PGA

• Woods and Mediate to Monday playoff at U.S. Open

  
  

  La Jolla, CA (Sports Network) - Rocco Mediate could only stand and watch as Tiger Woods produced yet another signature moment.

  Battling a bum knee and needing another electric finish, Woods rolled in a 14- foot birdie putt at the 18th hole on Sunday to tie Mediate for the lead and bring back the U.S. Open for another day, for a Monday playoff at tough Torrey Pines.

  "How much better can this get?" Mediate asked.

  He will get an answer to that question when the players return to the course for another 18 holes on Monday morning, the first U.S. Open playoff in seven years.

  It was less than an inch away from never happening at all.

  Woods, whose dramatic six-hole comeback Saturday gave him the third-round lead, was down to his last chance on the 18th green Sunday, facing a slight right-to-left break for birdie.

  The putt skipped and hopped its way across the one of the worst parts of the green to the hole, curling into the right side of the cup and all the way around to the bottom for the birdie.

  It touched off a raucous celebration by not only Woods, but the thousands of spectators who circled the 18th green and probably the millions who watched in primetime on TV.

  "I knew he would make that putt," said Mediate. "That's what he does." And so the 45-year-old Mediate will need to beat Woods heads-up on Monday to win his first major championship. He posted an even-par 71 playing in the group ahead of Woods on Sunday, collecting three steely pars down the stretch to get into the clubhouse at one-under 283.

  "I left it all out there today," said Mediate. "I'm all over the golf course out there." Woods, seeking his 14th major championship and third U.S.

  Open crown, surrendered his third-round lead immediately on Sunday with a double-bogey on the first hole.

  Favoring his left knee, he played up-and-down all day but rallied with the birdie at 18 to post a two-over 73 -- his worst score of the week.

  "We got one more day," said Woods. "I gave myself a chance." Woods is 13-0 in major championships when holding at least a share of the third-round lead -- a streak that remained alive for one more day, at least.

  Englishman Lee Westwood, playing alongside Woods, also had a chance to make the playoff. But he missed a 15-foot birdie putt at the 18th hole and shot a 73 to finish in third place at even-par 284.

  Monday will mark the first U.S. Open playoff since Retief Goosen beat Mark Brooks at Southern Hills in 2001.

  Woods will certainly be looking to avoid another poor start.

  Carrying a one-shot lead into Sunday, Woods hit two trees at No. 1 and made a double-bogey on the par-four first hole for the third time in four days. He followed that with a bogey at No. 2 and was suddenly two behind.

  Sometime between his bogey at the second and his first birdie of the round at No.

  9, Woods stopped grimacing in pain after his shots.

  His left knee was cleaned out two days after the Masters, and Woods hadn't played competitively in nearly two months before teeing off on Thursday.

  "It is what it is," Woods said, explaining that the pain he was feeling was not the cause of his offline shots Sunday. "[They're] just bad swings." Woods finally regained his lead at the par-three 11th with a tee shot to five feet for a birdie. But the 13th, where he made his electric 70-foot eagle putt in the third round, brought troubles for him Sunday.

  After knocking a tee shot into the fairway, he went for the green and pulled the shot into the deep ice plant. Needing a drop, Woods made bogey. Two more shots into the rough produced another bogey at the 15th, and Woods trailed Mediate by a shot with three holes to play.

  Mediate overcame back-to-back bogeys on the front nine -- he missed a pair of eight-foot par putts -- with a six-footer for birdie at the 10th and a tap-in birdie at the 14th.

  When he missed a six-foot par putt at the 15th, it looked like Mediate might fold the way so many others have chasing Woods for a major championship. But gutsy par saves at the next two holes got Mediate in the lead again, and he had a chance to move two ahead at the 18th hole.

  But Mediate couldn't roll in a 30-foot putt at the 18th to make birdie, lagging it to two feet instead for a closing par.

  Then, he waited in a nearby room and watched as Woods played a shot out of the deep kikuya rough to the front of the 18th green.

  Like many of the others watching, Mediate was sure Woods would make the putt. Even if Woods wasn't so sure himself.

  "That's one of the worst parts of the green. It's bumpy," said Woods. "I hit it good and it took forever to break, but it went in there in the end." Woods will be seeking his first U.S. Open title since Bethpage Black in 2002, theonlyother municipal courseto host the season's second major championship. He was hoping his knee would hold up for another day.

  "It's going to have to," he said.

  Robert Karlsson (71) and D.J. Trahan (72) tied for fourth place at two-over 286, two shots back of Westwood.

  The trio were part of a long list of players who challenged for the lead Sunday but couldn't get it done -- a list that also included 2006 U.S. Open winner Geoff Ogilvy and two-time U.S.

  Open champion Ernie Els, who both finished more than four shots back.

  Phil Mickelson, who played the first two rounds with Woods and Adam Scott in a featured threesome of the top-ranked golfers, closed with a 68 and tied for 18th place at six-over 290.

  Mickelson was supposed to be the player challenging Woods for his first U.S. Open title. Instead, it will be Mediate, who escaped an 11-way playoff at a qualifier last week to make his 44th major start.

  Mediate is looking to become the oldest U.S. Open champion.

  "I have never been this close in a major," said Mediate. "But I feel good. I kept it together somehow."

  06/15 22:49:56 ET