Unlikely playoff pair

SAN DIEGO - When Rocco Mediate made a par putt on the 16th hole to maintain his lead in the final round of the U.S. Open, he strutted toward his golf bag and stuck his putter on the ground, then waited, grinning, to see how long it would stand before falling over.

While Mediate was chatting his way around Torrey Pines, Tiger Woods was grinding, on a bad knee, to an unsightly 73, yet he summoned a 12-foot birdie putt on the 72nd hole to force a Monday playoff with Mediate.

Mediate and Woods: One plays with a childlike wonder; the other inspires it. The two will duel today in an 18-hole playoff for what Mediate calls "the National Championship" because two of the most divergent personalities on tour produced exactly the same score through four exhausting days on the longest course in Open history.

"Better watch yourself tomorrow, kid," Mediate joked with Woods, pointing a finger in the interview room. "Ah, he's a little nervous. We'll give you a show, I'm sure."

Father's Day could have been about Tiger Woods, who grew up playing on Southern California municipal courses such as Torrey Pines with his dad and is a new father, but Mediate better fits the fatherly stereotype.

He's 45, and would be the oldest player to win an Open, or to win his first major. Last year his back caused him so much pain he couldn't play, and he's still got the soft middle of someone who enjoys watching sports on the couch while drinking a beer.

Mediate used to use a long putter, hits it short and straight, doesn't wear a golf glove or put headcovers on his clubs on the course, had to win a playoff at a sectional qualifier to make it to this tournament, and plays every round with the carefree attitude of someone who sneaked out of the house to avoid cleaning the gutters.

While Mediate was grinning through the most pressurized round of his career Sunday, Woods -- Mediate's opposite in temperament, body type, achievement and ball-striking -- was grimacing. Woods started his round with a double bogey on No. 1, and bogeyed No. 2 after limping off the tee because of his sore, surgically repaired knee, which he described as "not better."

Woods took some medication during the round that helped with the pain. Asked what his doctor told him about the knee, Woods smiled and said, "Don't play golf."

He'll make it five rounds in five days today after salvaging one of the most unsightly rounds of his career. Leading after 12 holes, Woods bogeyed the 13th and 15th and made a hash of the 18th, hitting his driver into the left bunker ("That's not what I wanted to do," he said), chunking a 9-iron into the right rough ("Not what I wanted to do there, either,") and spinning a lob wedge pin-high to set up, oh, the millionth gotta-have-it putt of his career.

After Lee Westwood's too-gentle downhill birdie putt that would have put him in the playoff, Mediate said he thought, "Well, I know Tiger's not going to leave his short." Woods didn't, catching the right edge of the cup, then crouching and pumping both fists in a celebration befitting a pro wrestler.

For Woods, Monday is the latest day in his crusade to become the best golfer in history. For Mediate, it's like he won a "Play Golf With Tiger Woods!" contest.

"I bet you didn't think I'd be here today, did you?" Mediate said in the interview room. "I have nothing left right now. I'm toast. It was the most amazing day of golf I've ever experienced.

"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 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."

Mediate shook his head, smiled, and said of his unlikely playoff partner, "I knew he'd make that putt."

Jim Souhan can be heard Sundays from 10 a.m.-noon on AM-1500 KSTP. • jsouhan@startribune.com