U.S. Open

And then the good Lord said, “Let thy magic number be five.” With Tiger Woods winning this weekend’s (and Monday’s) U.S. Open he pushed his number of major victories to 14; four away from tying Jack Nickulas’ record and five away from breaking it.
Tiger came into the tournament facing plenty of speculation on his injured knee, which he had recently had surgery on. A lot of people were wondering if he would be able to compete. So much for competing, how about winning the whole.
It was the typical blueprint. He had a solid first round on Thursday, then an out-of-his mind round on Friday followed by a lead-takeover on Saturday. And we all know what happens when this man has the lead going into Sunday at major.
But this time was a little different. A shaky start led to double-bogey and bogey on the first two holes before his third-hole drive that left him clutching his knee in pain.
Everyone grimaced thinking this was the moment he would not be able to carry on. But shame on us; the good Lord also said “do not doubt, but have faith.” And obviously Woods’ faith is a little stronger than ours as he birdied 9 and 11 as he chased Rocco Mediate down the stretch. The fun-loving, Mediate had finished in the group ahead of Tiger and had the best score in the clubhouse at -1. Woods and playing partner Lee Westwood reached the 18th green in three shots and had to sink their birdie putts to force a playoff. Westwood sung first and missed and then it was Tiger’s time to take his shot from 12 feet. It looked good from the beginning, lipped in at the end and has the commentator said, “would you expect anything different?” Now that guy had some faith.
So off to Monday the two went where after another 18 holes, the two still had the same score forcing a sudden death playoff. If you’re scoring at home, it took, count ‘em, 91 holes to separate the two. Mediate found the rough on the sudden-death hole to bogey and Woods played it safe to par and win his third U.S. Open.
Ok, said like we said earlier, Tiger his four from tying and five from breaking the record; he has won each major three times; he is the greatest player of his generation by light-years, he makes a lot of money and he has a good-looking wife. Yet he is still has his critics. People say he has never had, with maybe the exception of Phil, a legitimate challenger where has past greats have had tougher competition. A good point, but that’s not his fault. Then there is that thing about him never coming from behind, a supposed poke at his toughness. Well so much for that, he played five straight days of golf in the California sun on a knee that was more messed up than the healthcare system in this country. He willed himself to victory; probably the only golfer on tour with that combination of talent and grit. He barely had a leg to stand on and he was still better than all those other jokers. We’ll that one leg brought one step closer to breaking Jack’s record and one day he’ll do it. Would you expect anything different?