US OPEN,TORREY PINES, 2008 WHERE TIGER ROARED IN TRIUMPH AND AGONY
Woods defied the pain a decade ago.. now he is ready to show that spirit again
TIGER WOODS returns to the US Open this week 10 years after his last – and most remarkable – Major victory.
The American superstar won his 14th Major at Torrey Pines, despite suffering two leg fractures and a torn cruciate in the build-up to the event.
His caddie Steve Williams (right) later revealed the “sickening click” of Woods’ bones rubbing together made him feel “queasy” as they walked down the fairways.
But the then world No.1 played through the pain for 91 holes in Southern California before finally seeing off Rocco Mediate in a sudden-death playoff.
Even for a man who held all four Majors and changed the game, it was an unbelievable performance.
“I remember just how I was able to convince myself that the shots were going to hurt because my leg was busted, but I could make a golf swing at impact,” Woods recalled before this year’s tournament at Shinnecock Hills.
“Post impact is when I was going to feel it. And I just convinced myself to go ahead and suck it up and hit the shot. It’s going to hurt afterwards, but I can still hit a good shot.
“That was a pretty special week because I’ve had probably four Majors where I putted like that – ’97 Masters, 2000 US Open, 2000 British and then that 2008. I don’t think I missed a putt inside 10 feet in any of them.
“And that was a week I needed it because I didn’t really hit the ball as well as those other three Majors.”
Tommy Fleetwood, now friends with Woods, was then an amateur watching the drama unfold at home.
“I remember him starting with a double the first two days, but people still expected Tiger to win,” he said.
“You don’t quite realise until you play that double-bogeys aren’t good. His composure that week stands out above everything – which was unbelievable.”
Woods shared the 54-hole lead, but needed a birdie at the 72nd hole – as did playing partner
Lee Westwood – to force an 18-hole playoff with Mediate.
The Englishman missed from 20 feet. Woods nailed his from 15.
Paul Casey said: “I remember he did it on one leg and how he made that putt on 18. They were absolutely impossible greens – and he was playing in the last group of the day.
“It was Tiger willing the ball around the golf course. He didn’t have the body – all he had was his mind.”
Westwood recalled: “I stood there watching him and thinking, ‘There is no way he is going to miss this’.”
Returning next day, the two Americans were still locked after 18 extra holes before Woods prevailed on the 91st.
Eight days later he underwent reconstructive surgery on his left knee and was out for nine months – the first of several long lay-offs. Woods has played 25 Majors – out of a possible 39 – since then with his best finish a runner-up at the 2009 US
PGA.
Now 42 and on his latest comeback, Woods will tee up in his first
US Open since
2015 and return at night to his yacht
Privacy moored off
Long Island.
After operations, divorce and last year’s drink-driving arrest, maybe the only way to beat 2008 is to win again.
Casey said: “I’m a Tiger fan. There is great excitement around his return, but now I want him to crack on. There is no question he is going to win – it is just what he’s going to win and how much.”