Greatest Open Ever?

The 108th U.S. open began last week chocked full of dramatic story lines; none more important than "could Tiger Woods come back from knee surgery to win the Open at Torrey Pines?" I got tickets through my office-mate and went to the opening round on Thursday. Waking up at 4:30 to park my car and walk to the course from a Qualcomm building was a less than ideal way to start a Thursday morning. The walk was 3.8 miles just to get to the course. Yours truly blindly walked past the main entrance thinking he knew the "other way" in (the same entrance we used in January 2007 to get into the Buick Classic) which was an additional mile in the wrong direction. Water under the bridge. By 6:45, I was on the course approaching the first tee where Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott, the world's #1, #2 and #3 players in the world were teeing off at 8:11. I anticipated mayhem and a raucous atmosphere when the three players stepped onto the first tee and I was not disappointed. Phil Mickelson grew up in San Diego, playing Torrey Pines as a young chap and definitely had the loudest support from the gallery. Nobody payed Adam Scott any attention but clapped accordingly whenever he stepped up and striped one down the fairway. Keep in mind the guy was playing with a broken finger in his left hand. Tiger received a loud ovation when he walked to the tee with Steve Williams and his 8 security guards. Standing right next to me was Tom Lehman, major championship winner and former Ryder Cup captain standing on the tips of his toes straining to get a glance of the group of the day. Hey, I thought it was pretty cool.

Watching a Tiger group is daunting because the substantial human mass observing his every movement moves about as quickly as you would think...it doesn't. So to reasonably avoid getting sandwiched amongst the sea of sheep, you have to jump between holes and catch him at various holes along the way. On Thursday, I caught Tiger's tee shot on the first hole then headed out to the 5th tee and 6th fairway before letting the group head out on the back side. When Tiger teed off on the 5th hole, he blocked it right and immediately grimaced after impact. He ended up making an incredible ho-hum two putt par from the thick rough. Not bothering to see them finish the hole, I checked out a few other groups and grabbed some food before catching up with the group on the 13th green and 14th tee box. Tiger had made a bit of a run to get to -1 after double bogeying (what would become a constant theme) the first hole but blew the ball around the course a little bit on the way home finishing with a one over par (+1) 72. By now, you've seen the heroics of the next three rounds including his run on Saturday afternoon to take the lead and then gutting out the final round, sliding in a birdie putt on the 72nd hole of the championship to force a 18 hole playoff the next day with Rocco Mediate. For some reason, I didn't think he'd make the putt, thinking he was due to miss a huge putt in a big situation at some point. It seems that he never misses the big ones.. What else can you say except WOW. As soon as Tiger's putt dropped, I shot Sean a text message claiming dibs on the playoff ticket. I had to be there.

Monday morning, I picked Sean up at 5:30 and headed to the office. We put in a couple hours in at work before heading to the course at 8:00 a.m. Arriving at the course around 8:30, I was surprised at the amount of people who showed up on a Monday morning. The word on the street was that 30,000 tickets existed and I expected at best half of that, still 15,000 people, to show up. Coming through the gates, the number of people trudging across the course towards the first tee was jaw dropping. We rushed past the first hole quickly realizing that we couldn't possibly see anything out there. Tiger apparently teed off first and piped it down the middle of the fairway because the gallery erupted and the distance the ball traveled was really really far. Sean and I ran into one of my buddy's from the golf team, Mike Merkens, and headed down to the 2nd green to catch Tiger's approach shot and putt's on the green. It really was the only way to watch with so many people following the only group on the golf course. Tiger and Rocco made par's on the 2nd hole and while we intended to go quickly to the 4th fairway, we couldn't move for another 20 minutes. It was insane. We caught the two players on the 4th fairway and again on the 5th fairway and 5th green before jogging (soft J) to the 6th green. At that point, it was decision time.

The 6th green and 7th teen sit adjacent to the grandstand at the 18th green. Sean and I discussed the options before us. Either we could continue to see the drama a couple holes at a time or just set up base camp in the gallery and hope that the match got to 18 with something in the balance. Boy were we given a treat. As the two golfers played the 17th hole, we could notice a huge commotion starting around the 18th tee box. People in golf carts and on foot darted across the area and a dozens of San Diego Police officers were took positions in the grandstand attempting to maintain order. The packed grandstand had been doing the wave (I'm dead serious, the effing wave) for about an hour. A test of the waves strength was measured by cheers and boos in the gallery. If the wave started on the West end of the gallery and made it around the green and back down the fairway, it was deemed a success and people started cheering on the crowd. Tiger and Rocco weren't even on the same hole yet! Sitting there, you would never believe people a "stereotype" existed that golfers were really lame. Never. Ever. With that being said, it was impressive when the wave started in our West section of the grandstand and went halfway down the 18th fairway with people shouting and cheering. I didn't know the U.S. Open was taking place in London at Wembley Stadium. You could take a snapshot of the gallery and transfix it to London in a game between England and France. Ridiculous.

Within a matter of minutes, we could see Tiger and Rocco stroll up to the 18th hole. The leaderboard across the 18th green, which had read "Thru 16 Tiger Woods 1, Rocco Mediate 0", representing their relation to par through 16 holes, suddenly changed to "Thru 17 Tiger Woods 1, Rocco Mediate 0." The gallery erupted in a mix of moans and wild cheers. Chants of "Rocco, Rocco, Rocco" echoed across the gallery. By now, you've seen the highlights. Rocco hit first and pulled it into the left bunker, Tiger absolutely crushed his drive down the middle of the fairway. From the green, you could hear the "YOU DA MAN TIGER" AND "WOOOO" from the tee as soon as Tiger made contact. Sitting in the gallery some 527 yards away, nobody could pick up the ball but when it plopped in the middle of the fairway, the crowd just erupted. Tiger had a shot and that's all the gallery could hope for. Rocco blasted out to the bunker and shortly thereafter, Tiger pounded a 4-iron 217 yard onto the middle of the green. Mediate hit his approach shot to about 20 feet, leaving himself a makeable putt to win the championship. Tiger had eagled the 18th hole on Saturday and made a ridiculous birdie on Sunday to force this playoff, so the odds of him forcing sudden-death were pretty strong if Rocco didn't make his putt.

As the two players walked unto the green, every human and probably a few rodents were cheering for the show these two golfers had just put on. Within moments, the 20,000 people surrounding the green were dead quiet. To use the old cliche, "you could have heard a fish rip ass" but as soon as Tiger's putter blade made contact with the golf ball, pandemonium broke out. The putt only missed by a few inches and ran a solid 4 feet past the cup. Rocco stepped up for his putt and again, silence. You could have cued Bill Murray's line from Caddyshack

Unfortunately for Mediate, he pulled his putt and denied himself of U.S. Open glory. Once it went to a 91st hole, you could sense Tiger had it in the bag. Rocco had his chance (again) and didn't capitalize. Tiger pared the next hole and Mediate bogeyed giving Tiger his third U.S. Open and 14th major championship. It took me several hours to realize how fortunate I was to witness one of the greatest displays of determination and shot making by one of the greatest, (and when he hangs 'em up, the greatest) golfer[s] of all time. To have a front row seat, an actual front row seat, to see Tiger Woods limp to the podium and accept his third U.S. Open Championship trophy was one of those moments I'll tell my children and grandchildren about. Tiger Woods won the most daunting major championship of them all on an incredibly difficult golf course over five rounds, walking approximately 21 miles, with a torn ACL and two stress fractures in his Tibia. Read that sentence again. It was one of the greatest performances in all of sports and I don't think I'm over-hyping it at all. The amount of torque he puts on his left knee to drive a golf ball 345 yards is hard to fathom unless you've actually tried to swing a golf club as hard as possible, and then double that. What is truly incredible, is that Woods tore his ACL last August... before the PGA Championship which he won and has proceeded to win 9 of the last 12 golf tournaments he entered. His workout regiment is legendary and his pain threshold is clearly other worldly. I'm saddened to know that we won't get to see him hit another golf shot the rest of the year. The Open Championship, PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup won't be the same without Woods in the fold but what we witnessed this past week might have been worth it. I will never forget it as long as I live.

Great Football video

I've been caught up with soccer fever over the last couple months beginning with the end of the Champions League in England and continuing with the truly great Euro 2008 championship. So with that in mind, my buddy Sean showed me this phenomenal clip. Check it out!

FOOT 2008 (REMI GAILLARD)
by nqtv

Belated Update

It's been a while since I last posted. I have no excuses this time, I've just fallen off the wagon. I've got a huge announcement in the next few days, and a few reflections on recent events. This past week has been pretty incredible however. I played a little golf last weekend, shooting a solid 77. On Thursday, I went to opening day of the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines and over the weekend, Anne and I went up to Laguna and Newport beach for a little R&R. The setup at Torrey Pines is unlike anything I've ever seen and that includes the 2007 Masters where Zach Johnson won at +1 (289). Just like the Masters, Tiger was so impressive and the gallery following Mickelson and Woods was massive. I just found out a few minutes ago that I'll also be going to the Playoff round tomorrow morning at Torrey Pines. Should be a memorable day.

The trip up to Laguna and Newport Beach was pretty fantastic. It deserves it's own post due later in the week. For now, I'll leave this little note. That MTV show is a bunch of bullshit. Take my word for it, I have authority on such things.

Alright, it's late out here and I've gotta get to sleep so I can get up at 5:00 to get to the course in time. I love you all and I'm sorry I've been a degenerate with this thing. I'll do my best to really get after it but that's probably a terrible terrible lie.