Tiger's last major win 10 years ago a testament to willpower

Hank Haney first noticed something wrong when Tiger Woods got up from the dinner table to get something to drink and stopped suddenly, bent over with his eyes closed and then held the position until he could keep walking.

"I remember thinking, 'That's not a good sign,'" said Haney, his swing coach of four years.

The timing wasn't great, either.

It was a month after Woods had surgery for the third time on his left knee. It was three weeks before the 2008 US Open at Torrey Pines.

Haney had come to Florida to start preparations for the Open, only to find out that Woods heard a crack below his left knee while hitting a 5-iron from a downhill lie a few days earlier. His doctor came to the house on May 31 to go over results from an MRI — shredded ligaments in his left knee, a double stress fracture in his lower leg.

The first round of the US Open was 13 days away.

"My immediate thought was I had the rest of the year off," Haney said.

Woods had other ideas.

"He said, 'I'm playing in the US Open and I'm going to win it,'" Haney said. "Either me or him asked the doctor what would happen if he played, and it was just a question of how much pain he could endure. That preceded him saying, 'Let's go practice.' And he left him sitting there on the couch."

And thus began the most improbable of the 14 majors Woods has won.

It was 10 years ago that Woods, having not walked 18 holes since the Masters, endured 91 holes of the US Open that included three double bogeys on the opening hole at Torrey Pines, a 12-foot birdie to force a playoff and more pain than he cares to remember.

That major — his last one at the moment — remains the greatest testament of his will to win.

"I don't know how I did it," Woods said.