Was Tiger Woods’ 2008 U.S. Open Win The Best Athletic Achievement Ever?

Tiger Woods’ near impossible playoff win at the 2008 U.S. Open might be one of his two greatest achievements (along with his 142 straight made cuts).

Some know the backstory of Woods overcoming multiple injuries including a fractured leg. To “walk” 72-holes, then an 19-hole playoff while playing winning golf is a near mythological saga for the ages. Yes, Ben Hogan’s 1950 U.S. Open win after suffering a near fatal car accident is right up there. So lets call it 1 and 1A depending on your preference.

ESPN golf writer Bob Harig posts a must-read account of what truly everyone in Tiger’s camp went through that week.

Woods: “I had ruptured my ACL in July the previous year, and I played on it with no ACL and my meniscus was just, I was trashing it. My leg was sloppy. I knew I had to go because I had fragments there, but my surgeons were saying that I also have to have the knee reconstructed. And I said, ‘Well, we’ll just do a cleanup job first,’ because I wanted to play the next three major championships.

“When I came back [after the procedure], I was doing a photo shoot, and I was hitting a shot from a downhill lie and that’s when I cracked [the tibia in my left leg]. I was hurting and I didn’t know what was going on, so I went to get an X-ray first and that’s when it showed I had that ‘Y’ with a lightning bolt at the bottom of it and I had fractured it. From there, they were saying I was pretty much done for the year. I said, ‘Ah, I don’t know about that.’ … I was hoping to get through the majors, have the reconstructive surgery after the PGA, and I’d have nine months to get ready for Augusta. But nothing worked out that way.”

Hank Haney: “They gave him one of those big football lineman braces. He’s wearing that thing and trying to practice and play, but he can’t hit the ball. He played nine holes and lost like every ball. He had six or seven balls and lost them all, shot 47 or something. It was terrible. Didn’t even finish the last hole. Some of that was the brace and that was the last day of the brace.”

Steve Williams, Woods’ caddie from 1999 to 2011: “I had already had a heads-up from Hank Haney. ‘Stevie, Tiger’s got no right to be playing in this tournament.’ I’ll never forget those words. He went out there on the Sunday and I could absolutely see the discomfort he was in. The golf was not of the quality you would expect from Tiger Woods. No doubt, he was struggling.”

“I asked Tiger on three separate occasions if it was the right thing to carry on. And I got the same reply each time: ‘F— you, Stevie, I’m winning this tournament.’ After three times, I wasn’t going to say it to him again.”

Rocco Mediate: “Every single day, unless I don’t leave the house, I get a question about it. Everyone says, ‘I was at Torrey on Monday, it was the most unbelievable thing I’ve ever seen, the way you played.’ I’m like, yeah, but I still lost. I keep watching the replays. … ‘But it looked like you were having so much fun.’ You think? I get to play for the national Open against the No. 1 player in the world on a Monday for a playoff. What’s not fun about this? It was the most fun I’ve ever had on a golf course, period.”

Seriously, carve out some time to read the entire piece.