Tiger forces 18-hole playoff

Published 11:11 pm Sunday, June 15, 2008

SAN DIEGO — He did it again, almost on command, as Rocco Mediate’s heart, and the sun, sank.

Tiger Woods, who prior to this week’s 108th U.S. Open had not walked 18 holes since left knee surgery on April 15, is going to walk at least 18 more.

He’s going from a long layoff to a long playoff.

“I was planning on going to Mexico,” Woods said when asked where he was originally headed today.

Not now.

Woods slithered a 12-foot birdie putt into the right side of the cup at No. 18 to pull even with Mediate on Sunday’s 72nd hole and force one extra day of adrenaline at Torrey Pines.

Woods and Mediate finished 1-under 283 overall.

Lee Westwood’s 2-over 73 left him one shot out of the party and sent him home at even-par 284. Robert Karlsson and D.J. Trahan finished three-shots back at 2-over 286. They are all footnotes now.

Woods had lost the one-shot lead he took into Sunday, struggled to a 2-over 73, struggled with his driver, and with his putting.

But he made the putt he had to make when he had to make it.

“I made him do something amazing today, which is amazing,” Mediate said of the putt. “He does it all the time … but I made him do that.”

The U.S. Open is the only one of the four majors that requires an extra 18 holes to determine its champion, like it or not.

“I have nothing left right now,” Mediate confessed. “I’m toast. It was the most amazing day of golf I’ve ever experienced.”

So is he up for another one?

“It’s going to be unbelievable,” he said.

Woods is 32 years old to Mediate’s 45. He has won 13 major championships to Mediate’s none. Woods has 64 PGA tour victories to Mediate’s five.

Upon arrival at Torrey Pines, Mediate had one top-10 finish this year and had missed eight of first 10 cuts on tour this season.

Woods had nine exemptions qualifying him for the U.S. Open. Mediate earned his way in at a sectional qualifier in Columbus, Ohio.

But Mediate is going to show up.

“He wants to kill me, I want to kill him, that’s just how it is,” Mediate said.

The scene at Sunday’s par-five 18th, playing up at 527-yards, was tee-box tense.

Mediate was restless in the scorer’s tent at 1-under after he finished his round of even-par 71.

Woods and Lee Westwood were one group back, both one shot back.

You could sense the playoff coming when Mediate made par five on the finishing hole when birdie would have forced Woods and Westwood to make eagle.

Mediate’s hopes were buoyed, though, when Westwood and Wood hit their drives into bunkers, forcing lay-ups on a hole that was reachable in two.

Westwood found the fairway fine, but Woods’ bunker shot went into the rough.

Both players nailed the green with their third shots, within striking distance of the cup.

Westwood putted first, from about 20 feet, but his roll to tie slid right of the cup.

He was trying to become the first Englishman to win the U.S. Open in 38 years.

“It’s sickening not to be in the playoff tomorrow,” Westwood said.

Woods honed in on his chance with his usual laser-beam stare.

Mediate was waiting to see whether he was going to get to hoist a trophy or set his alarm clock.

Woods made the putt, of course.

It was nothing like the Tiger Woods of Saturday who dazzled watchers when he made back-nine eagles on Nos. 13 and 18 and a chip-in birdie on No. 17.

Woods, on Sunday, seemed on verge of losing a major for the first time when he held the final-day lead.

He started double-bogey/bogey and had to fight to get his lead back.

He was 2-under, with a one shot lead, after he birdied the par-three 11th, but he gave a shot back on the par-five 15th when he hooked a 3-wood into the canyon and had to take a one-stroke penalty that led to a bogey 6.

“That was just a terrible shot,” Woods said.

He also made an interesting decision to lay up at No. 14, a par-four that had been shortened to 267 yards. Woods said he didn’t have the right shot for the distance.

“I’m caught right in between clubs,” he said.

Woods made par on a hole that yielded 26 Sunday birdies.

One shot behind with one to go, Woods said he approached No. 18 with the killer’s instinct.

His thought was “eagle to win,” but a trip to the bunker changed those plans. He then just wanted get close enough to the pin to “at least give myself a putt at it.”

Woods is pitted against a friend but a decided underdog, in quest of his 14th major championship.

It’s Tiger vs. Rocco.

“I’m playing against a monster,” Mediate conceded.

He wasn’t talking about the course.