Tiger Woods won his 14th major championship with a victory that took 91 holes to achieve at the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. He called it the greatest of his victories and rightfully so. With a tender knee that has not quite healed from surgery in April, Woods defied his doctors and the obstacles of that injury to win over a world class field of players.
Going into the week, though, many anticipated a showdown between Woods and Phil Mickelson. After all, Mickelson grew up on this golf course and has played it more than 1,000 times by his count. (Then again, Phil thinks he has grown an inch. Take that number as an exaggeration.) Between the two of them, they have practically had a strangle hold over the Torrey Pines complex for the Buick Invitational.
If not Mickelson, then someone like Adam Scott or Sergio Garcia would surely step up to the plate for their chance to challenge the world's best player. Both of them had significant seasons so far. Scott has won around the world — on the PGA Tour at the Nelson and in Qatar on the European Tour. Sergio Garcia ended a multi-year winless streak on the PGA Tour to capture the Players Championship.
Even still not those guys, the USGA set the pairings with the top 12 in the world grouped together in order. This was done so that fans on television and in person could see the best players in one place without having to watch lots of groups. The idea probably was also that this would encourage great play. Most PGA Tour players feed off of one another. When one is hot in a group, the others are likely to do the same — except when paired with Woods.
In the end, none of the top 12 in the world were in the picture on the back nine on Sunday. The closest was 20th-ranked Lee Westwood, who finished a shot out of the playoff with Woods on even par. Given the situation and the recent track record at the Open, that score was phenomenal. It was not enough, though.
The only other man in the field that had enough to stand up to Tiger Woods was 158th-ranked Rocco Mediate. The 45-year-old player has five PGA Tour victories, an injury-prone back, and a sure career waiting for him in the TV booth. (In fact, he already gave it a try early last season.) He has a home-cooked swing that pales in comparison to the technical beauty of Woods'. Disadvantaged in almost every way, Mediate still was the only man to tie Woods and become the first man in four years to break par at the U.S. Open.
Rocco, though, did have the advantage of low expectations. Coming down the stretch, in and out of the lead in his favorite golf tournament, Rocco was playing with house money. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain, including a major title at almost $1.5 million. Mediate was and still is 18 majors away from tying Jack Nicklaus' career major mark and is never going to set any historical golf record. With five years left until the Champions Tour, Rocco could just enjoy the ride.
As a result of that and Mediate's easy going demeanor, he was able to stand in with Woods for 91 holes. That is a feat yet to be accomplished on a major championship stage by any of the players sitting in the top twelve in the world rankings. The only one on that list even close was Sergio Garcia at the 1999 PGA Championship.
In fact, there have only ever been three guys that have seriously challenged Woods when he had a major championship within his grasp. Bob May gave Tiger an amazing fight at Valhalla in 2000 for the PGA Championship. Woods had to make birdie on the par 5 18th to force a playoff. The playoff was a wash, though, as Woods birdied the first hole with that famous pointer putt.
Five years later, relatively known Chris DiMarco stood up to Tiger and Augusta National in his bid to win the Masters. Having already had decent success at the tournament, to see DiMarco's name atop the leaderboard was not nearly as much of a surprise. In fact, may it not have been for rain delays throughout the weekend, DiMarco may have been able to sustain his momentum and win the green jacket. That was not the case, though. Woods eventually rallied on Sunday morning to take the lead and produced one of the greatest shots in major championship history to, again, force a playoff. Woods disposed of DiMarco quickly in the playoff with a birdie on the 18th hole in sudden death.
And now we have added Rocco to the golf lore filed under "Guys This Close to Beating Tiger Woods in a Major."
It only begs the question — why is it that unknowns can challenge Woods in the majors and the supposed best players in the world cannot? Certainly, the more acclaimed players like Ernie Els, Mickelson, and the like are expected to challenge Woods. Over his 12 seasons, though, they have also become expected to wilt to Woods when he wants a major title. When Tiger is playing at the top of his game or on one of his runs (2000, 2002, and 2006 to now), no top ranked player can touch him.
Certainly, there have been periods in which other players have beaten Woods in the majors. While Woods was rebuilding his swing, Vijay Singh won two majors — the PGA Championship in 1998 and the Masters in 2000. During the latest rebuilding period, 2003-2004, there were eight different major champions. Vijay got his third major, so did Ernie, and Mickelson got on the board with his 2004 Masters win.
Since then, Phil Mickelson has been the only player to even come close to standing toe to toe with Woods at the majors. In 2005, he captured the PGA Championship at Baltusrol. Then he picked up the 2006 Masters. Everyone was ready to swim across the Atlantic to watch the Mickelslam until Phil was an "idiot" and gave away the U.S. Open at Winged Foot to Geoff Ogilvy. From that point on, Phil has become a non-factor in the majors.
In the last 16 major championships, only one other man than Phil Mickelson has added to an existing win tally. Retief Goosen won the U.S. Open in 2004 at Shinnecock. That's it. Every other major winner was a first timer.
Again, it is only fodder to the question of what it takes to stand up to Tiger — at his best — in the major championships. It almost seems as though the prerequisite has to be to have no prerequisite accomplishment in the major championships. Among the guys that have succeeded are Trevor Immelman (1 PGA Tour win), Zach Johnson (2 other PGA Tour wins, all of them in the state of Georgia), and Ben Curtis (1 other PGA Tour victory). These are guys with no burden to carry, no expectation to fulfill. They can play however they want and, if they lose, no one would have even noticed.
In effect, the underdog has the best chance at beating Tiger. My theory as to why is that these relative unknowns produce situations for Tiger Woods in which he has to come chase them. Woods is not a chaser. He is a leader, and a sprinter with the lead. Tiger has never won a major championship in which he has not held a share of the 54-hole lead. He has held a share of the lead after 54 holes in other majors (2005 U.S. Open, 2007 Masters) and could not finish the deal. Why? Because he was chasing the lead.
More importantly, Woods was chasing the lead with guys who were not afraid of hearing his footsteps. On a regular basis, Woods has made a mockery of the best players in the world. He has made other-worldly comebacks in tournaments around the world to steal victory from great players. It is a common occurrence for Tiger to beat down a field into submission and take a golf tournament. One need only look at the 2008 Arnold Palmer Invitational as an example of the morale letdown possible in the course of a Woods victory.
It is that kind of event the leads many to speculate that the long-term challenger to Woods is still not in his prime. Someone like Anthony Kim, with a win under his belt, a cocky attitude, and inexperience may be a suitable candidate. In addition to those qualities, he has not been mentally crushed time and again by the legendary Woods.
Yes, the aforementioned men that have stood up to or even beaten Woods in his prime in majors are also constantly subject to those experiences. Still, they are not ones that have experienced the full impact of those wins. They were not grilled by the media about how much they stink and how great Tiger is. Generally, they were not in contention to win the events that Tiger steals. In actuality, they were just bystanders to greatness.
When these players contend in or defeat Woods, they are an active part of greatness. They know that they will never become Tiger Woods and they do not have to even try to do that. But, for one weekend, they can claim that they stood up to the best player ever. They become a part of the golf legend and become immortal as a part of that story. Jack Fleck beat Ben Hogan in 1955 at the U.S. Open at Olympic Club. He never did anything of significance ever again, but every golf fan knows his name and curses it.
These men challenging Woods today are not striving to be Fleck, but they have the same mindset — play within your own game and hope that is good enough to win. Mediate demonstrated that mindset time and time again in the Open. Coming down the 18th fairway on Sunday, Mediate was notified that he was ahead of Woods thanks to a bogey. Mediate simply replied, "I could not care less." He knew that he was going to give everything he had and see if it stood up to the best.
The other greats of the game could learn a lesson by following the example of Rocco. The secret to beating Tiger Woods is to never get lost in the idea of beating him. Rather, a player should be content in giving it your all and leaving it in Woods' hands to beat you. Much more often than not, he will do that. Every now and then, though, it is not quite that simple.
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