Sal Johnson

Tiger is the coolest in the Tulsa heat

PGA Championship recap

By SAL JOHNSON
Publisher, GOLFOBSERVER

Photo: © Jamie Squire/Getty Images Tiger Woods on the final hole of his 13 major championship win.

In a week that started with Barry Bonds breaking one of sports most prized records, it was sad seeing all of the controversy that surrounds that record. But ending the week, Tiger Woods continued his trek to another record, breaking Jack Nicklaus mark of 18 major championship wins and when this record finally breaks it will be one universally excepted by the fans as a great mark.

With Woods two shot win at Southern Hills on Sunday, he kept one stat alive, that he can only win a major championship while in the lead after the third round. What is a bit weird about the whole thing is that Woods is getting to be such a sure thing we only wonder when the time will be that someone does catch him and beat him. After eight holes on Sunday he looked unbeatable and the keepers of golf's records were busy looking up the biggest margins of victory in a major. Now that record seems pretty secure, his 15 shot win in the 2000 U.S. Open, but just like he did last week at Firestone it was looking like a five to nine shot win. But it didn't happen.

For Ernie Els and Woody Austin, they had different plans as both made gallant tries but they needed some help from Tiger. They almost got it when he three putted the 14th hole but Tiger showed us all why he is so great. In other collapses like Sergio Garcia's at Carnoustie last month when he fretted a four shot lead, panic seems to set in with failure very close behind. But Tiger Woods doesn't know failure is and like he told us afterwards, "That 14th hole was a litle mishap there," he said smiling. "I felt like I gave all the momentum back to Ernie and to Woody. And just felt like, you know what, I got myself in this mess, I needed to go get myself out of it. I just did some serious yelling at myself going up to the 15th tee, just to get back into what I do."

Well, it worked as Tiger bumped a 4-iron off the tee and then put a 7-iron to within 15 feet and made that putt for birdie to get a stroke back and give himself enough of a cushion for the win.

With Tiger winning he collects another milestone as being the 10th player to win the week before a major victory. Here is the list of others:
Year	back to back wins
2007	Tiger Woods won the WGC-Bridgestone followed by the PGA Champ.
2006	Phil Mickelson won the BellSouth Classic followed by the Masters
1988	Sandy Lyle won the Greater Greensboro Open followed by the Masters
1971	Lee Trevino won the Canadian Open followed by the British Open
1959	Art Wall won the Azalea Open followed by the Masters
1949	Sam Snead won the Greater Greensboro Open followed by the Masters
1946	Ben Hogan won the Winnipeg Open followed by the PGA
1945	Byron Nelson won the Chicago Victory open followed by the PGA
1939	Ralph Guldahl won at Greensboro followed by the Masters
1939	Henry Picard won the Scranton Open followed by the PGA

Now the win was only the second time he waited until the last moment at the PGA Championship to win a major, Tiger did the same thing in 1999. Still his record in majors is unbelievable as he has won at least once in 8 of his 11 full years as a professional. It's hard to image that Woods never won a major in these years, 1998, 2003 and 2004. (Just by pure chance Jack Nicklaus did the same in his first 11 years, win a major 8 of the 11 times.) A minor note, Tiger has now colected at least five PGA Tour win a year in eight years on the PGA Tour, another remarkable stat.

As for ease of Woods win, this wasn't one of the easiest. With all of the heat, every day was either right around or over the 100 degree mark, Woods looked to be grinding it out. Unfortunely at the Majors shotlink isn't available to tell us exactly how many putts Woods made, but I can attest that Woods won this championship because just like last week at Firestone when he was 60 for 60 from putts 8 feet or less, I only saw Woods miss one putt inside 8 feet, that was on the 14th hole on Sunday. In looking at the replay, it wasn't because of a poor stroke it just didn't break enough at the end. This was the key to Woods quest for wins this year at the Masters and U.S. Open, he just didn't make the putts that he needed like he did at Southern Hills. Just look at the putts that he made for birdie on Sunday, at 4 Woods made a ten footer, at 7 made a eight footer, at 8 made a 25-footer and then at 15 he made a 15-footer that was so important it just shows why he is one of the greatest clutch putters of all time.

Keys to victory for Tiger Woods

Being able to keep his cool when he lost four of his five shot lead, then turn around a make birdie at 15 after three putting the 14th hole.

Photo: © Streeter Lecka/Getty Images Tiger Woods winning the Wanamaker Trophy for the fourth time.

Another major key to his win has to be his conditioning. He is a big fitness guy that spends an average of two hours a day working our or running. As he said afterwards, you pay the price by running miles everyday and keeping fit and it showed in his victory. As he said afterwards, he felt as fresh and full of energy at the end of the round as he did at the start, there isn't many other players that could asset to that:
Here are some other keys for his victory:

• I really feel that Woods won this championship with pure course management and control. Over the course of 18 holes, he used his driver just 13 times. This strategy has worked and we saw his victory at Hoylake last year because he did that. This week was the same, one of the disadvantages that Woods had was many of the fairways ran out on him because of doglegs. But with his game plan of using irons off of three quarter of the holes paid off again and he was able to conquer Southern Hills despite what some of the experts thought.
• Putting was so very import this week, yes statically he took 114 which was T9th. But that stat really doesn't measure all the five to ten footers that he made during the week, he seemed automatic with the flat stick and when he gets like that he wins.
• Only two players were able to play the par 4s under par, Woody Austin was 2 under while Tiger Woods led the way at 5 under.
• Only one other player, Ernie Els, made more birdies with 20. Tiger made 18.
• Tiger is now 13-0 in wins after leading a major after the 54 hole stage and is 40-3 in PGA Tour wins after leading or co-leading after 54 holes.
• Now in the 13 times that Woods has led after the third round in a major, his final round scoring average is 69.23 while the 13 players that were paired with him in the final group have a average of 73.38.

Woods's stats (with rank in parentheses):

Fairways hit: 37 of 56 ..... (T9th)
Driving average: 313.6 ..... (14th)
Greens hit: 50 of 72 ....... (T4th)
Putts: 114 (28.50 a rd) .... (T9th)
Putting breakdown:
0-putt greens: 3
1-putt greens: 25
2-putt greens: 43
3-putt greens: 1
Play on par 3s: +1
Play on par 4s: -5
Play on par 5s: -4
Eagles: 0
Birdies: 18 ................ (2nd)
Scrambling: 13 of 22 (59.09%)... (12th)

Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.

What This Win means for Woods

• Tiger Woods won his 59th career PGA Tour victory and it 13th Major championship at the age of 31 years, 7 months and 13 days. In comparison, when Jack Nicklaus won his 13th major at the 1975 Masters when he was 35 years, 2 months and 23 days old. When Nicklaus was around Tigers age, he was between his 9th and 10th major wins. His 10th was the 1972 Masters when Nicklaus was 32 years, 2 months, 19 days old. As for Nicklaus 59th career PGA Tour win, it was the 1976 NEC World Series of Golf when he was 36 years, 7 months and 15 days old.
• The winner of the PGA Championship has come out of the last pairing in the final round each of the last 12 years. Steve Elkington (1995) was the last PGA Championship winner not to play in the final group on Sunday, as he was T5 entering the final round.

Will a 62 ever be shot at a Major?

• Nobody other than maybe Nick Price, who also horseshoed a final putt on the final hole for a 62, has come closer to a 62 than Tiger Woods. He brought a lot of excitement in his second round 63 which helped move him up the leaderboard and put him in position to win this championship. In Woods previous rounds at a major, his lowest was a 64 in the third round at the 1997 British Open at Royal Troon, but even with that round he finished T24th. He had shot 66, seven times and in five of them he won the championship. Below is a look at the other rounds of 63.

63s shot in major championships over the years:
Player	Year / round	Finish	Next round	Course
Masters
Nick Price	1975 (2nd round)	5th	71	Augusta National
Greg Norman	1996 (1st round)	2nd	69	Augusta National
U.S. Open
Johnny Miller	1973 (4th round)	Win	N/A	Oakmont C.C.
Jack Nicklaus	1980 (1st round)	Win	71	Baltusrol G.C.
Tom Weiskopf	1980 (1st round)	37th	75	Baltusrol G.C.
Vijay Singh	2003 (2nd round)	T20th	72	Olympia Fields
British Open
Mark Hayes	1977 (2nd round)	T9th	75	Turnberry G.C.
Isao Aoki	1980 (3rd round)	T12th	73	Old Course St. Andrews
Greg Norman	1986 (2nd round)	Win	74	Turnberry G.C.
Paul Broadhurst	1990 (3rd round)	T12th	74	Old Course St. Andrews
Jodie Mudd	1991 (4th round)	T5th	N/A	Royal Birkdale G.C.
Nick Faldo	1993 (2nd round)	2nd	70	Royal St. Georgia G.C.
Payne Stewart	1993 (4th round)	12th	N/A	Royal St. Georgia G.C.
PGA Championship
Bruce Crampton	1975 (2nd round)	2nd	75	Firestone South
Raymond Floyd	1982 (2nd round)	Win	69	Southern Hills C.C
Gary Player	1984 (2nd round)	T2nd	69	Shoal Creek C.C.
Vijay Singh	1993 (2nd round)	4th	73	Inverness Club
Michael Bradley	1995 (1st round)	T55th	73	Riviera C.C.
Brad Faxon	1995 (4th round)	5th	N/A	Riviera C.C.
Jose Maria Olazabal	2000 (3rd round)	T4th	69	Valhalla G.C.
Mark O'Meara	2001 (2nd round)	T22nd	70	Atlanta Atheltic Club
Thomas Bjorn	2005 (3rd round)	T2nd	72	Baltusrol G.C.
Tiger Woods	2007 (2nd round)	Win	69	Southern Hills C.C.