Fore Play - Fore Play Digs - The 2008 US Open

Episode Date: May 3, 2018

The debut of Fore Play Digs relives Tiger's legendary win at the 2008 US Open with a torn ACL and fractured leg. You'll get all the feels as Riggs takes you through what Tiger himself considers his greatest triumph, and does it with behind the scenes details, stories, quotes, and audio you've likely never heard. Let's get it.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/foreplaypod

Hey, 4Play listeners, you can find us every Tuesday and Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. It's nearly 7 p.m. on the West Coast on Sunday, June 15th, 2008. The world's number one-ranked golfer and 13-time major champ at an unprecedented 32 years old walks towards the 18th green at Torrey Pines' fame Southcourse, wearing his traditional red and black Tiger Woods removes his cap and acknowledges the tens of thousands of fans standing, screaming, cheering, very respectfully of course, but standing and cheering as he marches towards his 12-foot birdie putt. Tiger walks towards what could potentially be the most meaningful putt of his entire life, of what could potentially become the most clutch putt ever struck in the history of the game. Now, what makes this put so meaningful, so impactful?

How could this one putt, this one 12-foot putt be so different? How could this one putt be potentially the single most clutch putt in the history of a game that dates back nearly 600 years? Tiger walks to his 12-foot putt, and after his playing partner, Lee Westwood, finishes out, Lee Westwood, famous, of course. force for not being able to win major championships, which is very fitting as he's not going to win this major championship. Tiger begins his very regimented routine, which he carries out for virtually every single putt he hits. Tiger walks a full 360 degrees around his line, then pauses behind the ball.

He visualizes for several moments, and then he steps in. He places his putter down next to the ball and takes two practice strokes. He then looks at the hole and back as he moves his left foot forward, then his right, and slides the putter in behind the ball. He looks again at the hole, then back at the ball, and nestles his feet. Once settled, once comfortable, Tiger takes one final look at the hole, then back at the ball, and pulls the trigger. How do you define greatness? Now, the reason I ask this question is because on this show, we're going to be talking about. about the U.S. Open in golf, we're going to be talking about the 117 year history of the U.S. Open,

and we're going to be talking about a tournament that, on paper, is basically the exact same year-to-year. I mean, on paper, the 2008 U.S. Open is no different than, let's say, the 2012 U.S. Open. None is significantly greater on paper than the other, the winner. gets a nice hefty paycheck. The winner gets a 10-year exemption into the U.S. Open. The winner gets a five-year exemption into the Masters, into the PGA, into the British Open. On paper, these tournaments, these U.S. opens are identical.

Again, none is greater than the other. But I ask it because when we're talking about this tournament and we're going to get into, hey, this may be the greatest U.S. Open of all time, and maybe the greatest US Open of our generation. It's important. It's an interesting thought-provoking exercise to ask yourself, why is that? Why is it different?

Now, you look in the dictionary, you'll probably get something for greatness that's distinguished or prominent, something like that. If you look at Google, it says the quality of being great. Thank you, Google. Very helpful. But for this, greatness is going to be essentially boiled down to context. Now, there's several, there are a handful of U.S.

opens of our lifetime that stand out that could be considered significantly greater than the other. You might think of the 1999 U.S. Open Payne Stewart defeating Phil Mickelson by one stroke at Pinehurst, his fist pump, which is now a statue. Payne Stewart would pass away that fall, which further cements that, the context of that makes that U.S. Open that much greater. And also Phil Mickelson. And, you know, that was an early, early knock in his sort of lifelong pursuit, failed pursuit to win a U.S. Open that makes it great. That context makes that U.S. Open that much greater. The next year, 2000, Tiger Woods wins by 15 strokes.

That Pebble Beach. Pebble Beach, such an iconic place, right? That's great. That makes that great. Now you look at 2012, Webb Simpson at the Olympic Club. No offense to Webb Simpson. Nobody gives a shit about Webb Simpson win in the 2012 U.S. Open at Olympic Club. Although on paper, these tournaments are, of course, the exact same.

They're both U.S. Opens. They provide for the winner, in theory, the exact same thing. So the reason I ask, how do you define greatness is because the answer is very simple. The answer, of course, is context. In this show, this podcast is going to focus on that context. Tiger Woods himself said about this tournament, about the 2008 U.S. Open, quote, my greatest ever championship, the best of the 14. So what is greatness? How do you define it? Well, you define it by context, and we're going to begin that context. We're going to begin the definition of the greatness of this tournament in 1991.

To understand Tiger Woods' love for Torrey Pines, you have to go back to the 1991 junior world. Tiger grew up in Cyprus, California, just outside of L.A. His home was Southern California. His childhood was Southern California. His heart was in Southern California. And when he came to the 1991 Junior World at Torrey Pines, he had already won five junior worlds and was on the hunt for a sixth. As a 15-year-old, this would be the first year Tiger was eligible to compete

in the 15-to-17-year-old age group. No 15-year-old ever. had won that group, but this was Tiger Woods. Kevin Riley, the older brother to Chris Riley, Chris was competing against Tiger. His older brother Kevin said, looking back, Tiger was just a scrawny kid. We all knew who Tiger Woods was because he won all the junior worlds, but that had been on the shorter courses and he didn't get to show off his length.

Unquote. Tiger and Chris had a back-nine battle. when Chris Birded the 11th He took a one-stroke lead But on the very next hole Tiger's abilities took over Chris who would go on to play on the tour And interestingly enough

Was paired up with Tiger in a 2004 Rider Cup match which They won They beat Darren Clark and Ian Poulter Thank God Chris remembers he says Quote Tiger hit it over 300

And was like 50 yards ahead of us He just blew us away from there even at 15, he was a man amongst boys, unquote. Tiger posted a final round 69, very nice, and became the first 15-year-old ever to win the 15-to-17-year-old junior world age group. It was his first win of many at Torrey Pines South Course. Asked afterwards by the LA Times how many tournaments he'd won, Tiger said, quote, I have no idea.

I quit counting after 11 and under. I had 110 trophies. I threw them all into the garage, unquote. pretty savage. By June 2008, Tiger had won at Torrey Pines as a professional six times. Just six months prior to the U.S. Open, he had trounced the field at Torrey Pines at the Buick Invitational by a whopping eight shots. Tiger loved Tori Pines. Caddy Steve Williams, on In-depth with Graham Bensinger, describes the incredible attention, excitement, and anticipation.

Tiger showed towards the 2008 U.S. Open from the very moment that the USGA, years before the tournament even began, announced that Torrey Pines would host it. You know, Tiger spent more time talking about that tournament. Since the announcement, when the USJ made the announcement that the U.S. Open was going to be held at Tory Pines, Tiger, every year that we went to Tory Pines and in the years between the tournaments, he would always talk about the U.S. Open there. It was one tournament that he wanted to win more than any tournament that I'd carried from for. He would talk about every hole where the pin might be located, how this hole might play in the U.S. Open. To understand the importance of the 2008 U.S. Open to Tiger Woods, you simply have to understand the importance of Torrey Pines to Tiger Woods.

To understand the hype, the anticipation, the pressure felt not just by the spectators or the commentators or the field in general, but to understand. the pressure and the impact on Tiger Woods, you have to understand Tiger Woods' relationship with Tori Pines. You have to understand where in his heart Tiger holds Torrey Pines, and the answer is very close. We're going to fast forward 16 years. We're going to fast forward to the end of the 2007

and the beginning of the 2008 PGA Tour season. Tiger Woods is as well, he's Tiger Woods. Now, today, this podcast, it's recorded in May of 2018, and Tiger Woods, you know, we get excited that he's back, that the comeback is real, that hopefully we'll get even a shadow of what we used to get. And people, the critics, they like to say, you know, we'll never get the old tiger. We'll never see that dominance. We'll never see the Tiger Woods that we came to know and that we became obsessed with. Well, that Tiger Woods is, even though he's almost mythical to us now, he is in this period that we're talking about, this 2007 to 2008 period. He is, he is Tiger Woods.

He has won at this point in early 2008. He's won nine of 12 tournaments with two second place finishes and a fifth place finish. This stretch includes a major championship, the 2007 PGA, which, for the record, my brother and I were at, Southern Hill is very hot, very impressive. This also includes winning by eight at Torrey Pines, which we've now mentioned for a third dime. This includes winning the match play. This includes winning at Bay Hill with an incredibly explosive,

stunning but also not really putt on the 72nd hole for Bertie in front of Mr. Arnold Palmer, the hat throw, to win yet again at Bay Hill. This includes all of that. This was Tiger Woods at his peak. He was virtually unstoppable. Long time Tiger swing coach and friend of this podcast, friend of the program, Hank Haney. In his 2012 book, The Big Miss, My Year's coaching Tiger Woods, writes,

quote, in the midst of his winning streak at the start of the year, Tiger let his guard down just long enough to say that Grand Slam was easily within reach. He did in the year with another streak of five in a row and seven of eight, the non-win being a second. And at the end, he was blowing fields. away. Tiger was only 31, yet Nicholas contemporaries like Gary Player, side note, that's our close personal friend, and Lee Trevino were conceding that Jack had never been so dominant, unquote. Tiger then finished fifth at the WGC and second at the Masters.

It was shortly after the 2008 Masters that everything changed. It was shortly after the Masters that everything changed. Tiger underwent arthroscopic knee surgery shortly after the master simply to have his knee cleaned out. He'd had various knee issues over the years and this wasn't an overly unusual procedure. However, once inside the knee, Dr. Rosenberg was stunned to find that Tiger's left ACL was fully torn. Well, Tiger had had a prior knee issues. Nobody knew, nobody suspected, nobody could have ever anticipated that his entire ACL was torn, was fully torn because Tiger had built up his supporting muscles around it so much so that he was getting by relatively fine.

In the Big Miss, Hank Haney details the situation. He writes, quote, immediate atrophy after even minor invasive surgery is normal and the muscles supporting Tiger's knee lost their strength as swelling, stiffness, and soreness set in. That caused the joint to become much less stable to the point that the tips of the tibia, fibula, and femur began to touch. where they met at the knee, unquote. Now, a normal person would have obviously taken a bunch of time off. They would have let their muscles heal, regain their strength, etc.

But Tiger didn't have the time. He immediately began training for the U.S. Open, and it waged absolute war on his knee. It was absolute chaos on his knee. Tiger's original plan was to prep for and play in Jack's tournament, the memorial, a few weeks before the U.S. Open, and then go on and play the U.S. Open and Torrey Pines. in mid-June.

But something else happened. Haney writes, quote, two weeks before the memorial, on the 18th hole of a round at Ioworth, Tiger said he hit a five-iron approach from a downhill lie and felt a crack below his left knee, unquote. Tiger underwent an MRI after this,

and on May 31st, just 14 days before the first round of the U.S. Open, Dr. Rosenberg flew in to consult with Tiger over the results. With Haney and Tiger in the room, Rosenberg opened up his ladder, up and showed that Tiger had two significant stress fractures in his left tibia. The standard fix for this type of injury,

four to six weeks on crutches, then four more weeks at least of rehab. The U.S. Open began in two weeks. Haney describes what happened in the room next. Quote, my thought was that our season was over, and there was now no point in waiting to fix the ACL. Finally, Tiger spoke. I'm playing in the U.S. Open, he said, and I'm going to win it.

Dr. Rosenberg informed Tiger that he could try to play, that there really wasn't much more damage he could do, that it would essentially boil down to how much pain Tiger could take. A few days later, he began hitting balls, and he was absolutely terrible. He was atrocious. He could only hit a few at a time, less than 50 total per day. For a guy who spent eight, maybe 10 hours a day for weeks leading up to major championships trying to prepare, this simply wasn't enough.

He also had to wear a leg brace, which, significantly hindered his movements. On June 2nd, just 12 days before the U.S. Open, Haney spoke to Tiger's agent Mark Steinberg and told him quite simply he didn't think Tiger would even be able to play. On the Wednesday before the U.S. Open, Haney and Tiger flew to California. He played around each of the next few days, and again, he was terrible.

Hany writes in his book, How Things Went on Saturday, just five days before the start of the open. Quote, on Saturday morning, he was terrible again. He sprayed shots over fences. and into hazards losing six balls in nine holes. He actually ran out of balls after hooking his second shot into the water on the ninth hole, but instead of expressing disgust, he kept his reaction amazingly light. Wow, ran out of balls, he said, after searching his golf bag.

Not good, got a little work to do, unquote. There was a bit of a breakthrough that afternoon. During lunch, Haney convinced Tiger to walk nine holes, pointing out that he'd have to do so eventually so he may as well begin now. Tiger agreed, and they also decided to do away, with the knee brace. It turns out, Tiger was much better without it, and the two took some positives away from Saturday afternoon.

However, on Sunday, the reality of the situation again reared its head. They checked into their hotel near Torrey Pines, met Stevie Williams, who hadn't seen Tiger play since the Masters. Any details how their first golf back went. Quote, three of us went to the par five ninth hole, which was the closest to the hotel. To start a practice round, Tiger properly hooked his first drive over a boundary fence on the left out of bounds.

He turned to Steve, who hadn't seen him play since the Masters, and said in a deadpaned voice, Oh yeah, I've got a new miss, unquote. Publicly, nobody knew of Tiger's injury. Tiger would play and practice in a very, very unusually limited fashion that week, and the media wrote headlines about how it was simply a precaution following his surgery. Tiger obviously had no interest in letting the field in on the extent of his limitations, and despite all the hype around the U.S. Open, despite the media, despite the microscope that's constantly on Tiger, it really wasn't until Thursday's round that the world first saw the grimaces.

And it wasn't until well after the tournament that the world learned what was really long with Tiger Woods. On Thursday, Tiger teed off with Phil Mickelson and Adam Scott on the first tee. Now, the first hole is a very tricky uphill, 448-yard par 4. It gives guys plenty of trouble, plenty of fits on normal days, but nobody more so this week. than Tiger Woods. Tiger began this US Open with a vicious hook about 50 yards left and made double on the first hole. Shortly afterwards, he looked at Stevie Williams and said, quote,

Stevie, I don't give a shit what you say, I'm going to win this tournament, unquote. Tiger was all over the place Thursday. Despite the rough start, he'd get back to one under, then he made another double on 14 and ultimately finished with a one over par 72. It was the first time he had walked 18 holes since the Masters two months prior. Jim Vernon, the president of the USGA at the time, walked with the group, and afterwards, he said, quote, watching Tiger on Thursday, I was first amazed that he finished the round. Second, I was amazed he came back Friday to play.

Unquote. That night, the army that allowed Tiger Woods to even walk, let alone play golf, let alone contend in the U.S. Open, was hard at work. It displayed the type of unrelenting effort that would be practiced and required for the entire week to make Tiger's improbable run possible. In his book, Haney describes the process and the efforts of trainer Keith Cleven. Quote, at Torrey Pines, Keith spent more time with Tiger than Steve did. He would get up early to supervise Tiger's morning workout, which was intended to retain the leg strength,

and follow that with long sessions of manual manipulation and icing designed to get the swelling out of the knee and block the pain. After Tiger played his round, he'd come back to his room, nearly spent from the increasing pain, and Keith would work on him again in multiple sessions between dinner and midnight. I broke it, you fix it, was Tiger's refrain with Keith as if he were a machine. But Keith knew that with each fix, Tiger's condition was deteriorating. The trauma from the stress fractures were getting worse,

causing swelling and stiffness so that Keith's skills were in a race against the quickly diminishing strength and rapidly escalating pain in Tiger's leg. It wasn't a race he was confident he could win, unquote. Tiger teed off five shots behind the leaders on Friday, and things looked grim when he bogeed two of his first three holes to again get off to a terrible start. He went out in 38 on Torrey Pines back nine, and missing the cut became a very real possibility. But then Tiger caught fire. He birdied the first hole from a cart path and made four more birdies to post a second nine-thirty. It was a 68 total, and he was just one shot off the lead.

It was a miracle. the greatness was starting to materialize. Mike Davis, the current president of the USDA, who was then the organization's director of competitions, said, quote, the event started to get a little magical on Friday afternoon when Tiger did what he did on his back nine. He shot 30.

I certainly knew it was borderline whether or not he should have been playing. All of a sudden, he went crazy on the back nine. That's when I recall that year's open really starting to get exciting. On quote, Saturday, things got even. wilder. Tiger Teed off one shot off the lead behind Stuart Appleby and tied with Rocco Mediate and Robert Carlson at 200 par. He again, amazingly, he again

doubled the first, then dropped another stroke at the par 4th, and by the time he came to the 539-yard par 513th hole, he trailed Rocco Mediate by five shots. But the 2008 U.S. Open will forever be known as having perhaps the most electrifying moving day in the history of the event. On 13, Tiger hung his T-shot well out to the right, but drew a very favorable lie,

and from about 208 yards, he launched a long iron high end of the air and dropped it right next to the pin. He damn near slammed dunked it into the front pin location. But it was downwind to very firm greens, to very fast green, so the ball bounced to the back edge of the green. He was left with about 80 feet for Eagle.

Trailing by five, he did this. You're looking pretty far right, Murph. Yeah. Looks like he knows what he's doing. I'd guess that. His eyes are way out in here, Merth. Yeah, he might be playing it good five feet. I talked about that could change the championship.

How crazy was that, but? Shout to Johnny Miller for calling that eagle, for then patting himself on the back for calling that eagle, and then for calling that eagle a very impactful moment in the tournament. Johnny Miller is the best. I love Johnny Miller and always will. Tiger Woods then bogeyed the 14. and after Parson 15 and 16, he slapped it all over the place on the difficult par 417

before finding himself in a very precarious spot near the green. He had hit a massive cut around some trees and landed in rough on a severe upslope in a tongue just above the green side bunker. Tiger caught his chip just a bit too cleanly and, well, just listen. After the dramatic of an eagle on 13 and a chip in Bertie on 17, Tiger Woods came to the 18th hole needing an eagle to take the lead going into Sunday. He found the fairway, then carved a tiger-like moon ball with a fairway wood slice into the middle back part of the green. He followed it with a very, very severe grimace.

Now, at this point in the proceedings, at this point in the tournament, nobody really knew the extent of Tiger's injuries. His body language's faces very clearly showed that he was in distress, but nobody knew. Nobody had any idea. Once he got to the green, Tiger faced about a 40-foot downhill breaker for Eagle to take the lead going into Sunday. A little bit left to right going down here. His practice stroke is easy even way left. Do you see that Roger?

He's looking way left, like two and a half feet. Now, these are the moments when you have to just, you have to sit back and you have to ask yourself, how does one man, how does one dude, how does one guy produce so much? I mean, you really think about it. This back nine of the U.S. Open, he's five shots off the lead on the 13th T. He eagles 13. He holes out for. Bertie, a chip that had no business going in on 17.

He equals with another bomb on 18. You got to just wonder, how does this guy? How can he possibly do this? I mean, even outside of this event, you look at the 2005, the chip in on 16 at Augusta. You look at the PGA championship, the playoff with Bob May when he's chasing down the ball. I mean, you look at the hole in one, even at the waste management, the 16th hole. It's become one of the more famous settings in all of golf.

He's got a hole in one there. You look at the better than most putt on sawgrass as Ireland green, maybe the most famous green in the entire game. He's got a massive, the biggest putt in the history of that green. How does one guy do all of that? Two eagles, a hole out. It's crazy. And after all of that, he has a one-stroke lead going into Sunday,

and he wasn't done yet, not even close. Tiger began his final round with, you guessed it, a snipe-hook tee shot on the first hole. He made a double bogey and looked incredibly sluggish. He bogeed the second, and just like that, he was three strokes off the lead. It looked like he began to steady the ship. He birdied nine. He birdied 11.

Things looked good as he sat in the middle of the fairway again on the par 513th hole. He'd eagled it twice this week, and he had a chance to take the lead. Instead, amazingly, Tiger yanked a wood out of play left. He made bogey, and he found himself going in the wrong direction. Another bogey on 15 left Tiger one stroke behind. Rocco Mediate playing a group in front of him, got into the clubhouse at one under par. Tiger was three over for the day and came to the 18th team knowing exactly what he needed. A birdie would force a playoff, a par or worse would mean that everything we've done to this point,

all we've talked about, all he's been through, all the efforts were for nothing. No one who began the day in the top ten shot under par and it left Tiger with a chance. After pulling his T-shot into the left bunker, he had no choice but to layup. Tiger made an uncharacteristic mistake with the layup, flaring a short iron into the right rough. From there, Stevie Williams and Tiger engaged in a detailed debate over how to play the shot. Hank Hany describes the situation. Quote, from there, Stevie made a courageous call under the greatest pressure, convincing Tiger to hit a 60-degree wedge rather than a 56-degree wedge he wanted to use.

Tiger was originally going to try to land the ball short of the green and have it bounce towards the hole. But Steve felt the slope in front of the putting surface would kick the ball too far left. He made a case for Tiger taking the higher lofted club and hitting an extra 20 yards by swinging hard, in the process creating enough spin to fly the ball all the way to the pin and have it stop. Tiger pulled the shot off, leaving himself a 12-footer for Bertie. Stevie Williams himself describes this moment this call. describes what it meant to him and what it was like being in that moment, what they were facing and ultimately what that conversation with Tiger Woods was like.

Here's Stevie in his own words. It was a special week for me as well because, you know, I felt like, you know, we had that long conversation on the 72nd hole about what club it was for that third shot. And he absolutely didn't agree with what I had to say. And it took some convincing for him to hit the shot that I thought that was required. and he did hit the shot, obviously, and it turned out obviously being the right shot, and, you know, he made that putt to get into a playoff. So I hold that tournament, you know, probably as high as any tournament,

just like he does for that reason. Tiger walks to his 12-foot putt, and after playing partner, Lee Westwood finishes out, coming up, of course, one-stroke short. Tiger begins his regimented routine, which he carries out for virtually every single putt he hits. The Greens and Torrey Pines in this area of the country in particular. are much, much more difficult. The pollo grows at a different rate than the rest of the turf it's mixed with, so later in the day the inconsistency in the growth of the grass creates bumpy conditions.

You mix this with spike marks and an entire day of players trundling over this area, and Tiger's 12-footer becomes even more difficult. Later, reflecting on the putt, Tiger discussed his thoughts and his mental approach to the putt. He said, quote, You can't control the bounces. All you can control is making a pure stroke. Go ahead and release the blade and just make a pure stroke. If it bounces off line, so be it.

You lose the U.S. Open. If it goes in, that's even better. Unquote. Tiger walks a full 360 degrees around his line and pauses behind the ball. He visualizes for several moments and steps in. He places a putter down next to the ball, takes two practice strokes. He then looks at the hole and back as he moves his left foot forward. then his right and slides his putter slowly and behind the ball.

He looks at the hole, then back at the ball, and nestles his feet. Once settled, once comfortable, Tiger takes one final look at the hole, then back at the ball, and pulls the trigger. After the putt dropped, a good friend and competitor of Tiger wins. Mark Kalkaveccia said of the putt, quote, I figured he was going to make it. Those greens suck at their best, and they weren't that good that. week, bounced, hobbled, wobble all the way down there, went in, could have lipped out,

curled right in there, it's the legend of Tiger Woods, unquote. Now, you can watch the replay of this putt. It bounces, it hobbles. It's all over the place, and man, it barely catches the lip. He has to play this thing. Probably about a cup. I think he says a cup outside the right edge of the hole. It's a fast putt. And a lot of people say, you know, of course for Tiger Woods, it lips in when it very easily could have lipped out for someone else. But these types of greens, when you watch that roll,

if you hit these putts imperfectly, they're way more likely to bounce offline. But when you hit it so perfect, so flush, and when you're able to do it under pressure, under the most pressure, that this game can possibly provide. That ball holds its line. That ball takes the break that it's supposed to take

and that ball catches the lip and it goes in. Tiger had earned himself 18 holes against Rocco Mediate. The USGA doesn't do sudden death. It doesn't do a three-hole playoff. The USGA does at this point an 18-hole Monday playoff and that's what we would get. Very good for the fans. Very bad for Tiger.

Hank Haney described. grabs Tiger's mood after draining one of the greatest putts in the history of golf. He writes, quote, Sunday night, Tiger seemed more worried than elated. He'd mentally geared up for his leg to survive 72 holes, but now he had to go at least 18 more, and it meant digging even deeper than he'd anticipated. He knew Rocco was going to be steady,

but his biggest concern was himself. Unquote. Tiger had doubled the first hole in three of the four rounds, but he hit the fairway on Monday and threw his arms in the air and a friendly exhale. He parted the first and played very steady on the front nine, building a three-stroke lead after Rocco

bogeed the tenth hole. But Rocco was very resilient. He was relentless. He showed absolutely no quit. Rocco rattled off three birdies in a row against a few Tiger mistakes and once again on the back nine at Torrey Pines, Tiger found himself chasing. Once again, Tiger came to the 18th hole trailing.

This time, he hit the fairway and when Rocco laid up because he didn't have the distance to get there and two. The two players were effectively tied. There was a back right pin and Tiger ripped a four iron into the front left portion of the green. Rocco hit a wedge to the middle of the green and the two had long putts. They both lagged them just past the hole, just outside that comfortable range and Tiger faced about a three and a half to four foot putt for Bertie. He brought Stevie Williams in for the reed, and although these putts don't get talked about

enough, a three and a half or four foot must make putt to extend a U.S. Open on these greens is no gimmy. Tiger drilled it right in the heart and then Rocco matched. The two moved to the par four seventh hole for the 91st hole of the tournament. Jim Vernon, the USGA official who was walking with the group, described the scene. Quote, before we started, Tiger had gone off to take a bathroom break. The fans were screaming and as we were waiting on the scene. the tea on top of the stands, a bunch of fans were hanging over the edge.

One of them yelled down to Rocco, come on Rocco, give it your all. And Rocco said, what the hell do you think I've been doing all day? Unquote. Tiger hit the fairway on seven, then left himself about a 20-foot uphill putt for Bertie. Rocco had struggled in the seventh the entire week. It just didn't sue his eye. It didn't sit up well for him. He struggled again on Monday for the 91st hole of the tournament.

He drove his tea shot into a week. fairway bunker and then viciously hooked his approach shot violently left of the green. From there, you can only muster his ball to about 15 feet above the hole. Tiger's birdie putt came up about a revolution, maybe two revolutions short, and he tapped in for par. After Rocco's par bid sailed by the hole, it was over. And sort of an anticlimactic way, and on sort of an anticlimactic part of the golf course, Tiger Woods won perhaps the greatest U.S. Open in up to this point, the tournament's 108-year history.

A few days after that Monday playoff, the world found out about Tiger's knee. The world found out that Tiger Woods had won the 2008 U.S. Open in 91 holes with a fully torn ACL and two stress fractures in his left leg. Eight days later, Tiger had reconstructive knee surgery and missed the next nine months. as of the recording of this podcast, we are just a month away from the 10-year anniversary of Tiger's last major championship victory, the one we just detailed. You have to ask yourself, what type of U.S. Open of major championship in general? What type of a major win could possibly top this one? What could be more great than everything that we just detailed?

and well if Tiger Woods after everything that he's been through and you know what I'm talking about if Tiger Woods silences the doubters the haters the critics whatever you want to call and if Tiger comes back from the last decade

of disappointments and in dramatic fashion something like what we saw at Torrey Pines at the South Course if he somehow comes back and takes down another one of our national championships Could that tip the context scales? Could that provide the level of greatness we haven't seen in a decade?

I guess we'll see. What you just listened to was the first episode of Fourplay Diggs. Diggs is, as you have just witnessed, a reliving of events or people or places, or really whatever the hell I want, with a lot of behind the scenes, a lot of little nuggets of information that you may not have known beforehand. Diggs was created by myself, Riggs from Barstall Sports, and was produced. of course by Barstool Sports. If you enjoyed, please feel free to show your appreciation for our hard work

by pulling out your credit card and buying our merchandise online at store.barsdwellsports.com. Also throw us a follow on Instagram and Twitter. We're at 4PlayPod. The next 4Play digs, episode 2, will be released on Thursday, May 17th. Thank you for listening.