KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. — Another golf season will end with Tiger Woods not winning a major championship. And with every flip of the calendar, Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championships looks safer.
Woods felt he had “played myself back in the tournament,” at the end of the suspended third round of the PGA Championship early yesterday morning. But he was five shots behind Rory McIlroy and even when Woods was the most dominant player in golf, he never came from behind to win any of his 14 major titles.
So what we saw at the Ocean Course yesterday was more of the same from Woods: the same kind of finish he had in previous majors when he trailed; the same kind of golf he has been playing in the majors this season.
An even-par 72 in yesterday’s final round left him at 2-under for the tournament and a distant 11 strokes behind McIlroy, who played younger, stronger and more confident. Woods, 36, hasn’t won a major championship since the U.S. Open in 2008. McIlroy, at 23, has won two in two years. Get used to it.
“He’s got all the talent in the world to do what he’s doing,” Woods said of McIlroy. “This is the way that Rory can play. When he gets it going, it’s pretty impressive to watch.”
McIlroy is just learning how to deal with becoming golf’s new superstar. Woods is still trying to rediscover how to win a major. He’s won 14 of them, but now can’t figure out what attitude to bring to the golf course. He chastised himself from being “too relaxed” during the first part of the washed-out third round on Saturday, when he dropped three shots in seven holes.
“I was just trying to be a little bit happy out there and enjoy it,” he said. “Unfortunately, that’s not how I play.”
Woods must have felt like someone trying to catch Usian Bolt yesterday. Fact is, he struggled out of the blocks. Woods missed a 12-foot birdie putt on the first hole that would have given him some early momentum, and had an eagle putt on the second hole that stopped one roll short of dropping. He must have known then it wasn’t going to be his day.
After getting up and down to save par on the third hole, he missed makeable birdie putts on three straight holes before finally getting a must-birdie at the par-5 seventh to move to 4-under. But McIlroy was showing no signs of letting up. The only red shirt that was intimidating opponents on this day was worn by the kid from Northern Ireland.
As always, Woods tried to stay upbeat. He insisted “I putted really well. Unfortunately, I just didn’t give myself enough good looks.”
It’s becoming a familiar story. Woods’ weekend scoring average at majors over the last two years had been a mediocre 72.3, a trend he followed in the suspended third-round where he finished with a 2-over 74.
He was in contention at all four majors this year, but couldn’t find the magic on Sunday needed to win. He was T-40 at the Masters, shooting 72-74 on the weekend; T-21 at the U.S. Open where he was finished 75-73; and T-3 at the British Open, where 70-73 cost him. Now add T-11 at the PGA.
“The thing is to keep putting myself there,” he said. “I’m not going to win them all and I haven’t won them all. I certainly have lost a lot more than I’ve won. But the key is putting myself there each and every time and I’ll start getting them again.”
Woods has three wins on the PGA Tour this year, so the season hasn’t been a waste. It just feels that way.