Tiger Answers Mayday

Just guessing, but there is a Tiger in this place that probably could outrun all those thoroughbreds in the shadow of those twin steeples at Churchill Downs.

In golf, the race belongs to the swiftest . . . also to the strongest, the most skilled and the best young player the game has ever seen. On Sunday at Valhalla Golf Club, we identified that person once again as Tiger Woods, who won the 82nd PGA Championship with equal parts tenacity, nerve and flair, the same way he won the U.S. Open and British Open in the last three months.

The only other player to win three major titles in one year is Ben Hogan, who did it in 1953.

“This was one memorable battle,” Woods said. “It was a very special day. It was as good as it gets out there.”

Woods, 24, won his fifth major, his third in a row and his fourth in the last five he has played. It was his 22nd PGA Tour victory and seventh this year in less than nine months.

As epic victories go, this one was a flat-out struggle for Woods, who was forced into a three-hole playoff by 31-year-old journeyman Bob May and wound up winning by one shot.

That margin came on the first playoff hole, the 16th. Woods ran in a birdie putt from 20 feet and jogged just behind the ball as it rolled toward the hole, pointing at it as it disappeared.

Woods kept his one-shot margin at the second playoff hole when he saved par, the same as May, and they moved to the par-five 18th tee to settle it. What followed wasn’t very stylish, but it was nevertheless effective. Woods drove far to the left and his ball bounced off a cart path. He chopped out into the left rough and then hit his third shot into the front bunker.

May, whose drive also went into the left rough, hit his second shot into the right rough. He reached the green with his third shot, but it landed on the right, on the other side of a mound. May needed to sink the putt for a birdie to get even with Woods and he nearly did it, but the ball stopped a foot away from the hole.

Woods, who had blasted out of the bunker to about two feet, tapped in the putt for par, raised his fist and allowed himself a small smile. Hogan had to make room for him.

It was largely a two-player race. Thomas Bjorn of Denmark was third, five shots behind the leaders at 13-under 275, after a closing 68. Stuart Appleby, Greg Chalmers and Jose Maria Olazabal tied for fourth at 276. Franklin Langham, who played the third and fourth rounds in 65-69, was seventh and Notah Begah was eighth.

Woods’ victory was worth $900,000 and increased his record earnings to $6.69 million. He is also the first player to pass $18 million in career earnings.

Woods is the first player to successfully defend his PGA Championship title since Denny Shute in 1936 and ’37. His total of 18-under par, built on rounds of 66-67-70-67, is a PGA Championship record and he now holds records for under-par totals in all four majors.

May, a former All-American at Oklahoma State who was raised in La Habra and attended Hacienda Heights Los Altos High, was every bit Woods equal for most of the day. May, who has not won a PGA Tour event and didn’t enter the tournament until he received a special exemption, proved his mettle with successive rounds of 72-66-66-66. He made only two bogeys in the last 62 holes.

Both May and Woods played the back nine in five-under 31 and did not make a bogey.

“I think I proved to a lot of people I can play under the heat,” May said.

He did, but Woods was just slightly better in the same heat, a circumstance that is all too familiar in professional golf these days. He played the last 12 holes in seven under.

“We never backed off from each other,” Woods said. “We matched birdie for birdie, shot for shot. We were going after each other.”

It was quite a chase, all right.

Woods caught May a second time at the 17th hole when he made a four-footer for birdie.

It was actually a long way back for Woods, who began the round with a one-shot lead, but trailed by two after four holes.

When Woods fought back with a birdie at No. 8 to draw even with May, it didn’t stay that way long. Both players birdied the 8th and at No. 11, May dropped in a bomb from 25 feet to go 15 under for a one-shot lead.

They both birdied No. 12 and No. 14, but on the next hole, May made the one mistake that cost him. He put his second shot only four feet from the hole, but missed the putt. Woods saved par and stayed one shot back. He was still there until the 17th.

But as it turned out, they were just getting started.

May had not birdied the 18th hole in the first three rounds, but maybe he was just saving his luck for the 72nd hole. May reached the green in two, but his ball was about 80 feet away on the left shelf of the multitiered putting surface, and if it were any farther away from the hole, it would have been in the next county.

May rolled his first putt over a ridge and it stopped on the fringe in the back of the green, about 15 feet away.

Woods also reached the green in two, but he was on the right shelf of the green with another ridge between his ball and the hole. Woods rolled the ball over the hump and down the ridge, coaxing it to stop about five feet from the hole after making a sharp left turn.

As Woods watched from the side of the green, May stepped over his ball and sent it on its way. It broke left, then right, then back again to the left and dropped into the hole for a birdie.

Woods needed to make his putt to match May and stay in the game. He did. And the playoff was on.

This is the first year the PGA has used the three-hole format and it proved a success. The same may be said of Valhalla, which has been rapped for its lack of history. After Sunday, you would have to say it has some now.

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By the Numbers

Tiger Woods and Bob May set a PGA record with this score in relation to par, a mark Woods now holds or shares in each of the four major championships:

Masters

Augusta National, 1997: -18

U.S. Open

Pebble Beach, 2000: -12

British Open

St. Andrews, 2000: -19

PGA Championship

Valhalla, 2000: -18

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3 Consecutive victories in major championships (tying Ben Hogan’s record, and the number of major titles Woods currently holds):

Masters: Vijay Singh

U.S. Open: Tiger Woods

British Open Tiger Woods

PGA Championship Tiger Woods

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7 Tournaments won this year by Woods:

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Tournament Date Score Mercedes Jan. 9 276 (-16) Pebble Beach Feb. 6 273 (-15) Bay Hill March 19 270 (-18) Memorial May 28 269 (-19) U.S. Open June 18 272 (-12) British Open July 23 269 (-19) PGA Aug. 20 270 (-18)

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22 Tournaments Woods has won in his first four seasons on the tour

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$6.7M Money won by Woods this year, a PGA Tour record

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$18M Money won by Woods in his career, a PGA Tour record

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5-1 Woods’ record in playoffs

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ALL-TIME MAJORS TITLES

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Player Masters U.S. British PGA Total Jack Nicklaus 6 4 3 5 18 Walter Hagen 0 2 4 5 11 Ben Hogan 2 4 1 2 9 Gary Player 3 1 3 2 9 Tom Watson 2 1 5 0 8 Bobby Jones 0 4 3 0 7 Arnold Palmer 4 1 2 0 7 Gene Sarazen 1 2 1 3 7 Sam Snead 3 0 1 3 7 Harry Vardon 0 1 6 0 7 Nick Faldo 3 0 3 0 6 Lee Trevino 0 2 2 2 6 Tiger Woods 1 1 1 2 5 Seve Ballesteros 2 0 3 0 5 James Braid 0 0 5 0 5 Byron Nelson 2 1 0 2 5 J.H. Taylor 0 0 5 0 5 Peter Thomson 0 0 5 0 5

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ALL-TIME TOUR WINS

1. Sam Snead 81

2. Jack Nicklaus 70

3. Ben Hogan 63

4. Arnold Palmer 60

5. Byron Nelson 52

6. Billy Casper 51

7t Walter Hagen 40

7t Cary Middlecoff 40

9. Gene Sarazen 38

10. Lloyd Mangrum 36

11. Tom Watson 34

12. Horton Smith 32

13t Harry Cooper 31

13t Jimmy Demaret 31

15. Leo Diegel 30

16t Gene Littler 29

16t Paul Runyan 29

18. Lee Trevino 27

19. Henry Picard 26

20t Rommy Armour 24

20t Johnny Miller 24

20t Macdonald Smith 24

23t Tiger Woods 22

23t Johnny Farrell 22

23t Raymond Floyd 22

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Tiger Tracks

A glance at Tiger Woods’ career

on the PGA Tour:

2000

Tournaments:15

Wins: 7

2nd: 3

Top 10: 12

Top 25: 15

Money: $6,692,891

1999

Tournaments: 21

Wins: 8

2nd: 1

Top 10: 16

Top 25: 18

Money: $6,616,585

1998

Tournaments: 20

Wins: 1

2nd: 2

Top 10: 13

Top 25: 17

Money: $1,841,117

1997

Tournaments: 21

Wins: 4

2nd: 1

Top 10: 9

Top 25: 14

Money: $2,066,833

1996

Tournaments: 8

Wins: 2

2nd: 0

Top 10: 5

Top 25: 7

Money: $790,594

TOTAL

Tournaments: 85

Wins: 22

2nd: 7

Top 10: 55

Top 25: 71

Money: $18,007,950