Chris Carlson / AP

Tiger Woods kisses the championship trophy after winning the U.S. Open against Rocco Mediate, left, in sudden death at Torrey Pines on Monday.

From the opening tee shot Thursday in a light fog known as “June Gloom,” this U.S. Open simply shined.

“The atmosphere is what kept me going,” Woods said. “The tournament, being a major championship here at Torrey Pines, all the people, it could have very easily ... I couldn’t ever quit in front of these people. It wasn’t going to happen.”

The week was filled with some of Woods’ greatest moments in a major — a 30 on the back nine Friday to get into the mix, two eagles from a combined 100 feet and a chip-in birdie on Saturday to take the lead, and one of the biggest putts of his career when he holed a 12-foot birdie with the final stroke of regulation to force the playoff.

Then came a playoff in which he built a three-shot lead with eight holes to play, only to find himself trailing four holes later.

“You just keep pushing and pushing,” Woods said. “And I did, all week.”

Woods seized control when Mediate bogeyed consecutive holes around the turn, but Woods bogeyed the next two from the bunker and Mediate tied him by nearly driving the 267-yard 14th hole and chipping to a foot for birdie.

Then the playoff took yet another surprising turn on the 15th.

Woods hit his tee shot so far to the right that it landed in a fairway bunker along the adjoining ninth fairway. But he carved a 7-iron from 170 yards around the trees to 12 feet, one of those defining shots that turns a tournament in his favor.

But not this time. Mediate dropped in a 25-foot birdie putt, while Woods missed and spent the next three holes in a desperate chase to make up ground until he did on the last hole.

“I never quit. I never quit,” Mediate said. “I’ve been beaten down a few times and came back, and I got what I wanted. I got a chance to beat the best player in the world. And I came up just a touch short.”

It was the second time Woods has won a PGA Tour event and a U.S. Open on the same course — Pebble Beach in 2000 and Torrey Pines, where in January he won by eight shots for his sixth Buick Invitational title.

He now has won eight times at Torrey Pines, including a Junior World Championship.

It was his 65th career victory, passing Ben Hogan for third all time. Woods raised his playoff record to 15-2 and made it 14-of-14 in majors when he had at least a share of the lead going into the final round.

He now has won every major in a playoff except for the British Open.

Just like the last U.S. Open playoff seven years ago, both players arrived wearing the same outfit — khaki trousers and a white shirt at Southern Hills, black slacks and a red shirt with a black vest at Torrey Pines.

That’s typical for Woods, and when he saw Mediate, Woods removed his vest.

It felt like a prize fight the way both players marched through a wall of fans and onto the first tee, posing before the silver U.S. Open trophy. And it finished that way, too.

“With everybody in the world all looking in, and everyone expecting me to get my (behind) handed to me, and I didn’t,” Mediate said. “And I almost got it done. I almost got it done.”

Woods raised his arms like a heavyweight champion walking off the first tee, but only because he found the fairway for the first time all week. He had double bogeyed it three of the previous four days.

Mediate flipped his club to the front of the tee box when he came within inches of an ace on the par-3 third.

Back and forth they went, Woods building an early lead with consecutive birdies, Mediate refusing to go away. But when Mediate three-putted from 15 feet for bogey on the ninth, and Woods holed a 20-foot par putt from the fringe on the next hole to go three shots ahead, it looked as though this playoff would turn into another snoozer.

Then it was Woods who faltered, and Mediate caught a second wind. It set up a fabulous finish, just like everything else this week on the public course in the tony hamlet of La Jolla that translates to “The Jewel.”

“It was just unreal,” Woods said. “It was back and forth, back and forth. And 90 holes wasn’t enough.”