2008 US Open (Golf)

This was the best US Open I've ever witnessed live since I started watching, the first being the 97 US Open, where Lee Janzen outlasted smooth swinging, likeable Payne Stewart, who had the bad luck of landing in a divot during the late final round, which may have cost him the Championship.

For selfish reasons, I'm glad Woods didn't listen to his doctors, but for his own good, I question whether he should have played or not on seeing his first painful wince. None of the press really asked him what specifically was wrong with his knee, especially during the lead up to the Open. Only after he won, did they press. I wasn't at the press conference, but I'm only guessing no one asked him if doctors thought there was more cartilage loss than believed or if the healing was not progressing.

Woods himself said a successful year consisted of at least one major win. Perhaps he thought the chance of winning was worth the risk, given he nearly owns Torrey Pines.

So while the world awaits the status of his knee, the coverage by NBC this year was as expected. Instead of focusing on Tiger and Mickelson, how could you not do a segment on a guy with a name like Dinwiddie, one of the unknowns on the leaderboard? Justin Hicks, the first round leader from the minor leagues, was all but forgotten by the weekend.

I wanted to root for both Rocco, the underdog and Tiger, in a quest that's lasted 11 years so far, so I stayed neutral. Miller said that guys with the name Rocco don't get etched on the sacred US Open trophy, I guess referring to his everyman-ness, but the name, Tiger, which sounds pretty everyman-ness to me, is already inscribed twice.