This Separates Woods From All the Rest

Only one man could have hit the shot.

Only one man could knock a four-iron out of deep rough, 203 yards through one tree, over another, a feat of both extraordinary strength and sweet finesse, then spin the ball to within 15 feet of the hole. And make the birdie putt too.

Only one man could come back from knee surgery, spot the rest of the PGA Tour a month of playing, of shedding rust and getting comfortable again, and not only beat the field, but stomp on it, pull off its wings and leave it flightless.

Only one man can make a guy fall out of a tree.

Thud.

That was the sound of a man tumbling out of a tree on the 14th hole of the Torrey Pines South Golf Course. Hole captain John Gully stood over the fallen man, who was red-faced and smelling of beer, and said, “Now do you understand why you aren’t supposed to climb the trees?”

“But I wanted to see Tiger,” the man said. The man, who preferred, for obvious reasons, to remain anonymous, limped away rubbing his head and trying to shake the pain out of his shoulder. And he didn’t see Tiger. All the good spots were taken.

Pity.

Tiger Woods was magnificent Sunday.

“It’s hard to imagine anybody playing any better than Tiger Woods did today,” Brad Faxon said.

Faxon finished third, five shots behind Woods. Faxon had started the day one shot behind Woods. He got to play with Woods and with Phil “Nike will never, ever sign him” Mickelson in the final round of the Buick Invitational. Faxon and Mickelson didn’t have to fall out of a tree trying to see Tiger. They got to watch and yearn.

“Tiger is just a very impressive player to watch day in and day out,” said Mickelson, who finished six shots behind Woods after starting the day two behind. Some rivalry.

It was the hapless Mickelson who, in a chatterbox conversation he must wish he had never had, suggested that Woods was doing a fabulous job considering his “inferior” Nike equipment.

By the time Woods was teeing it up here, in his first tournament of the season after having knee surgery, Nike had rushed new TV commercials onto the air. Tiger tells us his contract allows him to play any other brand if he should find it superior. So there.

“The shot Tiger hit on 15 was incredible,” Faxon said. You could practically hear Faxon sigh with envy.

Only one man can turn an ordinary golf tournament into the Super Bowl or a heavyweight fight or a Game 7 of any major championship series.

There was tension and nerves and the buzz of “Something Big” when Woods, Mickelson and Faxon were warming up an hour before they teed off. Being a Tiger spectator was a contact sport. A helmet, shoulder and knee pads would have been helpful, even if you didn’t climb a tree.

It is a privilege to watch greatness and worth the climb if you can get away with it.

Maybe that’s why Faxon and Mickelson played the last four holes while smiling. Maybe that’s why Mickelson and Woods walked shoulder to shoulder off the 14th hole, Mickelson talking a mile a minute into Woods’ ear, looking as if he was saying, “Please like me Tiger, please be my friend.”

Mickelson’s ill-considered comments about Woods in Golf magazine -- “He hates that I can fly it by him now. He has a faster swing speed than I do, but he has inferior equipment. Tiger is the only player good enough to overcome the equipment he’s stuck with,” Mickelson said -- proved more than anything why Mickelson is not a big-time winner.

It is not important for Woods to out-drive Mickelson on every hole. Or even any hole. Just as Pete Sampras learned that a 120-mph serve in the corner is better than a 130-mph serve out of the box, Woods understands that golf is about more than making some yokel yell, “You da man!” after a tee shot.

Mickelson is the conspicuous consumer, eager to run out for the newest, coolest gadget, to be the first guy in the neighborhood with the plasma TV, surround sound, the bright yellow Hummer. Woods is the conspicuous winner. Woods doesn’t care if he has the latest technology. His technology is in his arms, his legs and, most of all, in his brain.

“The head on his shoulders, that’s his equipment,” Faxon said.

While Mickelson gets giddy about his technology, about having all the bells and whistles in his bag and says “Look what I’ve got!” Woods takes a four-iron out of his bag and makes a shot from the rough that makes us all stop and say, “Wow, look how Tiger plays.”

Woods said he played better “each and every day” here. Mickelson said, “I know I like to play a couple of tournaments and work my way into a competitive mind-set, and Tiger’s able to walk in and out of it at will. That, to me, is most impressive.”

And, still, Mickelson doesn’t get it.

Tiger doesn’t walk in and out of anything. Tiger is always in that mind-set. He’s a winner. The rest of us are lucky to watch.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com.

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*--* Deep Sixed Tiger Woods led Brad Faxon by one shot and Phil Mickelson by two shots when the final round began and took over the tournament with birdies on three of the first six holes. A look at how those three did over the first six (birdies in bold): Hole Woods Mick Faxon Par 1 4 4 5 4 2 3 4 3 4 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 5 3 4 4 4 6 4 5 4 5

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