I was at the 2008 US Open's 18-hole playoff at Torrey Pines between a gimpy Tiger and the blind optimist Rocco Mediate. I was there. For all of it. And it'll probably go down as one of the better days of my life.

My story begins at midnight. I loaded my backpack up with an amazing book, a water bottle, my shuffle loaded up with Radiolab podcasts, and my light blue Montauk sweatshirt. With the bare necessities in hand I jumped in my totally sweet ride and hit the road. It was a quick 10 minute drive to the Hollywood and Highland lot and after parking my pride and joy I raced to the metro station and caught the 1:02 - the last train - to Union Station. There I hopped on the 2:50 bus, which proved to be the least comfortable part of my journey, and arrived in lovely San Diego at around 5:30. Two trolleys and a shuttle later and I was walking to the entrance of Torrey Pines.

I'm not sure I'll ever get over that first sweeping impression of Torrey Pines. I walked in next to the 12th, a tough par 4 that plays towards the coastline. The fairway crew was out in force, rolling the short stuff. And it should be noted that these fairways are the softest and spongiest I have ever felt. I can only imagine how good it must feel to hit off of them. And after walking the 12th all by myself with the rumble of the mowers and a soft mist over the course, I arrived at the 13th. It's hard to appreciate the grandeur of this hole until you actually see it in person. To the left is a huge canyon filled with thick foliage. Behind is a cliff overlooking the Pacific ocean. And the hole itself is just gorgeous - a straight par 5 with fairway bunkers down the right, leading to a symmetric green surrounded by bunkers on all sides that funnels shots towards the middle and back down the fairway. It's really a sight to see, especially with no one around at 7:15 in the morning.

After walking these two holes solo, I headed over to the practice green and followed Tiger through his entire warmup. On the green he started with short putts and proceeded outwards to lengthier ones. He had two Nike balls which he retrieved himself - just Tiger on the green. At the end he began rolling downhill putts of various lengths so he could get a feel for the pace of the testy downhillers he was sure to face. It was amazing on the 5 footers that he would barely tap the ball and it would track all the way to the hole. Those greens were fast. Then Tiger moved to the practice tee and the fun really got started. He began with a wedge, hitting 50 yarders to a front pin. After landing half a dozen of those within 5 feet of each other, he took out an 8 iron and began piercing shots to one of the intermediate pins. He wasn't really shaping shots at this point, just hitting high sweeping fades and surrounding the pin with golf balls. Then he took out his 5 iron and really started getting ready. He hit balls with a variety of ball flights - a few with a draw, a few with a high fade, a few that flew on a line. As I watched him hit I noticed the balls landed neatly in a line, left to right, across the green. His distance control was epic; the line was almost straight across. After that he took out his 3 wood and played around with some more shots - again a draw and a high fade, but also his legendary punch, which is something to see in person. The ball flies for literally 100 yards without getting more than 15 feet off the ground, then takes off slightly and raises to maybe 40 or 50 feet, and then it just goes. Absolutely amazing to see. Then he brought out the big stick and, of course, killed them. He hit probably half with a draw, half with a sweeping power fade. And after that he went back down the line - a few 5 irons, a few 8 irons, a few wedges. And he ended in a really interesting way. Stevie tossed him one ball. Tiger picked up a tee and teed it up. Then he approached it like it was the opening tee shot at 1. He stepped back, took a few practice swings, stood behind the ball and visualized the shot, and ripped it... dead left... like he has on that hole every day. Whoops. (And it should be noted that his actual tee shot at 1 turned out much, much better leading to his first par on that hole the entire tournament.) After that he went to pitching area and hit a couple 30 yard pitches and sand shots to various flags - with a lot of green, short-sided, and in between. And that was it. A warmup routine to emulate. Then the tournament began

For the first hole I started walking down the fairway and noticed that I had been walking alongside Tiger's wife Elin Nordegren. Kinda cool. Then I bumped into Adam Hodge, a good friend of mine from Wesleyan, who works in San Diego and made it out. It was great to catch up and we caught the first 3 holes together. By the second green we had front row seats and Tiger chipped right towards us. So that was awesome. Then I peeled off and began to follow the group from the tees - watch them tee off, hang around the tee box, get a long-range view of them playing the hole. There are worse ways to watch a golf tournament. On the 10th Rocco bogeyed and Tiger moved up 3 and everyone thought it was over - including, probably, Rocco Mediate. But he strung together 3 birdies to pull even and after a Tiger blip was 1 up. The crowd was going nuts! Chants of "Rocco" were echoing around the entire course. One of the amazing things that happened this tournament is that Rocco became the overwhelming crowd favorite. If I had taken a straw poll I would imagine maybe 80 percent of the people there wanted Rocco to win. And from the tee box on 18 I had a really cool view of his putt to win that he completely yanked. And then Tiger closed it out on the 91st hole of the championship for one of the all-time greatest victories in the history of golf.

So after 19 holes of playoff golf, a moving trophy presentation (that also had hilarious speaker hiccups... oh well), and almost 8 hours of near-constant walking, I hopped a shuttle, 2 trolleys, 2 trains, and in my car and got home around 10. A 22 hour mecca to see one of the greatest Opens in the history of golf. It'll be pretty fun to say I was there. And it was pretty fun to be there too.