MAJOR ATTITUDE

Tiger Woods strolled into Baltusrol Golf Club this week, looking like a man who has won two major titles this year and is pretty sure he can win his third at the 87th PGA Championship.

He could not have been more, well, pick one:

* Relaxed.

* Self-assured.

* Chatty.

* Happy to be here.

More often a player who approaches the early-week news conference in the strictest obliging-yet-obligatory sense, Woods on Tuesday fell just short of a cozy-up with Oprah.

After his “big tent” interview was over, he stuck around for another 15 minutes to answer off-the-cuff questions.

Woods has so reestablished his place in golf that few people even mention the “Big Five,” a hyped-up publicity moniker that only last year had Woods lumped in a group with mortals Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Vijay Singh.

Golf this season has been reduced to a Big One (and a half), Woods and Singh, the defending PGA champion.

Questions fielded by Woods once again mostly concern posterity and his place in history.

On the cusp of Woods’ 10th major tournament victory last month at St. Andrews -- the British Open at which Jack Nicklaus said his tearful goodbye -- someone wondered whether Woods had envisioned his last walk down the 18th fairway.

“Someone’s writing my obituary already?” Woods joked. “What am I going to do? I think knowing me and how I am, my farewell will be very quiet. I don’t think anyone will probably know until it’s done.... I’ll walk in here and say, ‘Guys, I’m done.’ That’s probably how I’m going to do it.”

Not that Woods is close to done yet. He won’t even turn 30 until Dec. 30.

What Woods has done with his ninth and 10th major wins this year is restore his own sense of world order.

After going 10 majors without a win in one early, turn-of-the-century dry patch, the toughest question Woods faces now is how he squandered a chance to win all three this year.

If not for the failure of his putter at the U.S. Open in Pinehurst, Woods would start this week’s PGA seeking golf’s same-year grand slam -- Masters, U.S. Open, British and PGA.

Woods, remember, lost the U.S. Open by two shots to Michael Campbell because he couldn’t roll the ball -- he finished tied for 80th in putting statistics that week.

“People have said, ‘You know, basically, you lost the tournament on 16 and 17 on Sunday,’ ” Woods said of his final-round bogeys on those holes. “That’s wrong. I lost it all four days on the greens because I did not putt well any day.”

He has, it seems, settled the score regarding his career decisions, namely revamping his swing twice after winning the Masters in 1997 and then again a few years later.

He says what he may have given up in the short run was worth it over time.

The problem, he says, is that people don’t understand that good is never good enough for him -- no matter how good it seems.

“People ask me, ‘Are you there yet?’ ” Woods said. “No. You never get there.... You have to look at the fact that you can become better. If you think you can’t, then walk, because you have no business being out here if you think you can’t get any better.”

Few people doubt anymore that Woods will surpass Nicklaus’ record of 18 professional major victories.

“Every record gets broken,” Padraig Harrington said, almost in the past tense. “That takes nothing away from Jack Nicklaus doing 18. That’s phenomenal too.

That’s phenomenal too?

What’s amazing is how fast Woods has redirected the conversation.

He’s No. 1 in the world, tops in scoring average and earnings.

He almost always plays his practice rounds first and he’s off early for Thursday’s opening round.

You could say golf is officially back on Tiger time.

“You know, he just thinks differently than the rest of us do,” two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen remarked. “I mean, you could see that when he first started playing, and I think everybody just kind of said, ‘Well, we never saw that one coming,’ and we’ve been playing catch-up ever since.”

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Greg Norman withdrew from the tournament because of muscle fatigue from playing four consecutive events. Norman had back surgery this year.

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Tee times

Tee times for the first two rounds of the PGA Championship at Baltusrol Golf Club, Springfield, N.J. (all times PDT):

THURSDAY, FIRST HOLE/FRIDAY, 10TH HOLE

4:15 a.m. 9:20 a.m. Craig Thomas, Jonathan Kaye, Arjun Atwal

4:25 a.m. 9:30 a.m. Thongchai Jaidee, Bob Ford, Charles Howell III

4:35 a.m. 9:40 a.m. Richard Green, Thomas Levet, Tim Herron

4:45 a.m. 9:50 a.m. Ian Poulter, Mark Calcavecchia, Jerry Kelly

4:55 a.m. 10 a.m. Jeff Maggert, Shigeki Maruyama, Rod Pampling

5:05 a.m. 10:10 a.m. Hal Sutton, Rich Beem, Bob Tway

5:15 a.m. 10:20 a.m. Mike Weir, David Duval, Ben Curtis

5:25 a.m. 10:30 a.m. Tom Lehman, Scott McCarron, J.L. Lewis

5:35 a.m. 10:40 a.m. Steve Elkington, Shaun Micheel, Mark Brooks

5:45 a.m. 10:50 a.m. Fredrik Jacobson, Craig Parry, Kevin Na

5:55 a.m. 11 a.m. Vaughn Taylor, Bernhard Langer, Andre Stolz

6:05 a.m. 11:10 a.m. Steve Flesch, Rich Steinmetz, Tom Pernice Jr.

6:15 a.m. 11:20 a.m. Chris Starkjohann, Tim Weinhart, Chip Johnson

*

THURSDAY, 10TH HOLE/FRIDAY, FIRST HOLE

4:15 a.m. 9:20 a.m. Joe Durant, Billy Andrade, Mark Mielke

4:25 a.m. 9:30 a.m. Loren Roberts, Ron Philo Jr., Stephen Dodd

4:35 a.m. 9:40 a.m. S.K. Ho, Nick Dougherty, Scott Spence

4:45 a.m. 9:50 a.m. Jim Furyk, Colin Montgomerie, Angel Cabrera

4:55 a.m. 10 a.m. Ted Purdy, Trevor Immelman, Toru Taniguchi

5:05 a.m. 10:10 a.m. Chris DiMarco, Jose Maria Olazabal, Justin Leonard

5:15 a.m. 10:20 a.m. Fred Couples, Darren Clarke, Shingo Katayama

5:25 a.m. 10:30 a.m. Tiger Woods, Michael Campbell, Kevin Sutherland

5:35 a.m. 10:40 a.m. Stewart Cink, Luke Donald, Robert Allenby

5:45 a.m. 10:50 a.m. Paul Azinger, Jeff Sluman, David Toms

5:55 a.m. 11 a.m. Zach Johnson, Padraig Harrington, Peter Lonard

6:05 a.m. 11:10 a.m. Niclas Fasth, Bob Estes, Tim Fleming

6:15 a.m. 11:20 a.m. Lucas Glover, Maarten Lafeber, Jeff Martin

*

THURSDAY, FIRST HOLE/FRIDAY, 10TH HOLE

9:20 a.m. 4:15 a.m. Michael Allen, Tim Thelen, Henrik Stenson

9:30 a.m. 4:25 a.m. Travis Long, Bo Van Pelt, Brett Quigley

9:40 a.m. 4:35 a.m. Brian Davis, Jason Bohn, Sean O’Hair

9:50 a.m. 4:45 a.m. Kenny Perry, Carlos Franco, Fred Funk

10 a.m. 4:55 a.m. Paul Casey, Tim Clark, Geoff Ogilvy

10:10 a.m. 5:05 a.m. Sergio Garcia, Adam Scott, Phil Mickelson

10:20 a.m. 5:15 a.m. Rory Sabbatini, Brad Faxon, Graeme McDowell

10:30 a.m. 5:25 a.m. John Daly, Vijay Singh, Davis Love III

10:40 a.m. 5:35 a.m. Stephen Ames, K.J. Choi, Ryan Palmer

10:50 a.m. 5:45 a.m. Lee Westwood, Retief Goosen, Todd Hamilton

11 a.m. 5:55 a.m. Peter Hanson, Dave Tentis, Stephen Leaney

11:10 a.m. 6:05 a.m. Stephen Gallacher, Kelly Mitchum, Billy Mayfair

11:20 a.m. 6:15 a.m. Don Berry, Chris Wiemers, Alan Morin

*

THURSDAY, 10TH HOLE/FRIDAY, FIRST HOLE

9:20 a.m. 4:15 a.m. Hunter Mahan, Brett Melton, Steve Webster

9:30 a.m. 4:25 a.m. Greg Owen, Darrell Kestner, Yang Yong-eun

9:40 a.m. 4:35 a.m. Miguel Angel Jimenez, Jay Haas, Chris Riley

9:50 a.m. 4:45 a.m. Woody Austin, Bart Bryant, Stuart Appleby

10 a.m. 4:55 a.m. Wayne Grady, Larry Nelson, Mike Reid

10:10 a.m. 5:05 a.m. David Howell, Nick O’Hern, Joe Ogilvie

10:20 a.m. 5:15 a.m. Thomas Bjorn, Chad Campbell, Arron Oberholser

10:30 a.m. 5:25 a.m. Brent Geiberger, Alex Cejka, Tim Petrovic

10:40 a.m. 5:35 a.m. Paul McGinley, Mark Hensby, Scott Verplank

10:50 a.m. 5:45 a.m. Lee Janzen, Jesper Parnevik, Pat Perez

11 a.m. 5:55 a.m. Mike Small, Ben Crane, Dudley Hart

11:10 a.m. 6:05 a.m. Jean Francois Remesy, John Rollins, Steve Schneiter

11:20 a.m. 6:15 a.m. Jeff Yurkiewicz, Rob Moss, Jeff Coston