After Achingly Close Call, Westwood Feels His Time Will Come

Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate will face off in an 18-hole tiebreaker for the U.S. Open championship today without Lee Westwood, who would have joined the playoff party if his 15-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole hadn’t come up inches shy of the cup.

"I’m struggling to even think who is in the playoff," Westwood said. "It’s not really in the front of my mind ."

Dashed were his dreams of becoming the first Englishman in 38 years to win the U.S. Open.

After his putt rolled off right of the cup, a dejected Westwood, who had gone toe-to-toe with Woods just as he had predicted, tapped in and watched Woods do what he couldn’t.

Woods holed his 12-foot birdie putt, the ball curling into the right side of the cup to force the playoff with Mediate.

"Well, it’s sickening not to be in the playoff tomorrow," Westwood said. "But all in all I played pretty good all week and if somebody said you’re going to have a chance from 20 feet for a playoff on Monday, then I would have probably taken that at the start of the week.

"So while I’m disappointed, I’m pleased with myself and I think that I’ve proved to myself and a few others that I think there is a major championship in me."

Woods and Mediate finished at 1-under-par 283.

Westwood’s 284 earned him a consolation of $484,595.

Westwood and Woods made the turn tied with Mediate, who was playing in the group ahead, atop the leaderboard at 1-under.

But things started to falter for Westwood on the back nine, where he bogeyed Nos. 10, 12 and 13 – where he lost his ball – before recovering with a birdie on 14.

That Westwood hung with Woods shouldn’t be a surprise. He’s the only player to beat Woods when Woods has led by more than one shot going into the final round of a tournament.

Trying to cap a comeback in which he has gone from fourth in the world to the 200s and back to No. 20, Westwood tapped into his experience in five Ryder Cups to deal with what he expected to be a pro-Woods crowd .

" I got cheered on all day," he said. "I was quite surprised, really. There were a lot of ‘Come on, Lee.’ So no complaints."

Only regrets.