Tiger Woods Bags 13th Career Major
Final Round of the 89th PGA Championship, and it was a hot day in The Southern Hills Country Club over at Tulsa, Oklahoma with the temperature going up to around 102 degrees. All Tiger Woods had to do was to keep his cool, and maintain his 3-stroked advantage going into the final round. Canadian pro-golfer Stuart Ames tandemed with Tiger Woods, but failed to apply any pressure on the leader, coughing up two early bogeys to ease off the chase for the Championship. The strokes of South African Ernie Els and American Woody Austin were among the best of the final round with Els shooting a formidable 66 to move him to 5 under for the tournament, and Austin turning in a 67 for 6-under.
“To come back from six back against the world’s No. 1 was always going to be tough,” Els said. “But I gave it a shot.” According to Els, had he been sitting at home watching the tournament, he would’ve bet the house on Woods winning his 13th major. Somebody tell The Big Easy, I know a few books who would’ve taken his action.
Austin, playing in only his 15th major, made 3 straight birdies from the 11th to keep him in contention. Austin’s 60-foot chip from the front of the 12th green was the one that sent shockwaves throughout Southern Hills, and was probably among the highlights of the tournament. He was so stoked that he turned his ear and got the crowd into it.
“I was trying to get them to go crazy for someone else, so he’d know there’s someone else out here,” Austin raved. “There’s no roar like his. It was nice to hear the loudest one I’ve ever heard for me.”
With just a one-stroke lead entering the 15th hole, Tiger Woods kept his composure and darted a 7-iron shot to put the ball within 10 feet of the pin for a birdie that would extend his lead to 2. Woods then made a bold drive down the middle in the 16th to assure that there wouldn’t be any rough spots entering the final 2 holes.
“I felt like, you know, I got myself into this mess, now I’ve got to go earn my way out of it,” Woods confessed. “I did some serious yelling at myself going to the 15th tee.”
Tiger Woods tapped in for par at the 18th hole and finished with a 69 to give him an 8-under 2-stroke lead for his 4th PGA Championship and the 4th time he hoisted the Wanamaker Trophy. He needs one more PGA Championship to tie the record held by Jack Nicklaus and Waler Hagen.
Tiger’s wife Elin and daughter Sam Alexis were waiting at the 18th hole to Tiger’s surprise.
“Having Sam there and having Elin there, it feels a lot more special. And it used to be my mom and dad. And now Elin, and now we have our own daughter. So it’s evolved, and this one feels so much more special than the other majors,” Woods explained.
Woods’ fourth PGA Championship gives him 13 majors, leaving him only five short of the benchmark set by Jack Nicklaus, but still on a better pace than that set by the Golden Bear. At age 31, Tiger Woods won his 13th major in his 44th start. Nicklaus was 35 when he won his 13th major in his 53rd try as a pro.
He is so dominant in his era that Woods now has more majors (13) then the rest of the top 10 in the world ranking combined (12).
Another interesting stat is that Woods is now 13-0 when he has at least a share of the lead going into the final round.
So, next time a golf tournament comes up and you see Tiger Woods in top of the leaderboard going into the final round, you can bet he’ll close the deal and put some extra change in your pocket.
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