"You wouldn't believe the calls I got," Davis says. "Really nasty stuff from Rocco fans or people who don't like Tiger, saying we sabotaged the outcome of the tournament." Months before play began, Davis selected the seventh, eighth and 18th for the sudden-death rota. A par 4, a par 3 and a par 5, the three holes formed a tight loop close to the clubhouse, making it easy for spectators to follow along.
There were 24,971 of them, a remarkable total for a remarkable day that went from dramatic to anticlimactic quicker than any of the previous shifts in momentum. Mediate hit an awful second shot from that bunker. Woods tapped in for a routine par. The men shook hands. "Not just the event of the year," Jones calls it, "but probably the event of the decade."
Or of all time, at least as national championships go. If a lasting impact on the memory has any say in determining the best U.S. Opens ever played, the 108th version will only become more epic in time. It is human nature to glorify the past, although Woods' 91-hole triumph over Mediate does not require the cushion of retrospection to stand atop the list.
"It was one of those instances where you wonder if you're really seeing something historic or you're just getting caught up in the moment," Fay says. In this case, they are one and the same.
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