of The 2008 US Open is a moment that is forever ingrained in golf lore. For Tiger Woods, it became arguably the most iconic victory of his legendary golf career, while it became what could have been for Rocco Mediate.
Playing on a leg with two stress fractures in his tibia and a knee just removed from arthroscopic surgery, Woods gritted his teeth and marched to a 54-hole tee shot at Torrey Pines. But he opened his final round with a double bogey at the first and a bogey at the second to fall behind Mediate. Woods birdied nine and 11 to get back on top, but bogeys at 13 and 15 dropped him a shot behind Mediate, who posted a 1-under par for the tournament. Woods bogeyed 16 and 17 and needed a birdie on the par-5 18th to force a playoff.
Woods hooked his tee shot into the fairway bunker and then hit a poor layup that left him 96 yards from the front green into the rough. Mediate, who was watching in the scoring tent, knew Woods would give himself an easy putt but believed it would be difficult for Woods to stop the ball near the pin coming out of the rough.
Woods took a powerful swing with a 60-degree wedge, and the ball landed just short of the fairway and bounced back, giving him 12 feet for birdie. Woods parried it to force an 18-hole playoff next Monday, which he won on the first extra hole.
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Mediate joined the Subpar GOLF Podcast discuss his PGA Tour career, advice he got from Arnold Palmer and his iconic duel with Woods at Torrey Pines. The broker expected Woods to make the 12-footer on the 72nd hole, but it was such a no-brainer that he had to ask the 15-time major winner when they crossed paths later.
“Tiger makes the putt, which I wasn’t surprised about,” Mediate told hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz. “But a year later, I asked him – I haven’t spoken to him but twice since then. I said, ‘Okay, tell me about the shot on 18.’ I said, ‘You have to tell me. You can’t stop that ball.’ He looked down and said, “It was in an old divot.” I went, “Of course it was!” It rolled! It is Kikuyu. So it was in an old compartment, and he could get the club in it. Now, if it wasn’t, he might have been able to find a way to crash it in there. This is the greatest player of all time.
“But when you see the shot, it hit, and I saw it land, and I’m like uh-oh. Then it got hijacked, and I’m like, what was that? How did he do that? Then the rest, of course, he will work out.”
You can listen complete the Subpar podcast hereor watch the YouTube video below.
