Inhistoric.com: The Sports History Blog

From the moment Tiger Woods stepped on the grass at Torrey Pines, there was potential for him to enhance his legacy. Woods had arthroscopic knee surgery two days after finishing second at the Masters and had not played in a tournament since. His doctor advised that he skip the US Open and take six weeks to recuperate. Tiger played anyway, mostly because it was a major tournament but also because he had won at Torrey Pines six times.

Adding to the intrigue was the US Open's decision to pair the top-12 players in the world in groups of three. That meant that for just the second time, Tiger would be paired alongside rival Phil Mickelson.

Woods started out slowly, wincing every time he drove the ball. His doctor had not revealed the extent of his knee injury, leaving its effect on him and the medication he was taking a total guess. Eventually Tiger discovered the limits to which he could push himself and centered in on the leaderboard. In the second round, Woods shot a 30 on the back-nine and trimmed a seven-shot lead from Stuart Appleby to one.

On Saturday, Mickelson dropped out of contention with a quadruple-bogey 9 at the 13th. Meanwhile, Appleby floundered to an 8-over 79 that left him completely in the dust. That opened the door for Tiger, who finished the third round with two eagles and a birdie on his last six holes. Entering the final round, Woods held a one-shot lead over Englishman Lee Westwood.

Unlike most of his other final-day pairings, Westwood matched Woods with an even-par 73. Tiger was not at all sharp on Sunday. On the 13th, a hole he eagled the previous two days, Tiger slashed it way into the rough and had to settle with a bogey. Adding to the conflict, Rocco Mediate finished ahead of Woods and Westwood with a 71 and completed the 18th hole with a one-shot lead.

Tiger placed himself in a precarious situation on the par-5 final hole. His first shot landed in the bunker while his second one found the inside of the rough (both hits elicited a curse from Eldric). Woods fared better on his third shot, which placed the ball 12 feet from the cup. Westwood putted first from 15 feet away -- it was on-line but lost speed at the end and gradually curved a foot or two shy.

Westwood chipped in for par, leaving it up to Woods to extend the tournament. His birdie attempt could tie Mediate at one-under and force an 18-hole playoff the following day. Rocco watched from the scoring room as Tiger unfurled the final round's last putt. The ball found the farthest edge on the right side of the cup before dropping into the hole. Tiger gave two fist pumps and jubilantly high-fived his caddy as the gallery of 50,000 roared behind him. Mediate simply shook his head and shrugged, "Unbelievable, I knew he'd make it."

Asked about his chances of winning, Mediate responded, "I'm playing against a monster tomorrow morning. I get to play against the best player that ever played. Whatever happens, happens. I'm happy that I'm here and I will give it everything I have and see what we do."

On Monday, June 16th, 2008, Tiger Woods returned to the San Diego golf course in his customary red shirt. Rocco Mediate, who was an overwhelming underdog, arrived in a black-and-red outfit not unlike Mr. Woods.

Monday playoff rounds, even during a major such as the US Open, typically ended anticlimactically and had trouble drawing a crowd. Although the tee-off took place at 11 AM, the Tiger effect was in full motion as an estimated 25,000 people, more than double the previous record, packed the course.

Mediate, a journeyman golfer who was content just being there, did not fizzle and crash like everyone anticipated. He started out strong but wavered a bit with bogeys on 9 and 10. A Tiger Woods birdie from the fray of the green gave him a three-shot lead after 10 holes; many thought this was the beginning of the inevitable blowout by Tiger.

Rocco not only stayed in contention, he soon found himself with a share of the lead. Woods bogeyed 11 and 12, while Mediate held serve. At the 14th, Mediate chipped in for birdie while Tiger's putt grazed the lip of the cup and spun off. Just four holes after seeming to unravel, the underdog had tied it up at +1.

On 15, Tiger's erratic driving forced him to make another spectacular shot. 170 yards from the hole, Woods hammered the ball out of a bunker and safely onto the green, where he would make par. However, Mediate bested him with his third consecutive birdie -- this one from 25 feet -- and stole the lead with three holes to go.

As unprecedented as it would be for Tiger Woods to walk on the course and win after a ten-week absence (all the while limping and grimacing), it was an even sweeter story if Rocco Mediate could somehow win. Mediate was the 158th ranked player in the world and hadn't won a tournament in over six years. He had won five events in his 23-year PGA career, one less than Tiger had won in the past ten months. In his last twenty courses, Mediate missed the cut ten times and finished higher than 36th once. Rocco was 45 years old, older than any US Open champ in history. Tiger Woods had never lost a major (13 for 13) when he lead coming into the final round and was 10-1 in playoffs.

Considering all that, if Rocco beat the number one golfer in the world -- soon to be officially known as the greatest golfer of all time -- after five rounds and 90 holes, it would join the ranks as one of the greatest upsets in sports history. The packed gallery, which always favored Tiger because of his brilliance, rooted for Mediate and cheered him on as the Open turned the stretch.

At the 18th though, Tiger took advantage as he had the day before. Rocco's shot off the tee landed in almost the same bunker as Woods did on Sunday. Tiger landed on the green in two shots, though from a farther distance than Mediate who got on in three shots. Woods had a long eagle putt to end the tournament right there, but with the ball at least 50 feet from the pin, it was too much to ask for even him.

That left Mediate with a 20 foot birdie attempt to beat Tiger Woods and win his first major. "I said to myself, 'You’ve waited your whole life for this putt, just don't lag it,' " Mediate said. He was true to his word and gave his putt enough juice; the ball went just left of the cup and rolled three feet past. Woods knocked in his short birdie, Mediate his par shot. Had the final hole not been a par 5, Mediate probably would have won the thing.

After five rounds of golf, the two competitors headed back to the seventh tee where the format changed to sudden death. Playing the hole for the sixth time in five days, Mediate fell behind quickly when his drive landed in the left bunker again. Once more, he got on the green in the three shots and had to hope Tiger missed his long putt. With his chance to close it, Tiger nudged the ball one revolution short of falling in. When he saw how close he came to sinking it, Woods dropped to his knees (reconstructed surgery and all).

Tiger would still get his win. Rocco's attempt to send it to another hole was inches to the right, meaning that the 91-hole marathon had finally come to its resolution.

"This has probably been the greatest tournament I've ever had," Woods noted. "All things considered, I don't know how I ended up in this position, to be honest with you. It was a long week. A lot of doubt, a lot of questions going into the week. And here we are, 91 holes later."

"I gave him the best that I had and it wasn’t quite good enough,” said Mediate, who left the course in good spirits. “But it almost was. It wasn’t like I got my butt handed to me today. I didn’t want that.

"Obviously, I would have loved to win. I don't know what else to say. They wanted a show, they got one." No one loved the show more than NBC executives, who enjoyed the highest ratings for a Monday playoff in 30 years.

Two days after winning his 14th major and 65th tournament overall, Woods announced on his website that he would have season-ending surgery and revealed the full extent of his maladies. Not only was he playing with a reconstructed knee that need time to heal, Woods had ignored the requests of his doctors and played despite a torn ACL and a double stress fracture in his tibia. In fact, he had been playing with the torn ACL for over a year.

With that tidbit of information, the perception of Tiger's win increased ten-fold. Though he was not as dominating as he was at Augusta in 1997 or Pebble Beach in 2000, he had walked onto the course with a broken leg and prevailed at the US Open. He endured 91 holes and five days of golf where he need birdies at the 18th hole on Sunday and Monday to keep himself alive. Though many thought it wasn't his most impressive win, no one argued it that it wasn't his most exciting.

Even with his multiple injuries, Tiger won 8 of his last 13 events before shutting it down for the rest of the year. Some contended that he shouldn't have played at Torrey Pines and that he should have gotten the surgery earlier. As a consumer, I'm glad he didn't, because the 2008 US Open was the most thrilling golf tournament I had ever seen.