It's another great 18 (plus one), but was it really necessary?

SAN DIEGO -- Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate certainly put on a show, but was it really necessary to perform an 18-hole instant replay before finally yielding to sudden death?

Tiger Woods falling to his knees on the 91st might have been as much exhaustion as his putt coming up short. (AP)

Sunday's television rating peaked at a 13.5 in the final half hour culminating in Woods' 15-foot putt that forced the playoff. That's an incredible number of eyeballs that certainly weren't available during working hours Monday to watch the two-man playoff.

With three hours of West Coast daylight left and everybody on site and at home glued to the scene and worked up into a full lather by the proceedings, the USGA could have sent to two players out for a sudden-death playoff like they do at the Masters or a multi-hole aggregate playoff like the ones employed by the British Open and the PGA Championship.

But no. The USGA sent the two players home for the night and told them to report to the first tee at 9 a.m. PT for an old-fashioned 18-hole playoff. So the 45-year-old man with a history of chronic back problems and the one-legged dude hopped up on pain relievers had to play the full loop for the trophy. Is this what they mean by handicapping system?

Even the two contestants had differing feelings about the format.

"I would rather go right now, but that's just me," said Woods, who has now won every kind of major playoff format from a three-hole aggregate duel with Bob May at the PGA to a sudden-match tussle with Chris DiMarco at the Masters.

Mediate is more old-school in his thinking.

"I like the 18 holes. I do," said Mediate. "I know some people don't, but too bad. I think it's a great system, because it's such a huge event. After 18 (playoff) holes, fine, sudden death is fine. I guess they used to go another 18 holes, correct? And then I would have died before that happened."

Is the U.S. Open any more "huge" or important a major than the rest? Does anyone believe that the Masters is tainted because the green jacket might be handed out as soon as the 73rd hole? Or that the British Open claret jug is tarnished by the four-hole format? Or that the PGA should be invalid because they only go three extra holes instead of the full 18?

And what is with the idea that a major championship shouldn't been decided by potentially one bad shot on the first sudden-death playoff hole. Is that any different than one bad shot at the end of regulation? Or one bad shot on the 91st hole?

It is golf, after all. One shot here, there or anywhere and you lose.

The other defense for 18 holes is that it is the best way to determine the best player. Seventeen holes on Monday defined Mediate; 18 decided nothing; and 19 finally elevated Woods. No argument there. But when Jack Fleck was at Torrey Pines earlier this week in the media center, nobody mistook him for Ben Hogan (who Fleck beat in an 18-hole playoff at The Olympic Club in 1955 the day after NBC declared Hogan the winner before signing off the air).