Very little, it seems, can stop him. Left knees that have been operated on three times try but fail, and 45-year-old journeymen, deploying the undeniably potent force of knowing they really have nothing to lose, come up agonizingly short too.

Perhaps the only players Tiger Woods has any reason to fear are not the game’s other superstars, who probably feel constant frustration at not being able to match his physical and mental attributes, but those way down in the world rankings who recognize they are significantly inferior in every single department. The players who feel almost privileged at having the opportunity to go head to head with the greatest, most exciting player the world has ever seen.

Consider some of the players who have taken Tiger down, or at least come close. Australia’s Peter O’Malley, ranked 66th in the world, beat him 2-and-1 in the first round of the 2002 Accenture World Match Play Championship. Another slightly obscure Aussie with an Irish name, Nick O’Hern, beat him twice at the Match Play, first in 2005 and then again last year. Californian Bob May took him to the wire in an enthralling three-hole playoff at the 2000 PGA Championship, and yesterday, a spirited Rocco Mediate came within one misjudged putt on the 90th green of denying him a third U.S. Open and 14th major title.

Mediate, the supposed “Everyman” (how many everymen do you know with five wins on the PGA Tour and career earnings of more than $14 million?) looked to be all washed up after losing a stroke to Woods at the 10th hole when he really should have picked up at least one himself. With Woods short of the green in two, Mediate’s approach checked up a little short of the green but close enough to the hole for him to make a run at birdie. But he chunked his chip with a lofted iron when a straighter-faced club, or even a putter, would have been the better option, and then he missed the putt. And after Woods holed from 10 feet for par, Mediate walked to the 11th tee three shots down. Who gives Tiger Woods three shots over eight holes?

The huge galleries — clearly not much work got done in San Diego yesterday — did their best to encourage Mediate. After getting a shot back with a solid par on the 11th, and another at the colossal 504-yard par-4 12th where he knocked a 240-yard three-wood to within 25 feet of the hole to guarantee his par, the Pennsylvanian completed a fantastic trio of birdies in succession.

At the end of this inspired stretch, Mediate had a one-shot lead — a good position to be in for sure, but obviously not enough against a player like Woods, especially with an easily reachable par-5 18th coming up.

When he left birdie putts at the 16th and 17th holes short, one got the feeling Woods was just waiting for that 18th hole to appear. There his distance advantage would really count and another eagle (he had three already) was a distinct possibility.

Mediate had to find the fairway to give himself a chance of firing at the green in two and leaving himself an eagle putt of his own. But his drive went left and he was forced to lay up. Tiger meanwhile striped his drive, grimaced (not necessarily a bad sign, as his ball usually found the short grass after such a reaction) and hit a four-iron to the front of the green, 40 feet from the eagle.

Actually, he had to hole a nervy 4-footer for a birdie after Mediate’s own putt for birdie and the win had slid by. The two finished 18 holes tied at par-71 — solid rounds on a course where the average score for the week was 74.7 — Mediate’s chances apparently slimmed, for the longer this playoff went on, the more likely Tiger was eventually to make the difference in class show.

Sure enough, Woods played the 91st hole immaculately, while Mediate’s wheels fell ignominiously from their chassis, which one couldn’t help but notice was slightly softer and rounder than that belonging to today’s typical tour golfer (perhaps that’s why Mediate is an “Everyman”).

Mediate was totally gutted. He had lost, but the potential benefits from his performance are huge. For the first time since March 2004, he is now in the world’s top 50 and, assuming he stays there, he’ll qualify for all the majors, of which he’s played only seven in the last five years.

The USGA’s star rose considerably too, not only because of their choice of venue but also the sensible manner in which they, and Mike Davis specifically, set it up. This was Davis’s third U.S. Open as the senior director of rules & competitions, and his policy of graduated rough — grass getting thicker the further you go from the fairway — is clearly working. Really bad drives were punished appropriately (although some really, really bad drives still end up in decent position on spectator paths), while shots missing the fairway by an inch or two didn’t automatically plunge to the bottom of a thick, dark abyss from which there was no hope of advancing the ball. It was good too to see the greens rolling fast while maintaining some of their … green. Sure putting was difficult, but it wasn’t a lottery on the sort of bare, brown surfaces that had set other championships up for ridicule.

But laughing last again will be Woods who now moves to within four of Jack Nicklaus’s record. While the man is more capable than anyone of playing near-perfect golf, he does occasionally leave a door open for his competitors. With some stellar play on the back nine by his opponent and one or two unforced errors from his own bag, Woods definitely left the door ajar for Rocco Mediate yesterday. But like so many before him, he just didn’t have the shot to close it.

tonydear71@comcast.net