Does "Wow" Really Cover It?

So, I'm spending the first three days of this week at a Usability Conference run by Nielsen Norman Group and it's excellent. I'll have more to say about it when I can collect my thoughts. But yesterday, knowing that Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate were going to play 18 holes in a playoff to win the U.S. Open, I did all I could to not find out who won, recording it at home.

Let the record show that yesterday continued my unbroken streak of NEVER being able to not find out the results of sporting events I tape before I see them. In this case, some woman sitting behind me said, just after lunch, "I guess Tiger Woods won some great sudden death playoff...oh, I hope you weren't taping it or anything." She said that to the guy next to her, who said he wasn't. I turned around, smiling (because I'm nice) and said, "Yeah...I WAS." She shrugged.

Bitch.

Just before that, however, my wife had called and said, "I don't know if you saw the Open, but it was AMAZING." This from someone who laughs at me for watching golf on TV and has never swung a club herself.

So I knew it was going to still be worth watching. And it was. Tiger Woods is simply incredible - he just has so much skill and knows how to hang around and do what it takes. Did anyone doubt that he'd at least birdie 18 yesterday, if not eagle it? I do feel bad for Mediate, who had two separate chances (on Sunday and Monday) to win the Open himself by making a putt. Yesterday's birdie putt on 18 was really quite poor, and he admitted the nerves got to him.

How couldn't they?

I know some people get sick of watching Woods dominate; to me, it's a chance to watch history being made. I'm more than okay with that.