Tiger Woods played through the pain at Torrey Pines last night to claim his fourteenth major championship in 11 years, but immediately cast doubt on his prospects of appearing at the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale next month.

Woods came into the tournament having not played since the final round of the Masters at Augusta in April after undergoing surgery to remove damaged cartilage from his left knee. He had not walked, let alone played 18 holes, in nine weeks and limped his way through five days of competition culminating in last night’s play-off marathon.

Woods was often seen wincing and bent double in agony during the tournament, and yet he still had too much for the opposition — finally seeing off Rocco Mediate, his fellow American, who at 45 was seeking to become the oldest winner of the championship, after 19 holes of yesterday’s play-off.

“I think I need to shut it down for a little bit now,” a delighted Woods said. “The knee’s a bit sore and I need to take a little bit of a break.” And the Open? “To be honest with you, I really don’t know,” he said.

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With the world No 1 closing in on Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 professional major championships, it is hard to think that he will not line up at Royal Birkdale on July 17, although he faces a race to be fit and did admit that he had gone against doctor’s orders to take it easy.

He said that he had no thoughts of pulling out of the US Open, but had been warned that he could damage the knee further by playing on. “As far as future ramifications [for the knee], I’m not really good at listening to doctor’s orders too well,” he said. “Hey, I won this week, so it is what it is.

“All athletes deal with injuries and that’s just part of playing sports. Sport isn’t usually kind to the body. Weird things happen and that’s just the way it is. But it’s about dealing with it and getting up there and giving it your best. Whether you’re a 100 per cent or not, it doesn’t matter.” Given all the problems associated with the week, Woods, 32, ranked this as his most satisfying win in the majors. “It’s either this one or my first one,” he said. The first was the Masters, in 1997, that he won by 12 strokes.

“This week had a lot of doubt to it, to be honest with you,” he added. “I hadn’t walked 18 holes until the first round here since Augusta. You know, you keep playing, whatever it is, you just keep going, keep going forward.”

Hank Haney, his coach, was simply bemused. Shaking his head with wonder, he said: “Tiger hadn’t walked nine holes until the Saturday before the event. He had been hitting no more than a bucket of 50 balls a day. And then he comes out and plays like that. How does he do it?” How indeed. Perhaps it is time to tie one hand behind his back.

Woods’s absence would be the biggest blow imaginable for organisers of the Open Championship, a tournament that the US superstar has won on three occasions, the most recent of them at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in 2006.

Tiger's feats

The 14 majors: 4 Masters (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005) 3 US Opens (2000, 2002, 2008) 3 Open Championships (2000, 2005, 2006) 4 PGA Championships (1999, 2000, 2006, 2007)

Play-off record Played 19. Won 16. Lost 3

Three play-off wins in majors:
2000 PGA Championship beat Bob May over three holes
2005 Masters beat Chris DiMarco at first extra hole
2008 US Open beat Rocco Mediate after 19 holes

Players to have beaten Woods in play-offs:
Billy Mayfair 1998 Nissan Open
Nick Price, 1998 Nedbank Challenge in South Africa
Padraig Harrington, 2006 Dunlop Phoenix in Japan