Survivor

In a riveting final-round showdown he called the toughest of his career, Tiger Woods outlasts a stubborn Bob May and joins Ben Hogan as the only players to win three major championships in one year

Woods' final-round recovery act included this escape on the second playoff hole.

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By John Hawkins

Photos By Dom Furore

August 25, 2000

Louisville, KY.—Back when ruling the universe was more of a goal than an occupation, Tiger Woods aspired to become the next Bob May, a 16-year-old junior golfer from Southern California whose supremacy in the region had made him something of a household name. Never mind that it was just one household. Some living rooms are a lot bigger than others.

By the age of nine, Woods had become familiar enough with May to announce that he would someday surpass all his local achievements, which turned out to be mere child's play for the kid who had already posted Jack Nicklaus' records on his bedroom wall. "He kept on saying it and doing it and saying it and doing it," May recalls of the pseudo-rivalry. "So I was hoping maybe I could get a chance to get back at him."

The opportunity presented itself last Sunday in the final round of the 82nd PGA Championship, a stage on which the roles had been diametrically altered without ever crossing. That May, a nine-year journeyman pro with a career best distinguished by four uneventful seasons in Europe, could even play his way into the final pairing with Woods seemed like (a) another indictment of Valhalla GC, the frequently maligned host venue; (b) more scathing evidence of the game's competitive vacuum; or (c) a press release from the Orange County Chamber of Commerce.

Bob May, but in all likelihood, Bob May Not. "When he [Woods] hit his tee ball off No. 1 over the trees," he said, "I knew it was going to be a different game."

A different game it was. In a duel Tiger himself called the toughest he has ever been a part of, May bent every conceivable law of logic, dumping a lifetime of grit into 21 holes before Woods claimed his third consecutive major title on a day when the gap between first and second place was as small as the last two margins were huge. "This was one memorable battle," Woods said. "It was a very special day, to have two guys competing at a level you don't see unless you have the concentration heightened to where it was."

Translation: Tiger was pushed. Pushed hard. Pushed over the edge a few times, but as was the case at the 1993 U.S. Junior Amateur and the 1996 U.S. Amateur, the 2000 Mercedes Championships and the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am six weeks later, Popeye found the can of spinach right before he hit the floor. Woods played the last 15 holes in eight under. He birdied the final two holes of regulation and the first hole in the playoff, then got up and down from the Port-o-Let complex right of the 17th fairway, then won by scrambling for par after driving his ball into a spot reserved for 22-handicaps and higher.

We'll be right back after these commercial messages:

• Woods becomes the first player since Ben Hogan (1953) to win three majors in one year. Not for nothing, but the Grand Slam has officially re-entered the English language as something other than a bases-loaded home run or a breakfast item at Denny's.

• By finishing at 18-under 270, Woods now holds scoring records at all four major championships, setting new marks at the last three. In 2000, he played 291 holes of major championship golf in 53 under par. Twelve of his 16 rounds were in the 60s.

• Woods is the youngest player to win five majors, doing it faster than Jack Nicklaus by 19 months. At the pace he has established since turning pro four years ago, Woods will break Nicklaus' record of 18 majors when he's 35, at which point he should have plenty of other things to put on his bedroom wall.