Monday, April 11, 2005 | 9:16 a.m.
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- He high-fived little Cristian and Amanda, banged fists with Richard and shot a smile to Amy just behind the scoring hut.
While Chris DiMarco shared some quick love with his kids, father and wife, Tiger Woods wore the vacant look of the damned as he started back to the 18th tee. DiMarco's skids greased with confidence, a champion's bounce in his step going into a sudden death playoff.
There is freedom both in DiMarco's perspective and in his return from the dead, which is where most left him after he gave up a four-shot lead Sunday morning to Woods over just nine holes to close the third round. DiMarco stared up at his own three-shot deficit to start the final round, and it grew to four strokes after just one hole.
"I went home and changed shirts, because that one was no good," DiMarco joked.
The new shirt pulled DiMarco level with Woods and into a playoff at 12-under after Tiger carded unimaginable bogeys at Nos. 17 and 18, sins of omission after his stirring of the gods at No. 16.
DiMarco did what few have, which is to make Woods flinch. Even as Tiger went through 10 majors without a victory, his ability to close never came into question because he was never in position to do it.
"He's a fighter. What else can you say?" Woods said of DiMarco. "The guy got out there and grinded his way around the golf course and fought. He's a wonderful competitor."
That's the positive spin. What the scoreboard shows is that DiMarco could not close out Woods, just as he faded in last year's Masters with a final round of 4-over 76 after entering the last day paired with co-leader and eventual champion Phil Mickelson at 6-under. DiMarco will head to the U.S. Open at Pinehurst in June still searching for his first major championship.
"I don't think I was ready to win (last year)," DiMarco said. "This year, I was ready to win, to tell you the truth. I really felt like I could win it. And coming out the way I did, I will be ready to win next year."
DiMarco is the runner-up for the second consecutive major, having fallen in a three-way playoff to Vijay Singh at last year's PGA Championship. Yet he kept a remarkable humor about him Sunday night. At 36 years old, DiMarco is a Ryder Cup veteran who had a chance to win three of the past five majors as he enters what many consider the prime years of a golfer's career.
"I told my caddie walking on 18, 'If you're not having fun doing this, boy, something's wrong with you,' " DiMarco said. "That was about as much fun as I've had in a day. I was throwing up on myself all day, but it was about as much fun as I've ever had.
"My stomach was turning. But it's nice to know that your stomach is going crazy and you're still performing. It shows you can do it in any arena, especially here."
How close he has come. DiMarco missed an 18-foot birdie putt on the last hole of regulation that could have won the PGA. Beyond the lead he held for three days this week at Augusta, DiMarco's short chip for birdie on his first trip to No. 18 on Sunday skipped over the cup. Combined with Woods' bogey, the chip could have earned DiMarco his biggest victory in more than 10 years on tour.
"The way we finished, the way I finished," DiMarco said, "I felt very good going into the playoff."
Given the same chip from short of the 18th green in the playoff, DiMarco did as he had all day by sticking his approach in tight, this time to about a foot. Woods, though, stung a 3-wood and stuck an 8-iron to 15 feet, and never gave DiMarco a chance by sinking his clinching putt.
Yet fighting back from his own apparent implosion impressed DiMarco, just as it did the Augusta galleries that cheered him just a notch short of what they do for Mickelson, their anointed favorite.
He didn't win, for certain, but DiMarco will say he did not lose either.
"I would let it hurt if I gave it away," DiMarco said. "But I didn't. I really didn't."
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