Mr. Incredible

Why Tiger Woods' victory at Torrey Pines was the greatest one- man performance in a major ever

The right stuff... again: Woods' magic was clear on a 40-foot eagle putt to conclude the third round.

By Jaime Diaz

Photo By J.D. Cuban

November 28, 2008

Many things have been said about the 2008 U.S. Open, won by Tiger Woods in a playoff with Rocco Mediate, almost all of them superlatives. Here's another: It was probably the greatest performance by one man in a major championship, ever.

Pay attention to those qualifiers, because we are not saying Torrey Pines was the best major ever. It lacked two vital components: a larger and more renowned group at the top of the leader board throughout the tournament, and a shootout between at least two of the game's top names down the stretch. Several events with those qualifications would include the Masters of 1942, 1954 and 1986; the U.S. Opens of 1913, 1960, 1967, 1971 and 1982; and the British Opens of 1977 and 1984, with the greatest of them all probably Jack Nicklaus' epic victory at Augusta in 1986.

Our declaration also is different than the finest individual demonstration of pure golf in a major. Plenty surpass it, including Woods himself at Augusta in 1997 and Pebble Beach and St. Andrews in 2000. Other examples would include Ben Hogan at Oakland Hills in 1951 and Augusta in 1953; Jack Nicklaus at the 1965 Masters, the 1967 and 1972 U.S. Opens (at Baltusrol and Pebble Beach); Arnold Palmer in the 1962 British Open at Troon; and Nick Faldo at St. Andrews in 1990. That's just a short list.

Torrey would even fall short as the most compelling display of courage and character by a major winner. The two stalwarts in this division are Hogan's playoff victory at the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion only 16 months after suffering near-fatal injuries in a car crash, and Babe Didrikson Zaharias, already ravaged by the cancer that would take her life less than two years later, winning the 1954 U.S. Women's Open by 12 strokes. A third is Harry Vardon taking his sixth British Open in 1914 at 44 after recovering from tuberculosis, a performance that too often is overlooked.

Must-see action: Whether for the fans getting an up-close view or the millions watching on television, Woods offered a riveting performance for the ages. Photo: Stephen Szurlej

But in terms of a boffo one-man show, Woods at Torrey beats them all. Yes, Francis Ouimet's Cinderella story at Brookline is authentic Americana, while Hogan's ascetic odyssey at Carnoustie in 1953 crowned his legend. Woods, however, had two built-in advantages over those sagas: He was the most compelling figure in all of sport, and his stage—along with being on the edge of the Pacific—was an electronic one that played before millions in prime time on the East Coast. He came with a fully loaded backstory and then provided compelling daily installments complete with increasing tension, a stoic but clearly fierce battle against seemingly overwhelming obstacles. Sunday ended with an incredible climax, and Monday's playoff was a killer encore. As golf theater—a term that to the casual sports fan is oxymoronic—it was transcendent.

The week provided plenty of meat for Woods' role.

1) He was hurt in a way that affected his performance.

Golf injuries are funny things. Woods had ruptured the ACL in his left leg 10 months before, but still won 10 of the 13 events he had played. So while the same injury would send an athlete from any other major sport to the sidelines, it really only hindered Woods in his ability to make the swing he would have preferred to make. He still was able to play winning golf.

But what made Torrey a torture chamber were the two stress fractures in his tibia that Woods suffered two weeks before the tournament. They had occurred as he was trying to prepare for Torrey after undergoing surgery in mid-April to repair cartilage damaged by playing on the bad ACL. The stress fractures limited his pre-tournament preparation to just a few practice balls a day and only nine practice-round holes at Torrey Pines.