Gotta-Grip Golf Blog

For my money, this has to be among (if not THE) best US Open ever played. I will leave to those who know golf much better than I to make detailed comparisons; however, what could have been more exciting than the FIVE days of professional golf at Torrey Pines Golf Course (a public course).

As we in the Midwest are battling what is being called the 500-year flood (in some parts), professional golfers Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate competed in what could be termed The 50-Year Golf Match, & easily is the match of this century so far.

Mediate deserves a trophy for second place for his showing at this tournament, and perhaps that will come in the form of vaulting his ranking (157th prior to this event) to somewhere more towards the #1 position held by Woods who barely scratched out the win on his shaky knee. There was immediate talk of a spot on the Ryder Cup team for Rocco.

I think the way the gallery and public took to Rocco will bode well for commercial endorsements as he embarks on the rest of the 2008 season.

Yes, Tiger was in bad shape, just coming off knee surgery, and yes he answered every great shot with two of his own, but you have to also hand it to Mediate (12 years senior to Woods), who himself had back surgery. Anyone who has ever had lower back or knee problems might have been extra impressed that these two lasted 91 holes—period!

As Tiger said in the post game interview, "I am just glad it's over...I am DONE for a while".

Since this historic battle took place at a public course…open to all, maybe the best way to appreciate how good these guys are, and why the likes of Mickelson, Els, Garcia, et al, came up short—would be to play there some time.

It would have indeed been great to see someone win their first Major at 45 years old, which would have also made Rocco the oldest to win the US Open, but I'll bet this showing put a little "gas in his tank" and we've not seen the last of him this year.

What a country!

The Gotta-Grip Team