the year.
In an odd twist, three of those five U.S. Opens went to a playoff. Byron Nelson accomplished this feat in 1939 and Retief Goosen accomplished it most recently in 2001.
At the start of the playoff, Woods had just 12 putts in his first 10 holes, which is the fewest putts for Woods in a major championship through 10 holes. His previous low was 13 putts in major championships and 11 putts for all PGA TOUR events.
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