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Saturday, June 21, 2008
Tiger’s loss leaves big divot
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Every bone in Tiger Woods’ body must have been shaken when he went charging across the 18th green at Torrey Pines, shrieking like a banshee last Sunday, brandishing his putter as the ball slid sideways into the cup, in triumphant celebration. Of what? Tying Rocco Mediate, 158th ranked player in the world of professional golf.
Rocco Mediate, who began the 2007 season as an on-course commentator from Hawaii, walking the course with a broadcast pack on his hip. Rocco Mediate, who hadn’t won on the PGA Tour since the Greater Greensboro tournament in 2002. A kind of lovable sort of guy with a ready smile and no delusions of greatness, the kind of guy you might find running the Italian trattoria around the corner.
He has boundless admiration for the man who would beat him in the playoff round of the U.S. Open on Monday, and speaks of it. No shame to lose to “the greatest player there ever was,” was how Rocco put it. But, man, what an earth-shaker it would have been if it had gone the other way, and it did come as close as one more of Tiger’s pressure putts. Which dropped also.
The playoff was a riveting thing. Mediate would be only a sheep led to the slaughter, but to the contrary, the sheep played into the 18th hole with the lead, and there the result became inevitable. The 18th hole is a patsy for Woods, a par 5 that’s a par 4 for him. So when Mediate’s tee shot missed the fairway, he was cooked, and it was time again for him to play the role of the gracious loser. It’s one I’m sorry I had to miss, but there are times when family matters have to take priority.
Then what happened next should not have been such a stunner, but nevertheless, it was. Rocco would understand. He has had surgery after surgery and knows what it means to play hurt. One year, at the PGA Championship, a chair in which he was sitting collapsed and his head, shoulder and neck were injured. In fact, he missed the better part of three years to back problems, and began 2007 on a minor medical exemption, which is why he was walking around with a broadcast pack on his hip in Hawaii.
Woods played the Open in pain, no question. His whole body shudders from the pressure that he puts on his left knee when he launches a full drive. Most who follow the tour closely fully expected him to take another long break, then come back in time to finish off the FedEx folly and go into his cave for winter hibernation. Now he’s gone, like a pitcher having his arm remodeled. No guarantee comes with surgery, considering all the pressure he puts on the knee.
So the tour weeps. In another era the absence of no one player would have had such impact. In Palmer and Nicklaus’ time there were such marquee names as Trevino, Watson, Player, Casper, Floyd, Faldo and Norman. Today there’s a lineup of pretenders, no logical challengers, as witness top dog Mickelson on the course in the town he lives and loves. Els, Furyk, Stricker, Howell, Cink, Scott — forget it. There’s probably no player with more gallery appeal than the rube from the Florida Panhandle, Boo Weekley. But he’s just as liable to pick up his gear and go fishing as he is to show up at a golf tournament. There’s now room at the top. To step up and become immortal. Any candidates?
