Tiger Woods’ Greatest Win At Torrey Pines
As the California swing officially begins and the tour makes its annual stop at Torrey Pines, it’s tough not to think about the greatest golf tournament ever played. In 2008 the famed public course outside of San Diego hosted the U.S. Open, and was the setting for a sporting event of the ages. Tiger Woods’s dramatic, painful, and electric victory in my mind was the greatest performance ever in golf. Seven years later the memories are still as vivid as ever, even if the winner is no longer making them.
In 2002 the USGA hit the jackpot by holding our national championship at Bethpage Black, a truly public golf course. This opened up things up to more public venues, and the second course selected would be Torrey Pines. Owned and operated by the city of San Diego, the facility’s North and South courses have played host to a PGA Tour since the 1960s. The more difficult South course would play host to the open, and the most dramatic five days in golf history.
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Before June of 2008, most of America was not familiar with Rocco Mediate. The long time tour pro at the time had just five wins, and no majors. Rocco was the definition of an underdog; an aging player with chronic back issues who had to go through qualifying to just get into the Open. Tiger on the other hand hasn’t worried qualifying for an open since he was about twenty years old. The world’s number one player was playing like it. He had just won the PGA Championship in August, and finished second at Augusta in April. His game was certainly in top shape, but his left leg was far from it.
During his runner up finish at The Masters, Tiger injured his left knee and had arthroscopic surgery just two days afterwards. During his rehab things only got worse for Woods when he sustained a double stress fracture in his left tibia. Tiger could barely walk let alone do it for 7,643 yards. When he arrived at the championship he hadn’t played competitively since Augusta, and barely played any golf at all. Considering that Tiger had already seven career wins at Torrey Pines, there was nothing that was going to keep from going for number eight. He had one championship left in his left leg, and it ended up being his greatest one yet.
When the tournament began you got the feeling right away that this was going to be a different week for Mediate. His opening round 69 left him one shot back of Justin Hicks and Kevin Streelman. Tiger on the other hand was a little more pedestrian at +1 but by no means out of the tournament. On day two Hicks and Streelman faded and Rocco continued his steady play with an even par 71. Then there was Woods, who catapulted himself into the tournament with a closing nine 30. This would prove to be an appetizer for things to come.
On Saturday, Tiger was in pain. Swing after swing he clutched his left leg causing him to all but fall over. The pain was so apparent you could almost feel it yourself. The talk was no longer about him winning his fourteenth major and third U.S. Open, now it was about if Tiger could physically finish the tournament.
Then something magical happened. After hitting the green on the par five 13th in two, Woods was left with an eagle putt that started in San Francisco and ended in San Diego. The putt was impossible, unless of course you’re Tiger Woods. The crowd erupted and Tiger was back. Later on he was faced with a difficult up and down from thick rough just off the 17th green. He lashed at the ball that took on hop and slid right down the flagstick into the hole for a miraculous birdie. Now Woods was just an eagle away from tying the lead on 18. Two painful swings later and he was again faced with another country mile long eagle putt and again the crowd would erupt. The man could barely stand, but was somehow leading the U.S. Open.
Mediate not only had to deal with the Tiger’s charge, he actually had to watch all of it while playing in the group behind Woods. Rocco never wavered, shooting a one over par 72 on Saturday followed by an even par 71 on Sunday. After all of Tiger’s heroics, it was Rocco waiting in the clubhouse holding the U.S. Open lead and Tiger needing a birdie on the 18th to tie. As the sun began to set on the cliffs of Torrey Pines Woods was left with a twelve-foot birdie putt to send the U.S. Open to an 18-hole playoff on Monday. He took the putter blade back and followed through and once again the crowd roared. An anxious Rocco watched from the clubhouse and was not shocked saying, “unbelievable, I knew he’d make it. He’s Tiger Woods.”
Sometimes an 18-hole playoff could be anti-climactic, and if anything had the makings of that it would be this one. How could anything live up to what we had seen over the past few days? The two would only go on to trade the lead three times on the front nine until Tiger managed to build up a three-stroke lead after ten holes.
On the backside Mediate countered with three straight birdies to grab a one-stroke cushion with one hole to play. Goliath had an arrow in his leg and David didn’t care, he was there to take him down. Rocco had a birdie putt to win the Open; this impossible dream was going to happen, until it didn’t. The putt never had a chance and after Woods made his birdie somehow this championship that was already ninety holes deep was heading to a ninety-first.
It’s what has happened after that ninety-first hole that has changed golf over the past few years. That hole would be the last time we’d see Tiger Woods walk off a green as a major champion. In a week where it was so easy for everything to go wrong, he managed to rise above it. Now that same player who limped and cringed his way around Torrey Pines and found ways to electrify us all is a shell of himself. Off the course problems, swing changes and health have stripped Tiger from his Goliath persona. Whether he gets it back is yet to be seen, but something that he will always have is those five days at Torrey Pines in 2008, in the greatest championship ever.