Capelle On Golf

2008 US Open Coverage

Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate battled each other to a standstill over 90 holes at the US Open. Along the way each gained and lost ground on various holes because each has holes they play well and those that give them fits.

The longer holes favored Woods, who was second in driving distance for the week at 324 yards, 41 yard more than Mediate. On the 15 par fives he picked up nine shots on Mediate, who won the battle of the 20 three pars by two shots. On the 55 par fours, Mediate picked up seven more shots on Woods. In sum, Mediate grinded his way to a convincing triumph on the holes that rewarded precision more than brawn, then saw his entire advantage wiped out by Woods on a relatively small number of par 5s.

A look at the individual holes is even more telling. Neither gained an inch on four holes. These included three par threes: numbers 8, 11, and 16. They also halved the par four seventeenth. They split the remaining 14 holes, each winning seven by anywhere from one to five shots.

Woods picked up three shots on the seventh (more on this in a moment), and the par five thirteenth. Mediate gain three shots on the short par four third hole.

Mediate picked up four shots on the first where Woods scored three double bogeys. He also picked up four stokes on the fourteenth, which was both a legitimate two shotter and a gimmicky drivable par four. Woods super long drives on the ninth were largely responsible for his four shot advantage over Mediate on this 612 yard par five.

The Terrible Choice for the 91st Hole
Over the course of 18 holes the hole-by-hole biases even out as much as possible. This is not the case in sudden death, which is perhaps why the British Open and PGA now employ a four hole playoff.

In the 1920s and ‘30s the USGA required players who were tied after 72 holes to play another 18 or even 36 holes. At the 1931 Open, the playoff lasted for 72 holes! The long playoff format is not practical in the Modern Era. In fact, many think that the USGA should go to a shorter playoff format. But since the USGA is in no hurry to end the tournament, and has no qualms about subjecting thousands of employees and volunteers to an extra day’s work, the 18 hole format has remained intact.

If the players are tied after 18 holes, the USGA quickly changes their tune and want to end the festivities as quickly as possible, so they use a sudden death playoff. This is bad enough if the chosen hole favored neither player, or one by the smallest of margins. But when they choose a hole with a huge bias in one player’s favor, the potential for an unfair result rises dramatically.

At Torrey Pines, Woods won the sudden death with a routine par on the seventh hole. In five rounds he averaged 3.6 shots to Mediate’s 4.2. This was no accident as this dogleg to the right worked against Mediate’s draw on both his tee shot and second shot.

A Better Way
From a purist’s point of view, the first hole would have been the ideal hole for a sudden death playoff. A four hole double overtime would have also provided a more fitting climax to the week. Holes 15-18 would have been a nice mixture – a long par four, a tough par three, a medium par four, and a reachable par five. The two players had just played them in one under, so on this particular day, neither had an edge.

Over five rounds Woods played 15-18 in 78 shots to Mediate’s 81, so his advantage was not overwhelming. And one more big plus: the playoff would have ended in front of the huge throng that surrounded the final green, not on the seventh green where a small fraction of the crowd got to see the not-so-grand finale.