2008 PGA Tour Award Series: Performance Of The Year

Performance Of The Year: Tiger Woods At The 2008 US Open

Tiger Woods won the US Open on one leg. 

This article could contain that one single sentence and it would be more than sufficient to support why Tiger Woods’ performance at the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines was the PGA Tour performance of the year. 

But, I might as well elaborate on a performance that will surely be spoken about for years to come and grow in legend in much the same way tales of Ben Hogan and Bobby Jones have throughout the years. 

After his second place finish at The Masters, Tiger Woods elected to undergo knee surgery to mend an injury that had been nagging him for years. 

Woods took a month of from competitive play between the Masters and the Open while being physically unable to practice for more than a half hour at a time. 

Woods played his US Open practice rounds with the assistance of a golf cart and wasn’t even able to finish a full round. 

Then the tournament began, and injured or not, Woods was in his element and thrived on a course that could now be referred to as "Tiger Alley".  

On an injured left leg that clearly worsened with each additional swing, Woods played himself into Sunday’s final pairing by shooting a 33 on the back nine on Saturday with two eagles, one of which came on the 18^th hole in front of a stadium sized gallery.

It reminded us of just how much we missed the theatre Woods provides to a golf tournament.

We all know that Woods has never lost a major while having at least a share of the lead after 54 holes. 

However, on Sunday at the Open, now noticeable limping around the course while popping pain killers, Woods found himself in the unfamiliar position of pursuing the leader rather than being pursued.

Instead of protecting his lead as we have seen him do at virtually every major he was won over the past twelve years, Woods was now the on the hunt.   

Woods approached the 72^nd hole, a par 5 with water lining the front of the severely undulated green, one stroke behind 48-year-old Rocco Mediate of all people. 

Woods pulled his tee shot into a bunker on the left side.  He briefly thought about going for the green but decided upon laying up with the hopes of hitting a wedge to within birdie range. 

Woods struck his bunker shot a little too clean causing the ball to fly clear over the other side of the fairway and disappear into the thick US Open rough. 

If you have ever watched a US Open, you know that hitting a shot into the rough is more or less a one-stroke penalty as it is nearly impossible to fly the ball out of the Open rough with any distance or accuracy. 

After much consultation with his caddie, Steve Williams, Woods decided on hitting full with a sand wedge. 

Woods swung down on the ball with the kind of force seen only from Tiger Woods resulting in the ball miraculously coming out of this dense as if he were hitting from the pristinely cut fairway.   

Woods' ball settled about 10 feet left of the hole leaving him with a birdie opportunity, but by no means an easy birdie opportunity. 

Woods' birdie putt was a downhill, sliding left to right putt that the average weekend hacker would constantly fly 10 feet past the hole. 

Woods went about his standard routine of walking a complete circle around the putt to line up its path to the hole from every conceivable angle. 

Woods stood over his putt as calm as if he were alone on the practice green one beautiful evening.

In front of what had to be a 10,000 strong crowd, Woods' ball stayed above the break just long enough to catch the right side of the cup and drop in. 

The television commentator perfectly summed up what everyone had been thinking as Woods’ putt dropped, when he said “expect anything different?”. 

All things considered, Woods’ putt on the 72nd hole of the 2008 US Open will be forever considered one of the greatest shots in the history of the game. 

But Woods’ celebration was short lived because he now faced an additional 18-hole playoff the following day on a knee that even he seemed unsure of whether or not it could hold up another day.

During the Monday playoff, Woods again found himself in the very unfamiliar position of being on the pursuit rather than the one being pursued. 

Woods had to make a birdie putt on the 18^th hole of the playoff to tie Mediate and force yet another playoff, this time it was sudden death playoff. 

Woods won on the first hole of the playoff by tapping in a par putt in very undramatic fashion when compared to the previous two-day circus he ran at Torrey Pines. 

However, his tap in for par on the first hole of the sudden death playoff cemented his 2008 US Open victory and completed a performance that will arguably go down as one of the greatest performances in the history of the game.

A couple of days after the Open concluded, Woods let everyone in on just how injured he was when he announced that he had played the US Open on a torn ACL and two stress fractures in his fibula, which essentially meant that he won the US Open on a broken leg, as ridiculous as that sentence is to say.

Books will be written, movies will be made and tales upon tales will be told of Woods’ performance at the 2008 US Open for years to come. 

As with any legend, the dramatics of the story will continue grow along with the years, if it is even possible to embellish upon what Woods accomplished back in July at Torrey Pines.