Sure, it took him about a week to apologize for saying that Rocco Mediate looked like the guy that cleans Tiger Woods’ pool, but at least he did it, right?

“I chose my words poorly and in the future will be more careful,” Miller said in a statement. He added that his intention was to “convey my affection and admiration for Rocco’s everyman qualities and had absolutely nothing to do with his heritage.”

The apology by Miller, NBC’s lead golf analyst, came after two Italian-American groups protested his remarks, with one of them demanding that NBC suspend him.

Ohhhhh. Now I know why he apologized.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Sports, A. Kenneth Ciongoli, the chairman of the National Italian American Foundation, wrote: “We are certain that NBC and Mr. Miller meant no harm and was simply having some fun at the expense of Italian Americans. Nonetheless, this type of humor is problematic as it reinforces a demeaning and damaging stereotype about an entire ethnic group.”

Ciongoli said that his letter “is not meant to be an attack upon NBC, but rather to be an illumination of a problem that continues to trouble our society.”

“The perpetuation of negative stereotypes and demeaning language hurts us all,” he said.

But Anthony Baratta, the president of the Order Sons of Italy in America’s commission for social justice, demanded Miller’s suspension. “If Johnny Miller had made a similar remark about Tiger Woods,” he said Thursday in a press release, “he would have been fired.”

Mr. Baratta, are you so sure about that one?

For my latest Sports Central piece, I analyze the common characteristics of the men that have triumphed over Tiger Woods in major championship play. I think I have found their common thread and explain the secret to beating Tiger Woods.

Check it out!

TigerWoods.com reported today that Woods will end his 2008 season to have knee surgery for the fourth time.

Tiger Woods announced that he will be forced to undergo reconstructive Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) surgery on his left knee and will miss the remainder of the PGA TOUR season.

In addition to the knee surgery, Woods will require the time off to rehabilitate a double stress fracture of his left tibia that was discovered last month just prior to the Memorial Tournament. The stress fractures were attributed to Woods’ intense rehabilitation and preparations for the U.S. Open. Doctors have assured Woods that the stress fractures will heal with time.

“I know much was made of my knee throughout the last week, and it was important to me that I disclose my condition publicly at an appropriate time. I wanted to be very respectful of the USGA and their incredibly hard work, and make sure the focus was on the U.S. Open,” said Woods. “Now, it is clear that the right thing to do is to listen to my doctors, follow through with this surgery, and focus my attention on rehabilitating my knee.”

A date for the knee surgery, as well as the necessary rehabilitation schedule, has not yet been determined.

“While I am obviously disappointed to have to miss the remainder of the season, I have to do the right thing for my long-term health and look forward to returning to competitive golf when my doctors agree that my knee is sufficiently healthy,” said Woods. “My doctors assure me with the proper rehabilitation and training, the knee will be strong and there will be no long-term effects.”

Wow, this really makes Retief Goosen look like bad.

Goosen was in the field at Torrey Pines, finishing in a tie for fourteenth, but when asked whether he believed that Woods was faking the extent of his pain, he said: “I think so. It just seemed that when he hit a bad shot his knee was in pain and on his good shots he wasn’t in pain. You see when he made the putts and he went down on his knees and was shouting, ‘Yeah’, his knee wasn’t sore.

“Nobody really knows if he was just showing off or if he was really injured. I believe if he was really injured, he would not have played.”

The South African was trying to soften the impact of his remarks last night, although he did not attempt to retract them, merely implying that he was not being serious. When approached by The Times on the eve of the BMW International Open in Munich, Goosen said: “I was being light-hearted. No one but Tiger himself knows how badly hurt he was. But if he was really badly hurt, he would have withdrawn, wouldn’t he?”

Goosen’s comments caused embarrassment at IMG, the management group that looks after the interests of both golfers, which would not make an official statement last night, but suggested that the South African’s remarks may have been misconstrued.

And then, later in the TW.com story, a possible explanation for his skipping Westchester last season:

In the fall of 2007, Woods decided to forego a number of playing opportunities to allow the knee time to heal in preparation for the 2008 season.

It appears that the April surgery was going to be a setup for this fourth surgery, but that the rehabilitation and the Open ended those plans.

He still experienced pain early in 2008, however, and in an effort to allow him to play through the remainder of the season, elected to have arthroscopic surgery immediately following the Masters to clean out cartilage damage. The cartilage damage in fact developed as a result of the ACL injury, and Woods’ hope was that the arthroscopic surgery would get him through the remainder of the season and allow him to delay the ACL surgery until after the season.

“My rehabilitation schedule after the arthroscopic surgery was designed with the goal of returning to play at the Memorial, but the stress fractures that were discovered just prior to the tournament unfortunately prevented me from participating and had a huge impact on the timing for my return,” said Woods. “I was determined though, to do everything and anything in my power to play in the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, which is a course that is close to where I grew up and holds many special memories for me. Although I will miss the rest of the 2008 season, I’m thrilled with the fact that last week was such a special tournament.”

This is Tiger’s last thrill for the season. And now the speculation can begin about who will win majors with him out, if Woods will come back the same, and how in the world the American Ryder Cup team has a prayer at Valhalla.

At least it is according to Bob DiCesare at the Buffalo News.

A sudden-death playoff Sunday just wouldn’t have been the same. A four-hole aggregate showdown, the format employed at the British Open, would have missed the mark. It makes perfect sense that when our national championship ends in a tie it should be determined over another round played the next day, with the deadlocked golfers starting anew. The full-round format cancels Sunday momentum and allows the anticipation to build.

Thankfully, the United States Golf Association remains firm on this issue, refusing to budge on behalf of television and viewer preferences.

[T]he USGA continues to honor our national championship by demanding a full-scale playoff. It won’t always result in the most compelling matchups, but one Woods-Mediate duel in a lifetime makes it all worthwhile.

I think DiCesare is coming from a short-sighted of the 18 hole playoff in the history of the US Open. In the history of the US Open, more playoffs are uninteresting than classics. The last one in 2001 between Retief Goosen and Mark Brooks ended in Goosen winning by two with a round of even par. Even something that close is not remembered very fondly – and those guys finished under par!

There are a few in relatively recent memory, though, that do stand up to the Woods-Mediate classic. In 1994, at Oakmont, Ernie Els beat Loren Roberts on the 92nd hole of the championship after disposing of Colin Montgomerie at the 90th. At Medinah in 1990, Hale Irwin beat Mike Donald by a shot in the famous hand-slapping victory.

The others of note are only of note because of the incredible upset involved (Fleck v. Hogan in 1955 and Ouimet in 1913 to put golf on the US map), or because of the legends involved (Trevino/Nicklaus in ‘72, Nicklaus/Palmer in ‘62 for the changing of the guard).

In effect, it is a crapshoot as to whether or not the playoff format works in practice. It has to have a close match and a great or infamous golfer involved for it to be remembered. Fortunately, though, this playoff had that and will go down as spectacular.

I do want to break up a misconception about this year’s playoff, though, that came up in the piece and blogger Phil Capelle’s yesterday.

There was one glitch in the Woods-Mediate showdown, and it came when the playoff extended beyond the 18-hole playoff. Instead of returning to hole No. 1, which would be standard course, the round continued at No. 7. Woods had struggled on No. 1 much of the week, making double bogey there three times. Conversely, No. 7, a monster par 4, put Mediate at a distinct disadvantage because of its length.

The sudden death holes were not rigged in Woods’ favor. 7, 8, and 18 made an easy, repeatable loop around Torrey Pines South and that is why there were the sudden death holes. It was not because Mike Davis wanted Tiger to win. These were chosen long in advance of the championship based on course logistics and not the potential players involved.

Unlike some of Tiger Woods’ other major championship wins, this one was not a masterpiece. Rather, this was a championship in which Woods played well enough for the right stretches of time to stay in contention, take the lead, and ultimately win his 3rd US Open. Phil Capelle slapped an interesting term on what Woods did this weekend. He calls it a “scoring binge.”

Tiger Woods orchestrated two scoring binges covering 11 holes in which he knocked eight shots from par. Oddly, both were kicked off by wildly errant tee shots where he was lucky to escaped disaster.

On Friday, his tee shot on the first hole (his tenth of the day) was a classic wide right that stopped just to the left of a tree. He took full advantage of this break by lofting an 8-iron onto the green and canning a 20 foot birdie putt. He then birdied the second with a 25 footer, parred the third, then rolled in a 35 footer on the fourth. His birdie binge culminated with a twisting 18 foot putt on the fifth.

Woods’ second binge came on the back nine on Saturday. When he teed off on the par 5 thirteenth he was one over for the tournament and several shots back of Mediate. He pushed his drive at least 60 yards off line, but naturally drew a very playable lie in the rough. His iron shot landed within a foot or two of the hole before rolling just off the back edge 65 feet from the cup. No problem. His cross country putt broke at least five feet before diving into the cup, setting off an enormous explosion from the gallery.

After a bogey and three pars Woods hit another patented miss far right of the seventeenth fairway. Once again he drew an open shot, which he knocked up next to the green. He then hit his pitch way too hard, but it bounced once and dove straight into the cup for a much undeserved birdie. Woods concluded his binge with a 40 foot eagle putt on 18.

You can tell that Phil is not a Tiger-homer at all, so that may offend you if you are. But, the point should be well taken that Tiger did not own Torrey or the field for 72 holes. In fact, he probably actually led the championship for fewer holes than any of his major wins. It goes to show, though, that the only hole that matters is the last one. Or the last one plus another 18, plus another.

Just to round out the coverage of the Open, let’s talk TV numbers. As reported in the NY Times, the Sunday rating in primetime produced a 13.5 number. That is basically CSI good – the most popular show on television – and on a night not known for huge TV viewership.

To put that into historical perspective, here are the ratings for the US Open going back into the 1970s.

Year # View HH# Sh R Net Winner

This Sunday is the highest rating ever for the US Open by 6 whole ratings points.

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but the pace for the final round was fantastic. It was much better than the 5 hour trudge at the Masters. In fact, I think it was over in less than four hours – and much more dramatic. I don’t know if it was the USGA putting more players on the clock or not. Woods was on the clock on Friday and Saturday. But, it did seem like the USGA was getting players through a lot more quickly on a course that is not exactly set up for speedy walking.

What a treat today was. We got 19 holes of spectacular golf in a playoff. Both players matched each other and the course, shot for shot, to fire a round of even par 70. Rocco got caught in a fairway bunker on the first hole of sudden death and that awkward lie was pretty much all she wrote. Even despite that situation, Rocco still had a chance to extend the playoff.

That was the story of the day for Rocco. At times, particularly on holes six through ten, it seemed like he was out of it and that this would end a rout. Still, Rocco had holes left and found a way to rally on the backside. He came back with birdies on the back side at 13, 14, and 15. The guy would not go away and that his a tribute to the kind of guy that he has been his entire career. Though the payoff is not in victory, it is in an immeasurable amount of respect.

Woods, to the contrary, looked as though he was coming up just short. Something appeared to be off about Woods all day long. Holes 11 and 12 let Mediate back into the championship. Still, like yesterday, he summoned just enough of his own talent to be able to survive until he could win. It is the mark of a champion. This is the 14th time that we have seen that talent end in a major title, and certainly the most dramatic of them all – no disrespect to Chris DiMarco or Bob May.

Thousands of words could not do this playoff justice, although I am certain someone is going to write a book about this week. (John Feinstein, maybe?) So, I will try to sum it up in one: incredible.

Then we go to sudden death. With the way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised. A match for the ages today.

UPDATE 4:10pm ET:

The sudden death portion of the program begins on the 7th hole. Scores for the week? Mediate is +1. Woods…-1.

To be clear, we go 7, 8, and 18 in a three hole loop. We keep playing the loop until there is a winner.

Tiger may very well spot Rocco Mediate a couple of shots tomorrow morning in the playoff. Woods is +5 on that hole this week – 3 doubles and a birdie. How about Rocco? He has pared it every round.

On the front, Woods is +3 this week. Mediate is -5. With that in mind, Woods will have to really push from the start to beat his record this week.