Drama Major

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U.S. Open - Playoff

Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate square off in a Monday playoff at the 108th U.S. Open at Torrey Pines.

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Woods took out his driver at 18, knowing he needed birdie or better to either tie or beat Mediate. He smacked a 320-yard tee shot, accompanied by a visible grimace from the pain in his left knee. His ball landed softly in the fairway, leaving him 214 yards to the flag.

His second-shot 4-iron started out left over the water fronting the green and cut back toward the putting surface, producing a 50-foot eagle putt he actually ran four feet past the hole. Mediate then lined up his own 30-foot birdie putt that could have ended the suspense once and for all.

"You've waited your whole life for it," Mediate said, "and I wasn't going to lag it."

But he also missed, and ran his ball three feet past the cup. Woods putted first for birdie, and with a pure stroke knocked that four-footer in the center of the cup. Then came Mediate, needing to make his tricky three-foot slider for par to advance the match into automatic sudden death. There was no question about that putt, either -- dead solid perfect and into the hole.

"I handled it," Mediate said. "I was nervous as a cat, but I handled it."

Both men shot even-par 71 in regulation, and sudden death began at the 461-yard No. 7, a hole Woods had birdied earlier in the day with a 12-foot putt. Once again, he took out his driver and cut the corner of the dogleg right hole, landing in the fairway up against the first cut of rough down the right side. Mediate, who made par there earlier, put his drive in a fairway bunker, then sprayed his second shot from the sand dead left toward a spectator grandstand.

He got a free drop there, hit his third to within 20 feet, but could not convert the par putt, ending a chance for what might have been the greatest upset in U.S. Open history, considering he was ranked No. 158 in the world and had to survive an 11-man playoff in qualifying two weeks earlier just to get into the field.

It also allowed Woods to win his 14th major, four short of Jack Nicklaus's record, and keep alive his streak of never having lost a major after sharing the lead, or holding it outright, at the end of 54 holes.

"Truthfully, I'm a disappointed a little that I didn't beat him," Mediate said. "Just disappointed, not upset. But I'm obviously a little beat up right now. The only thing I take from this is that I gave him the best that I had and it wasn't quite good enough. It wasn't like I got my butt handed to me today. . . . I think he enjoyed the [heck] out of the competition, and I certainly did. I know that I still can do this stuff and want to try that again some time, somewhere."

Woods was proud of himself this week for also battling back from so many poor starts. He played the first hole over the four regular rounds in 7 over, with three double bogeys and a bogey. When he put his opening drive in the playoff in the fairway, he actually raised his arms in mock triumph.

"Yeah, I had such great starts this week," he said. "I had four doubles, three eagles, a few three-putts, a couple of snipes off the tees, a couple of slices, some bombs, anything and everything happened this week, really. All those ups and downs and I ended up being 1 under par for 91 holes."

He also said he never once thought about withdrawing, despite all the wincing, grimacing and limping and a left knee that got more sore with each passing day, despite frequent icing and over-the-counter painkillers.

"I wasn't going to bag it," he said. "I think everyone knows me well enough that it's not my nature. I don't know how to do that. It helped to have that energy from all the fans. You always try to use everything to your advantage. I try to do the best I could. It's been sore every day. It's been sore for a while. I just deal with it."