Chapter 67

The 108th U.S. Open

Torrey Pines

La Jolla, California

June 13–16, 2008

At 7,463 yards, Torrey Pines is the longest course in U.S. Open history. The 4.25-mile walk was manageable for Tiger back in January, when he won his fourth straight Buick Invitational here, but his practice round is so excruciating that he needs a golf cart.

He knows he can’t use it during competition—joking after the first round, “I can walk 18 holes. I don’t need a cart yet”—though he concedes that his knee is sore. He scores a 1-over 72, but caddie Steve Williams is anything but convinced. “Tiger, you are going to have a lot more U.S. Opens to play in. You’re probably damaging your leg even more here. We’re close to the clubhouse. Maybe it’s time to call it quits.”

Not only does Tiger refuse, he also declares his intention to win.

When not on the course, he’s in his fifth-floor room at the Lodge at Torrey Pines, where numerous medical personnel are providing treatment.

Tiger articulates exactly where and how much it hurts as well as how he manages to ignore it on the course. “I just keep telling myself that if it grabs me and if I get that shooting pain, I get it, but it’s always after impact. So go ahead and just make the proper swing if I can.”

His attitude is “You just keep going… there is no finish line. You keep pushing and pushing.”

Early in the third round, that strategy is sorely tested. After Tiger tees off on the 2nd, a fan spots him limping off the tee box—using his club as a cane. He somehow finds the strength to continue, then closes decisively, landing an eagle on 18.

He now holds a one-stroke lead over England’s Lee Westwood. Two strokes behind is forty-five-year-old Rocco Mediate. Ranked 158th in the world and enduring a nagging back injury, Mediate is a fun-loving American “everyman” with a peace sign on his belt buckle.

As Tiger walks off the course, Mediate—whom Tiger calls “one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet”—dares to ask the obvious question. “Excuse me, Mr. Woods,” he says. “Are you out of your mind what you’re doing out there? Come on.”

As always, the final round of the U.S. Open coincides with Father’s Day—Tiger’s first as a dad. He credits his daughter with speeding along his recovery. “There’s no way I could have gotten through this without Sam being there,” Tiger says.

On Sunday morning, June 15, twenty-five thousand spectators turn out hours early for the final round. A chant of “Let’s go, Roc-co!” rises up from the gallery as Mediate comes off the course leading the tournament at 1 under. “Win it for the old guys, Rocco,” someone yells.

Tiger needs to birdie the par-five 18th to force a playoff.

“I want Tiger to make that putt,” Mediate tells an NBC Golf reporter. “I want to win the U.S. Open, but I want him to make that putt. I want him tomorrow.”

“Don’t check out of your hotel room, Rocco,” NBC’s Johnny Miller says from the broadcast booth.

Tiger surveys his twelve-foot putt. The course goes silent as the ball begins to move. “That ball went in by a hundredth of an inch,” Miller says. “That ball could have easily lipped out just as easy as it went in.”

After four rounds, they’re tied at 1-under 283, necessitating a playoff round on Monday, June 16. Tiger wears red and black, his typical Sunday power colors.

So does Mediate, though he claims coincidence. “I had no intention of getting Tiger’s attention,” he says of his own red-and-black outfit on Monday. “It was my last clean shirt.”

Tiger once again has to birdie the 18th to stay even; he does, and for the first time since Ernie Els won at Oakmont in 1994, the players go to sudden death.

The 19th hole is the par-four 7th. Mediate bogeys and Tiger makes par, winning his fourteenth major championship and screaming at the sky in joy.

As fans burst through the gallery ropes, Tiger is whisked away in a golf cart. He later enjoys a photo op with Sam, dressed in red-and-white stripes. On June 18, Sam will celebrate her first birthday.

What will Tiger tell his daughter when she’s old enough to hear the story of the 2008 U.S. Open?

“I got a ‘W,’” he says.

But his season is over. “I’m going to shut it down for a little bit here and see what happens,” he tells reporters.

The physical and emotional cost of this epic victory is beyond description. Tiger, who’s held the number one Official World Golf Ranking for five hundred total weeks, is now facing reconstructive surgery on his left knee to repair the ACL he tore in 2007, followed by eight months of rehab.

There’s no easy path through the recovery process. But Hank Haney is optimistic, telling the Associated Press that Tiger has “been playing way less than 100 percent for a long, long, time. It has limited him a lot in practice. He’s going to come back better than he’s ever been.”