Twelfth Man

Woods Is Youngest To Dozen Majors With Easy Victory

MEDINAH, Ill., Aug. 20 -- Ruthless as always with the 54-hole lead in a major event, Tiger Woods buried a 15-footer for birdie at the first hole, made three more birdies in his next seven and eliminated any suspense even before he began the back nine in the 88th PGA Championship. It was a no-contest runaway at Medinah No. 3 on a sparkling Sunday afternoon, with the greatest golfer of his era and arguably of all time securing the 12th major title and 51st victory of his career.

With nine holes left, Woods already had tied the tournament record of 18 under par and had a four-shot lead, aided by massive birdie putts of 40 feet at the sixth and eighth holes. He played the final nine in even-par 36, with only his third bogey of the week out of a bunker at the 17th costing him a chance to set the tournament record. Ho hum, a 4-under 68 and 18-under 270 merely earned a five-shot victory over runner-up Shaun Micheel, never a back-nine factor despite his final-round 69 for 275.

When Woods tapped in a final one-foot putt for par at the 18th on Sunday, there was none of raw emotion he exhibited last month on the 72nd hole in winning the British Open. That day in the Liverpool suburbs, he dissolved into tears and buried his face on the shoulder of his caddie, Steve Williams, distraught that he couldn't share the victory with his father, Earl, who died after a long battle with prostate cancer on May 3. In the Medinah shadows on Sunday evening, Woods smiled broadly and hugged Williams briefly, and the two walked off the 18th green arm in arm.

"It was a special day out there," Woods said. "I just had one of those magic days on the greens. It's not often you get days like that. . . . I thought I could make everything."

Woods's breeze-easy triumph, his fourth in the last eight majors, came on a day when he mostly kept his driver in the bag, just as he had done in winning the British Open last month at Hoylake. Since missing the cut at the U.S. Open in mid-June, six weeks after his father's death, Woods has finished second at the Western Open and won his last three tournaments. With two major victories this season and five wins overall, he also will be the runaway player of the year for the seventh time in his 10-year pro career.

"When I had a four- or five-shot lead, I was just trying to make pars, that was my mind-set," he said. "Just keep hitting fairways and greens and lag putt it up there."

Luke Donald, a 28-year-old Englishman playing in the final group in a major for the first time, was hardly ready for prime time. He made bogey out of pin-high rough at the fourth hole, missed a four-footer for a three-putt par at the fifth and was six behind after the first nine. He finished with a 74 in a three-way tie for third at 12-under 276 with Sergio Garcia (70) and Australian Adam Scott (67).

"He was impressive today," said Donald, a crowd favorite because he played college golf at nearby Northwestern. "I wasn't disappointed with the way I played, I just got nothing out of it. I was nervous, but it didn't cause me to make any bad swings. You put yourself in this position, you'll get strong every time and learn from it."

Garcia wasn't quite as flattering toward Woods.

"I mean he definitely played extremely well," the Spaniard said. "Everything went his way, too. The bad shots he hit all week long, he got away with them. When everything goes your way and you play well, putt well, do everything well, it's going to be difficult to beat him."

Only one of the six players within five shots of the third-round lead was able to mount much of an early charge. Canadian Mike Weir got to within three shots of Woods when he birdied the 579-yard No. 10, but his game disintegrated coming in and his back-nine 39 and 1-over 73 left him in alone in sixth place at 11-under 277.

On the back, Weir and everyone else on the premises knew they were playing for second place, but the 2003 Masters winner still could take consolation in his performance. Seven years ago, playing here in the final group with Woods in this same event, Weir posted an 80 and tied for 10th.

The most rousing run up the board came early from Scott, who started the final round seven shots behind. With a five-birdie 31 on his front nine, Scott got to 14 under through 15 holes, but two bogeys on his final three holes led to a 67, still the lowest score among the top 10 finishers, but hardly enough to make a difference in the final outcome.

Said Micheel, who had missed the cut in his last seven majors: "Even if I'd hit every fairway, I'm not sure I'd have been able to catch Tiger. He's too good. . . . He's just such an intimidating force. Tiger has a unique ability to play well when he thinks he's not playing well. I'm not sure anything ever bothers him. I wish I had that feeling just once."

Woods's dozen major wins gets him two-thirds of the way toward tying his childhood idol, Jack Nicklaus, with the record of 18 professional majors.

Woods was tied at 11 majors with the great Walter Hagen for second place on the all-time list when he arrived in the Chicago suburbs this week. Woods won his 12th at the age of 30; Nicklaus was 33 when he won No. 12, at the 1973 PGA Championship at Canterbury Golf Club in Ohio. His last came at age 46, at the 1986 Masters.

Woods's 51 victories ties him for sixth on the all-time list with Billy Casper and is 31 behind the leader, the late Sam Snead, with 82. He also became the first player to win two PGA Championships at the same venue after his triumph at Medinah in 1999.

Earlier this week, Woods said he was flattered to be mentioned in the same sentence with some of the immortals in the history of sports. A recent Harris poll indicated he was the most popular athlete in the country, displacing Chicago icon Michael Jordan for the first time since 1993. He made $1.24 million Sunday, will earn an estimated $85 million in corporate endorsements this year and is likely to become the first billionaire athlete in history.

"I did not think in my wildest dreams I could actually have achieved what I've achieved so far," Woods said this past Tuesday. But his first serious swing instructor, Butch Harmon, said even before play started Sunday that he could see all of this coming even when he worked with the skinny teenager back in the early 1990s. Harmon accompanied then 20-year-old Woods to his first professional tournament in Milwaukee 10 years ago this month, when Woods tied for 60th place and earned $2,544.

"He was confident and he was curious about how he'd play," said Harmon, his longtime coach until being replaced by Hank Haney in March 2004. "Anxious is probably the best way to describe it, just like anyone in that position would be. Then he stepped up to the first tee and hit his drive 325 down the middle.

"Am I surprised by what he's done? Not really. You knew he had this in him. You could see it as a teenager. It didn't matter who his teacher was, he was always going to get it done. I'm proud to have had a small part in it, but give this guy all the credit. He's the best."