In the three-hole playoff, Woods won by a stroke. He put the ball about 18 inches from the flag. May rolled his long putt about three brave inches below the hole after a pretty good read, and Tiger had his third major of the year. The last person to do that was Ben Hogan. It was a fine finish.
Woods routinely makes winning a golf tournament look inevitable.
He scatters the opposing forces and lays waste to the countryside and reduces what should be a competition to an exhibition. Watching Tiger Woods on the last day of the U.S. Open was liking watching Secretariat at the Belmont. So it was hard not to pull for May. He showed guts, and if golf were boxing, the new Sylvester Stallone would already be optioning the story of how this obscure guy from nowhere hung in there, toe to toe, with the champ and, even though he did not win, was not defeated. It was a bad Sunday for underdogs.