Els blasted his drive into the trees on the 507-yard, par-4 16th hole and bogeyed to drop to five under. Woods stuck his approach to within 15 feet on the par-4 15th hole and made the birdie to get back to eight under. His lead was two over Austin, three over Els.
With precious few birdies to be had on the difficult final holes, Woods knew he needed only to par in, which he did.
"I think it's great that Ernie and I didn't just let him coast in," Austin said.
But when Woods retires and we look back at his career, the 2007 PGA will fade into the background. It was not a virtuoso performance, and there was no gruesome pileup at the finish, or even a playoff. This was a victory that the game's greatest player simply gutted out, the kind that's just good enough, but those count just the same.
