(A) The Tiger Rules:
http://www.golfonline.com/golfonline/tours/masters/article/0,17742,1175434-1,00.html
- - Tiger's former coach Butch Harmon tells a story from the 1996 U.S. Amateur championship at Pumpkin Ridge. After 18 holes, Woods was five holes down to Steve Scott, whose girlfriend was on the bag. His charge needed a jump start, Harmon thought, so he threw his arm around Woods at the range. "Have you noticed that every time Scott wins a hole, that cute little girlfriend of his laughs at you?" Woods did a double take. "You noticed that, too?" Roused, he clawed his way back. When he drained a 30-footer on the 35th hole to the tie the match (he would win on the 38th), Woods unleashed a flurry of fist pumps, slapped Harmon on the butt, and crowed, "She ain't smilin' now!"
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(B) Transcript:
ROCCO MEDIATE: I bet you didn't think I'd be here today, did you? I believe you, I know you didn't think I'd be here. You didn't, really? That hurt. Go ahead, sorry.
RAND JERRIS: Well, Rocco, you are here today, tell us how you're doing right now.
ROCCO MEDIATE: I have nothing left right now. I'm toast. It was the most amazing day of golf I've ever experienced. Tomorrow is going to be pretty amazing, too, but today was absolutely remarkable.
I've never been there like that before. And I just found out what it's all about. It doesn't matter how you get it in, you've just got to get in and trust what you've worked on all your life. The putting. There's no technical anything going on, it's all make the ball go where you want it to go. It's amazing.
The thing that's most amazing is the man I'm going to play tomorrow has won 13 of these. It's amazing how much it takes. I gave all of what I had today and I can't complain. I knew he'd make that putt.
RAND JERRIS: You really enjoyed yourself. Did you enjoy yourself today?
ROCCO MEDIATE: Yeah, I had a blast. It was hard. I kept trying to do what I was doing. I hit a lot of good shots. Made a lot of putts today for me, when I needed them, big ones, to keep the momentum going. And missed a couple, but I made a few.
It was a blast. I've never had more fun and more insanity. It's just amazing. Some of the shots that came off I was very pleased to see what I did without having ever done anything like that before. I've won golf tournaments, but not like this one.
Q. Can you talk about what were your thoughts about the 18-hole playoff format before this. Do you like sudden death, do you like three or four holes at the British, what are your thoughts?
ROCCO MEDIATE: I think the 18-hole playoff for the National Open is the way to go. Maybe some day we'll go to a four hole, but that's just for TV, I don't know what the deal would be.
But I think it's a great way -- you play for your national title for four days, and if you go bogey the first hole, I don't know, I think it's more important than that.
Q. You would like to go back out right now, though?
ROCCO MEDIATE: I don't know if I could. (Laughter).
I'd probably find a way. But I think tomorrow it's like he came up and said, "We have a game tomorrow", I said, "Yeah, I'll see you in the morning. I'll see you in the morning, big man."
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(C) I've always wondered if the golfing gods would ever find a time to pronounce their judgment on this tidbit from the Tiger lore . . . it will bug me forever until the score is set right . . .
"Tiger Woods only needed three players to make bogey on the final hole of the PGA Championship to get into a playoff, and it's a good thing that didn't happen.
He had already gone home to Florida.
Woods said Tuesday he didn't bother sticking around Baltusrol for the final four holes, even though he was the clubhouse leader with a slim chance of finishing in a tie for the lead. Had that been the case, there would have been a three-hole playoff Monday morning, with Woods nowhere in sight.
Turns out he made the right call by flying home Sunday night. Phil Mickelson birdied the last hole to finish at 4-under 276 for a one-shot victory over Thomas Bjorn and Steve Elkington, with Woods another stroke behind.
"These are the best players in the world,'' Woods said. "Look at who's on that board -- it wasn't guys who have never been there before. If you have guys who had never been there before, then it might have been a different story, but each one of those guys had won major championships.''
Still, it led to questions of what might have been.
Woods finished Sunday evening at 2-under 278. A short time later, the final round was suspended until Monday because of storms in the area, with 12 players still on the course -- Mickelson at 4 under with a short par putt on the 14th hole; Bjorn (who has never won a major) at 3 under in the rough on No. 15 and Elkington at 3 under on the 16th tee; Vijay Singh at 2 under on the 16th green and Davis Love III at 2 under with an easy par putt on the 14th.
When Mickelson made bogey on the 16th hole to fall to 3 under, Woods was watching on television while working out in the gym in Florida, a two-hour flight away from Baltusrol in Springfield, N.J. Had there been a playoff, he would have been disqualified from the playoff and tied for second place.
Woods didn't see it that way.
He figured not all of the five players either tied or ahead of him would lose shots, especially since overnight rain softened the greens and the final two holes are par 5s.
"We got back to the house and looked at the scores,'' Woods said. "Not all five of those guys were coming back [to him on the leaderboard].''
His decision surprised some players.
"I thought he'd be hitting balls Monday morning at the golf course, because it's a tough course to finish on and it's a major championship,'' Stewart Cink said. "If anything, just him being there at the clubhouse and being seen might have affected the way they played on Monday.''
Padraig Harrington recalled the time he was about 10 shots back, posted a low score and headed to the airport as the leaders began to falter. He wound up going back to the course, but there was never a playoff. "I would have sat it out,'' the Irishman said. "But I have a little further to go home.''"
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