Woods Charts Major Move Up List

We all know Jack Nicklaus leads the way with 18 major titles, but now that Tiger Woods has five, he’s starting to move up the list. Next target: Nick Faldo and Lee Trevino with six.

Walter Hagen is second to Nicklaus with 11 majors, Ben Hogan and Gary Player had nine, Tom Watson had eight and Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead and Harry Vardon seven.

Woods is tied with Seve Ballesteros, James Braid, Byron Nelson, J.H. Taylor and Peter Thomson.

If Woods wins the Masters next April, he would hold all four major titles at the same time, but his victories would not be in the same calendar year.

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For what it’s worth, Woods is the first player to win the U.S Open, British Open and PGA in the same year. Hogan’s three titles in 1953 were the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open.

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At 24 years seven months and 21 days, Woods is the youngest player to win five majors. Nicklaus was 26 years, two months and 21 days when he won his fifth, the 1966 Masters.

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In addition to his seven victories this year on the PGA Tour, Woods also has three seconds, one fourth, one fifth, a tie for 11th, a tie for 18th and a tie for 23rd. He is a combined 179 under par in 15 tournaments.

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With his weekend rounds of 65-68, Watson tied for ninth and won $112,500.

Watson began the PGA with a 76.

“The first day was a pretty bad day, but I turned it around,” he said. “I am very happy.”

He was also happy for Woods.

“Three major championships--and the season’s not over for Tiger. It might rank right up there with the best.”

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Ernie Els avoided the runner-up slam. After finishing second in the first three majors, Els tied for 34th.

“I’ve been playing well this year, so it’s obviously very disappointing to play like this,” he said. “All in all, I have to look at my year and say I played well. I could have done better here, but I can’t complain.”

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CBS Sports’ coverage of the third round of the PGA Championship, when Woods failed to pull away from the field the way he did at the last two major tournaments, got a 5.8 big-market overnight rating with a 15 share.

When Woods won the U.S. Open in June, NBC’s telecast drew the highest Sunday rating for the tournament since 1981. His victory a month later at the British Open helped ABC pull in the biggest British Open ratings for a Sunday.

Each rating point represents 1,008,000 viewers, or 1% of the nation’s estimated 100.8 million households with televisions. The overnight ratings for the PGA Championship were based on the country’s 47 largest television markets.

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.