ROCCO MEDIATE hailed Tiger Woods' resilience as the world No.1 forced a US Open play-off with a dramatic birdie putt on the final green at Torrey Pines.
With No.157 Mediate holding a one-stroke lead after signing for a level-par final round 71 and watching on a monitor, Woods holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th to force an 18-hole play-off today after the 13-time Major winner recovered from shipp
ing three shots in his first two holes to card a fourth round 73.
"Unbelievable, I knew he would make it," Mediate said after Woods' putt rolled around half of the cup before dropping.
Mediate was two strokes better than Woods for the day and has only one over-par round this week, a 72 on Saturday, after which he mentioned he was hoping to get a chance to play with Woods in the final group.
"Sometimes you got to be careful what you wish for," added Mediate. "I knew he would make that putt, that's what he does. I can't believe I'm even in this situation at all. It's great."
Woods entered the final round at three-under and with a one-stroke lead but failed to find his rhythm and carded his worst round of the week.
"That's actually one of the worst parts of the green, it's so bumpy down there," Woods said of his putt on 18. "I told myself it was two and a half balls outside to the right, but make sure you stay committed to it. And I did. I hit it good. It took forever to break, but it finally snuck in there at the end."
Woods is 13-for-13 in Majors when entering the final round with at least a share of the lead and will have a chance to keep that streak intact as he also looks to maintain his 100 per cent record in play-offs in Majors.
He beat Bob May at the PGA Championship at Valhalla in 2000 and Chris DiMarco at The Masters in 2005.
Mediate had a chance for a two-stroke lead but missed a birdie chance at 17 from 10ft before he had another chance at the last from 35ft.
"I was trying to beat him on my putt, my 35-footer," Mediate said. "I just didn't quite get it out there. But anyway, I made good putts on 16 and 17 just to be here. What can you do?"
Lee Westwood was one shot and a matter of inches away from taking his bid to become the first English major winner since 1996 into today's 18-hole play-off.
Westwood finished third on level par after missing with a tricky 20ft putt which would have seen him join Rocco Mediate and Tiger Woods in the extra round.
The 35-year-old, who played the final round with Woods, admitted his frustration but had plenty to be proud of after a fine performance over four daunting days on an unforgiving course.
"While I'm disappointed, I'm pleased with myself and I think that I've proved to myself and a few others that there is a major championship in me," he said after carding an even-par 71 at Torrey Pines.
"It's sickening not the be in the play-off but all in all I played pretty well all week and if somebody had said 'you're going to have a chance from 20 feet for a playoff' I would probably have taken that at the start of the week."
Westwood, who started the day one stroke behind Woods, bogeyed the first hole but was rock solid for the rest of the front nine, gathering seven straight pars before making birdie at the par-five ninth.
He started the back nine in front, but the next hour proved costly at he ran up three bogeys in four holes due to some ragged shots, before stemming the flow with a tap-in birdie at the 14th, where he almost drove onto the green.
He needed one more birdie down the stretch to join the Mediate on one under par but it was not to be.
He left himself a tough putt at the last and explained that he intentionally hit his third shot long because he did not want to take any chances of his ball sucking back into the pond guarding the putting surface.
But the real problem was that his second shot, a lay-up from the fairway bunker, ended a little too far from the hole.
"I was looking for something like 96 or 97 yards to the front (of the green) and I got 100," said Westwood.
"I was caught between sand iron and lob wedge (for the third shot) and I don't really want to hit lob wedge hard, because anything coming back fast down that green and it's in the drink."
Westwood, who carded 73 to finish at even-par 284, recorded his best major result, but Nick Faldo remains the last Englishman to win a Major, having come back to beat Greg Norman in the 1996 Masters.
The full article contains 864 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
