THE BEST MAJOR OF ALL TIME?

Exactly what it says on the tin, was the US Open the best major championship that the golfing world has ever seen?

Personally...yes, an enequivocal and definitive yes at that.

Torrey Pines gave us everything we wanted this week, and more on top of that for good measure.

For the first two days the USGA decided to make the world's top three players - Tiger Woods, Phil Mickleson and Adam Scott - go head-to-head by grouping them together. Woods and Mickleson do not get on, as we all well know, and on day two in particular the drama and excitement surrounding the trio was immense.

Elsewhere, there were qualifiers and unknown quantities firing themselves to the top of the leaderboard, before falling away dramatically moments later...all except the new household name, Rocco Mediate.

The weekend arrived with great anticipation adn a billion questions to be answered, most of which surrounded Tiger Woods. How was the knee? Will the knee hold up any longer? Will he have to pull out? Is what he is doing really possible? Oh, and an Englishman - Lee Westwood - was in contention and looking strong.

Naturally Tiger took all the headlines away from the man from Worksop on Saturday evening by treating the 50,000-plus spectators to a collection of trademark 'Tiger Moments'.

A winding eagle putt the length of the 13th green brought him back into contention after a sloppy opening nine, the cheer that greetedthe sight of the ball dropping into the hole was almost deafening. Then, having wasted the momentum he gained there, the world number one slam dunked a chip shot at the 17th into the cup on its second bounce.

That moment clearly embarassed Tiger, not that he was going to request it not be counted, but the eagle he followed with on the 18th was vintage Woods. Clearly in tremendous pain he somehow smashed a driver and a 5-wood to the middle of the green. The stage was set, the grandstands full of anticipation and Woods duly guided the ball into the cup - it was almost as if he sent it in by radar.

Suddenly Woods was in the lead and, as we all know, he does not lose majors when he leads after three rounds.

It was by no means plain sailing on Sunday though, and everyone had forgotten about Mediate. As Woods and Westwood matched each other birdie for birdie, bogey for bogey the 45-year-old American cruised into the lead.

In fact, Woods and Westwood needed to birdie the final hole in order to force a play-off on Monday. Somehow you knew only one of them was going to do it, and you also knew it would be Tiger. Again he sent the crowd wild as his 12-footer for birdie dropped into the side of the hole.

So it was Woods v Mediate in an 18-hole Monday playoff...many believed it was to be a huge anti-climax to a superb tournament. Would it?

Yeah right! No chance!

For a start, Woods finally managed to NOT double-bogey the first hole. Actually it was rather ominous as Mediate missed short putt for par and Woods lead.

However, Mediate came within inches of a hole-in-one at the par-three 3rd hole and, as Woods bogied, he suddenly lead.

Back came Woods, for two holes Tiger played like we all know he can as he birdied two of the toughest par-4's on the course to storm ahead. Could it be all over? Not a bit of it!

Mediate completed a devastating hat-trick that put him in pole-position as the final furlong approached. Birdies at the 13th, 14th and 15th gave him a one shot lead. Woods gave himself opportunities at 16 and 17 but both birdie putts came up just an inch short of the hole, could the Woods record in majors be coming to an end?

Unfortunately for Mediate, the 18th plays right into Woods' hands. The world number 158 does not have the length required to get to the green in two...Woods does.

Of course Tiger made the birdie he needed to force a sudden death playoff hole and suddenly a sense of destiny arrived.

The first extra hole, the 91st of the week, was to be the long par-4 7th - that would be the one Tiger birdied earlier in the day then.

Woods had the honour and blasted his drive 307 yards down the centre of the fairway. The pressure was on Mediate, and for the first time it actually proved too much. The likeable American pulled his tee-shot into a fairway bunker and did the same with his second to find the grandstand left of the green.

Tiger floated an 8-iron onto the front edge of the green - the only thing wrong with the finish was that Woods left the winning putt a fraction short, so Mediate had a 15-footer to force another extra hole.

However, it was not to be for Mediate as his putt rolled past the right edge of the cup. It was over. Woods was the champion. Did we expect a different result? Really?

Woods' fourteenth major may well turn out to be his best. He had not played in the two months since the Masters. He was still carrying a knee injury. This is not good preparation for any tournament, let alone the US Open. What those writing him off forgot is...this is Tiger Woods, he is not like the rest of us, he is - as Butch Harmon describes - Superman!

The next question we want answered is will he be at the Open? You have to think he will try, but whether he physically can is another matter. What we do know now though is that even if he is so much better than everyone else that not only does he not need to play well to win anymore - he does not have to even have two legs.

Scary isn't it!