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TULSA, Okla. — Tiger Woods had a three-stroke lead when he spoke after the third round about winning golf tournaments.
"I know what it takes," he said, in what may have been the understatement of the week. "You just get a certain feel for what the number's going to be that day. And a lot of times I've called the number."
On Sunday at the 89th PGA Championship, Woods seemed to know exactly what score he would need on win. He was alternately pretty good, great and just good enough. Not at his best on the hottest day of the hottest major on record, a Sunday when the high hit 102 and the heat index 110, Woods shot a one-under 69 to finish eight under and hold off a surging Woody Austin and Ernie Els at Southern Hills.
He was met in the scoring hut by his wife, Elin, and their infant daughter, Sam Alexis, who was attending her first major.
"It's a feeling I've never had before, having Sam there and having Elin there," said Woods, whose fourth career PGA Championship victory puts him one behind Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus. "It feels a lot more special when you have your family there."
Woods wins $1.26 million and increases his victory total in the majors to 13, five behind Nicklaus's record of 18 and equal to that of Bobby Jones, counting Jones's U.S. Amateur victories. (Although it would only seem fair to also include Woods's three U.S. Amateur titles.)
"I just kept telling myself that even though Ernie and Woody were making runs, I still had the lead," said Woods, who remained unbeaten when leading or tied for the lead through 54 holes of a major. "And if I made pars they would have to come get me."
For a while that's what happened, as both Austin and Els made charges, but they ran out of holes just as Woods knew they would.
There have been majors, like the 1997 Masters, and the 2000 U.S. and British Opens, when Woods methodically decimated the rest of the field. There have been majors, like the 2002 Masters, in which Woods's rivals thought they had no margin for error, tried to do too much and imploded. And there have been still more majors, like the 2000 PGA and the 2005 Masters, in which Woods has been tested to the limits of his ability.
The 89th PGA was none of these, but instead was a meditation on perseverance, the importance of a three-stroke lead, and as always with Woods, winning. He encountered little resistance from his playing partner, Stephen Ames, whom Woods had throttled 9&8 at the WGC-Accenture Match Play last year and who bogeyed the first two holes and shot 76, dropping from second place to a tie for 12th.
Instead it was Austin and Els who injected some sorely needed intrigue into the last major of the year. Although Austin outplayed Woods on Sunday, shooting 67 to Tiger's 69, he finished two behind and was left wondering what might have been had he not thrown away a handful of chances Friday, when he felt he outplayed Woods from tee to green but struggled with his putting and was outscored 63-70.
"Like I said on Friday, you cannot give somebody seven shots, especially someone who happens to be the best player in the world," said Austin, whose runner-up finish was his best in a major and earned him a spot on the U.S. Presidents Cup team.
