The PGA Favorite Is a No-Brainer

And next up for Tiger Woods, the PGA. Woods is the defending champion in the fourth and last major of the year, which will be played Aug. 17-20 at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.

Guess who is going to be favored in that one?

Woods has won three of the last four majors played, missing only the Masters, where he was fifth. Vijay Singh won at Augusta National, six shots ahead Woods.

Valhalla is a Jack Nicklaus-designed par-72 layout that measures 7,167 yards. If it’s a Nicklaus-style course, that’s a plus for Woods, who can hit a high fade equal to Nicklaus in his prime.

Actually, Woods has all the shots and Nicklaus said this week that Woods has the best short game around.

This is the second PGA Championship for Valhalla, owned by the PGA of America. Mark Brooks won the 1996 PGA at Valhalla in a playoff against Kenny Perry.

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Paul Azinger birdied six of the first seven holes and missed a 2 1/2-footer for a birdie at No. 2 on his way to a 30 on the front nine.

He said if he had made the putt at No. 2, he would have missed another one in his stretch.

“I couldn’t make seven in a row, I know,” Azinger said.

He was one over on the back and his closing 67 put Azinger at eight-under 280.

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Woods wore a red sweatshirt when he went to the practice range Sunday morning, but had switched to a red sweater vest by the time he got to the first tee.

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The four-day attendance total of 230,000 at the Old Course easily set a British Open record. Sunday’s crowd was 47,000. The previous mark was 208,680 set in 1990 when Nick Faldo won on the Old Course. The second-highest mark was 195,100 at 1998 when Mark O’Meara won.

Saturday’s crowd of 49,000 was a one-day record.

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Nick Faldo put the finishing touches on a fourth-round 71 by saving par at the Road Hole from off the road, then saved par at the 18th from the huge swale in front of the green called the Valley of Sin.

Was he Harry Houdini or what?

“Harry something,” Faldo said.

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In his 25th British Open, five-time champion Tom Watson finished at one over after closing with a 73. Watson said the bunkers at the Old Course were probably too tough.

“The bunkers are like silos,” he said. “They’re very vertical and I don’t understand how the average player can get out of them. They are very, very tough and it is going to ruin a lot of rounds of golf if you get into these bunkers.”

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From the Sunday Times on Dennis Paulson’s brightly colored shirt: “It would have scared the Beach Boys.”

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Colin Montgomerie was in no mood to discuss his British Open performance for reporters in a press area, although he was quite chirpy and talkative moments before for a television interview.

Said Montgomerie: “It’s very difficult to ask someone their reflections on a week like this after he’s just finished his round. I think that’s quite unfair at this stage you know. Give me a week or a month and I’ll come back to you on it, but right now, it’s very difficult to reflect when you’ve just finished your round.”

The round Montgomerie finished was his fourth that failed to break 70. He wound up at five-under 283.