Tiger Plays Through Pain

SAN DIEGO (Ticker) - Tiger Woods seems prepared to risk long-term injury in order to beat Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major championship victories. The world No. 1 picked up his 14th major title Monday with his third U.S. Open victory, defeating Rocco Mediate on the first sudden-death hole following an 18-hole play-off at Torrey Pines in southern California. He did it playing his first tournament since arthroscopic knee surgery on April 15, which followed his second-place finish at The Masters.

"Well, only being four back (of Nicklaus), it's hard to believe I'm in this situation, you know," Woods said. "It's hard to believe I've had this nice a run in my career. And hopefully it will continue. I'm going to keep practicing, keep trying to grind and get better."

Woods was in obvious discomfort throughout the U.S. Open and on Friday, after a grueling second round, he appeared set to withdraw from the tournament before taking pain relief to get him through the weekend. The 32-year-old admitted he had ignored doctors' advice warning him of the risks of further injury to play at Torrey Pines and indicated he would continue to do so in his quest to surpass Nicklaus. "As far as future ramifications, I'm not really good at listening to doctor's orders too well," Woods said. "So I end up, hey, I won this week, so it is what it is."

Asked twice, specifically, if he was told he risked further injury by playing at Torrey Pines, Woods nodded his head in the affirmative both times. Asked if he had, then, injured his knee further, the reply was, "Maybe." Woods will now take more time out to rest his troublesome knee, leaving his participation at next month's Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in some doubt. "To be honest with you, I really don't know," said Woods, in response to a question about his chances of playing at the British Open. "I think I need to shut it down for a little bit here. It's a bit sore. I need to take a little bit of a break."

Woods insisted he had never contemplated quitting the tournament and would have had no excuses had he lost the playoff to Mediate, who teed off at No. 18 with a one-shot lead Monday. "I wasn't going to bag it," Woods said. "I think everyone knows me well enough that it's not in my nature, I don't know how to do that. "It helped to have that energy from all the fans, because there were times when it stung quite a bit. I had a couple of zingers out there. ... It's been sore every day. It's been sore for a while. I just deal with it."