Published: June 17, 2008 10:38 am      

Woods' latest win one for the ages

When Tiger Woods — the world’s No. 1 golfer — sank a clutch birdie putt on the 72nd hole Sunday at Torrey Pines to tie old buddy Rocco Mediate (158th in the rankings), Monday’s 18-hole playoff seemed little more than a formality.

After all, Woods had never failed to lose any of the previous 13 times he had led a major tournament going into the fourth round, and his miraculous finish on Saturday — a 30 on the back nine that included two eagles, one on the 18th hole to give him the lead for the first time in the championship — had put him in his favorite position heading to Sunday.

Tiger had won 41 tournaments since Mediate last won in 2002. Physically, there also appeared to be a mismatch between the tall, athletic, muscular Woods in his designer clothes and the the squat, 45-year-old Mediate, who seems to have a perpetual five o’clock shadow and played Monday’s round in a black sweater vest that gave him an Everyman quality — the same quality that had endeared him to the huge crowds in San Diego who chanted “Rocco, Rocco” all weekend.

Sure, Tiger had had to scramble all day Sunday and drain one of the biggest putts of his career on his final shot in regulation to finally run down Mediate, but this, after all, was Tiger — already a legend in his sport and golf’s poster boy since he left Stanford to almost immediately take command of the PGA tour. He was also playing on one of his favorite courses, having already won at Torrey Pines six times during his career.

Mediate, meanwhile, had come out of nowhere to spend the weekend at or near the top of the leader board. In fact, he had been four-under par at one point Saturday before coming back to the field, and he had refused to die all weekend. He was just as stubborn Monday, refusing to go away even as Tiger appeared ready to run off and leave him in the dust.

When Mediate missed a short par putt on the 10th playoff hole to drop to three-over par, Woods led him by three shots, and whatever drama Monday’s round figured to hold appeared to be gone. Then, suddenly, the nervousness Mediate had displayed on the front nine seemed to disappear. It was almost as if he had decided he had hit rock bottom and he had nothing to lose by letting it all hang out.

After grimacing through the first nine holes of the biggest round of golf of his career, Mediate suddenly became Superman. His trademark smile returned, and he played almost flawless golf over the next eight holes while Tiger scuffed and struggled his way home.

Mediate birdied 13 and 14, and he appeared ready to take command of the match when he hit the fairway and Woods missed far right off the tee on 15. After the underdog landed his second shot on the par four about 20 feet past the hole, Woods hit the kind of shot that has made him a living legend — a laser out of a bunker and through the trees to within about five feet of the pin that left Mediate shaking his head in amazement.

But Mediate regrouped and drained a bending putt that broke sharply left before homing into the hole for a birdie and, suddenly, the lead. Then, when Woods’ red-hot putter suddenly failed him and he left his putt to the right for a par, Mediate was a stroke to the good with just three holes to play.

Tiger came up an inch short on a long birdie putt on the 16th hole to stay one shot back, then he made a critical last-minute change on 17. After a brief discussion with his caddy, Woods switched from a seven to an eight-iron from about 160 yards and saw less club pay off when he landed his approach about 20 feet past the hole.

Mediate, just on the green with his second shot after hitting his drive into the short rough on the right, shoved his third shot about three feet past the hole while Woods left what commentators called “a downhill slider to the right” about two feet short. Both men sank their putts to set up the same situation Woods had faced heading to the 18th hole Sunday, when he played in the final pairing and Mediate was one group ahead of him.

After hitting only five of the first 16 fairways Monday, Tiger hit a perfect drive on the par-five, 525-yard 18th — the same hole he had eagled Saturday to take the lead in the tournament and had birdied Sunday to force the playoff.

Mediate, who would play holes 11-18 Monday at four-under, found a fairway banker on his drive, then he laid up on his second shot. Woods, meanwhile, was just on the green with his second shot, and Mediate’s third landed 20 feet left of the hole. Woods’ 40-foot eagle attempt wasn’t close, skimming four feet past the hole, and Mediate had a chance to end it with his next putt but was a foot left and about three feet past the hole on his birdie attempt. The PGA’s version of the Odd Couple then sank their putts — Tiger for a birdie, Rocco for a par — to force sudden death.

The par-four seventh hole — the first and last hole in sudden death — was an anticlimax to what had transpired on the previous eight holes. Tiger made a routine par while Mediate went far left on his first two shots and managed only a bogie — his first since the 10th hole.

“They wanted a show and they got one,” Mediate said immediately after his bid for one of the biggest upsets in U. S. Open history had failed. “It looked like I was done when I feel three behind, but I just kept hanging around.

“I got what I wanted — I got a chance to beat the best player in the world and came up a little bit short,” he added. “But I think I scared him a little.”

With his impressive showing, Mediate jumped to 46th in the world rankings and might have earned himself some endorsement dollars as well. For Tiger, meanwhile, Monday’s round just added to the Woods mystique.

Fighting the effects of a knee injury that bothered him all weekend, Tiger played through the pain. He made four double bogies in a tournament for the first time in his career, but he also had three eagles and those two critical birdies on the 18th hole Sunday and Monday — the first to stay alive for one more day and the second to stay around for the 19th and final hole of the playoff.

NBC, which telecast the tournament, billed Monday’s round as “David vs. Goliath”, and David almost pulled off another miracle. In defeat, Mediate became golf’s latest blue-collar hero in a tournament that, because it is open to anyone who can qualify (Mediate himself had to win a qualifying tournament in order to play), gives hope to golfers who aren’t normally considered for the elite field invited to the Masters each year.

In victory, though, Woods showed the qualities again that have made him arguably the greatest golfer to ever pick up a club. He proved himself human with his erratic drives all week, but his short game — the best on the planet — and his mental toughness were enough for him to survive one of the toughest challenges of his career and win one of the most memorable tournaments in the annals of American golf.