LA JOLLA, Calif.
— It’s the circle of life, Tiger Woods said.
An hour and a half after the U.S. Open was completed — finally — Tiger sat gingerly, with tender left knee extended, on a plain padded chair next to the gorgeous gorge separating the South and North courses of Torrey Pines. In the foreground was his new, enormous trophy, and in the background was the even more enormous Pacific Ocean. Tiger was back home.
“My dad brought me here when I was a little kid and told me someday I would win the U.S. Open here. Now I’ve brought my daughter here, and I’ve won the U.S. Open here.”
Father Earl died two years ago; daughter Sam Alexis will be 1 on Wednesday. “It’s the circle of life.”
The reflective Tiger then turned on that Cheshire cat grin, big as the ravine.
Earlier, Tiger said his third U.S. Open championship “is probably the best ever. All things considered, I don’t know how I ended up in this position, to be honest with you.”
It wasn’t easy for the best- ever victory by the best-ever golfer.
Rocco Mediate was the journeyman, the Tin Man, the Everyman beating Tiger.
When 89 holes of the United States Open had been played out, The People’s Champ was ahead of The Undisputed World Champ by one stroke. However, 91 holes, including 19 in a playoff of the playoff, were contested.
At the conclusion, Mediate was a mere human.
Tiger is The Man.
“He’s soooo hard to beat,” Rocco said of Tiger. “I had a chance to beat the best player in the world.” It wasn’t a beat-down, just an outlast.
Even if there are bug-eyed, 4-foot aliens who peer in windows, as some goofs in Denver recently have been led to believe, and can hit a 4-iron 950 yards, Tiger is the No. 1 player in the whole universe.
For starters, at 32, Tiger has won 14 major championships, seven times as a professional at Torrey Pines, 11 out of 12 playoffs (three in majors), 89 worldwide events and $82 million in official earnings (and $800 million in all things good).
For finishers, he is the most efficient closer ever. Tiger still has never lost a tournament after leading at 54 holes.
With his remarkable performance at the U.S. Open, Rocco, at 45, won the hearts and the well-dones from 82 million, or even 800. Tiger was just one stroke more remarkable.
It seemed like The Old Man And The Sea, the aging fisherman and the giant marlin, battling back and forth, forcing, finessing, trading punches and putts and predicaments, from bogeys to birdies, all the while, with Tiger praising Rocco and, once, on the 18th hole, Rocco applauding Tiger.
There’s a golf movie titled “The Greatest Game Ever Played.”
But, in reality, this may have been.
The 18-hole playoff between Tiger and Rocco was required when Tiger made a glorious 12-footer at 18 on Sunday afternoon.
On Monday morning — as the fog cleared for the brightest and warmest day of the Open — Rocco and Tiger shared the practice green and some laughs. Tiger attempted 26 practice putts, made only two. He was not limping. (A Tiger insider said that, unlike before the fourth round, his player did take pain pills.) Rocco was outfitted in black pants, a black hat and a black sleeveless sweater — with a red shirt, Tiger’s customary closing-day color of choice. “It’s the only thing I had left to wear,” Rocco said. “I didn’t plan to be playing today.”
In red and black, the pair dressed like a country club member-guest team.
Nobody thought Rocco would be playing on Monday — or after the cut on Friday. At best, he was a 158-to-1 shot. Tiger is first in the world rankings, Rocco 158.
The game began.
Rocco bogeyed, Tiger drove into the fairway (for the first time of the tournament) and made par, not double bogey, on No. 1. Rocco pured the shot on the par-3 third inches past the cup. He made 2, Tiger 4. Advantage, Mr. Mediate.
And so it was. Is this any good? “Rocco, Rocco, Rocco,” many in the throng, largest for a playoff in history, chanted. “Go get ’em, Tiger,” others yelled. The rest marched.
Tiger made 4, Rocco 5, on the fifth, and Tiger went 3-3, Rocco 4-4, on six and seven. Advantage, Mr. Woods, by two.
“I didn’t go to work, and I may get fired, but this is worth it,” said the guy beside me as we tried to peer over the multitudes.
Rocco 3, Tiger 4 at No. 8, but a Tiger save and a Rocco stinko at No. 9 pushed them to the turn at: Tiger, 35 (level par); Rocco, 37. It was like trying to score Ali-Frazier 1. It certainly wasn’t like those blowouts and weak scores in some Open playoffs — ’91, ’84 and ’57.
Rocco bogeyed the 10th to fall back by three, and the engraver was preparing to etch Tiger’s name. But, during the following seven holes, Rocco was a grinder and a steel-driving man and more — 3-4-4-3-3-3-4 — and owned a one-stroke lead over Tiger, who had gone 4-5-4-4-4-3-4. The Roccoteer!
To the par-5 18th, where Tiger had eagled to take the lead at the end of Saturday and birdied on Sunday to force the playoff, where Rocco couldn’t muscle the ball to the green and had four pars. Tiger was on in two, Rocco in three. We all knew; you all knew; they, too, knew. Birdie for Tiger, par for Rocco. Tied again.
Why not play another 18 on Tuesday, then Wednesday, or 15 rounds?
Rocco and Tiger moved to the adjacent seventh for the Sudden Decision. Rocco made a mess of the hole, Tiger a masterpiece. They embraced. It wasn’t “Rocky 1”; “Rocco 1” was better. The underdog had pushed the overcat to the very edge — and beyond, until Tiger tapped his last putt into the hole — also one of life’s circles.
Tiger and Rocco played a gentlemen’s game, and both were winners in the end.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
