LA JOLLA, Calif. — Lee Westwood waited so long to come up short.
Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate will face off in an 18-hole playoff for the U.S. Open championship today without Westwood, who would have joined the playoff party if his 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole hadn’t come up inches shy of the cup.
“I’m struggling to even think who is in the playoff,” Westwood said. “It’s not really in the front of my mind, to be brutally honest.”
Dashed were his dreams of becoming the first Englishman in 38 years to win the U.S. Open.
After his putt missed right of the cup, a dejected Westwood, who had gone toe-to-toe with Woods just as he had predicted, tapped in and watched Woods do what he couldn’t.
Woods holed his 12-foot birdie putt. That tricky final green turned Westwood’s hopes of a playoff into a heartbreaker.
“Well, it’s sickening not to be in the playoff tomorrow,” Westwood said. “But all in all I played pretty good all week, and if somebody said you’re going to have a chance for a playoff on Monday, then I would have probably taken that at the start of the week.
“So while I’m disappointed, I’m pleased with myself, and I think that I’ve proved to myself and a few others that I think there is a major championship in me.”
Westwood’s 284 total earned him a consolation prize of $484,595.
That Westwood hung with Woods shouldn’t be a surprise. He’s the only player ever to beat Woods when Woods has led by more than one shot going into the final round of a tournament.
And he didn’t find the pro-Woods gallery as menacing as he had feared.
“The crowds were great,” Westwood said. “In general, they were absolutely fantastic and I got cheered on all day. I was quite surprised, really.”
