Tiger Woods is awesome.

OK, not exactly a news flash. That's right up there with shocking proclamations like the Earth is round, gas prices are high and tofu tastes like cardboard.

But, Tiger Woods is awesome. That can't be said enough.

Woods hadn't played a full round of golf since he had knee surgery on April 15th and was in visible pain throughout the 91-hole marathon of a U.S. Open.

Yet he still won.

Even at far less than 100 percent, Woods plugged away against Joe Average Rocco Mediate, finally beating him in a playoff hole at the end of a playoff round on Monday.

For me, watching golf is like taking Ambien: it puts me right to sleep.

But not on Monday. I was glued to the television, watching as each hole played out.

There is something dramatic about an 18-hole playoff between two golfers, especially when the two golfers couldn't be more different.

On the one hand, you have robo-golfer Tiger Woods. You expect every golf ball he hits to defy the law of physics, pass through trees, bounce off Johnny Miller's head, travel 500 yards on the fly and rattle into the cup.

You expect him to walk

over the water hazard to get to the green.Then you have Rocco Mediate.He's the 158th ranked golfer on the PGA Tour. Before the Memorial last week when he came in sixth, his highest finish with 36th. He's ranked 175th on the tour in driving distance.Happy Gilmore thinks he is a clown.Yet Woods and Mediate battled for five rounds and an extra hole before Woods finally persevered.Mediate, who hails from Greensburg and typifies the everyman mentality of Western Pennsylvania, had his chances.But Woods is just too good, even on one good leg.After Woods made a birdie putt on No. 18 Sunday to force the playoff, you just knew he was going to win. Somehow, some way, Tiger Woods was going to claim his 14th major.And Mediate would still be stuck on zero.It was like watching an action movie, knowing the protagonist was going to triumph. You just weren't sure how.This one certainly had a Hollywood ending.It was revealed Wednesday that Woods played — and won — the U.S. Open with a torn ACL and two stress fractures in his tibia.Take that, Paul Pierce. That's a knee injury that requires a wheel-chair exit.I wasn't convinced Woods was the greatest golfer of all time until Wednesday when I found out he had more things clanking around in his knee than in a pinball machine.Now, I'm a believer.I will bow to all things Tiger. I will worship the Nike Swoosh and that funky Tiger Woods logo. I will only wear red polo shirts on Sunday. I will do the Tiger fist pump whenever anything good happens to me.He is my Golfing God.Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.