2000 PGA Championship

Mark Brooks’ lone major win came at Valhalla, but the process started at Pebble Beach

For that one week in 2000, they put on one of the greatest shows the game has ever seen.

Although he raised the Wanamaker Trophy at Valhalla Golf Club in 1996, the seed for the first and only major championship in the long and storied career of Mark Brooks came on the opposite side of the continent in a moment the Texan would just as soon forget.

After the third round of the 1992 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach Golf Links, Brooks was hot, the University of Texas product using a 69 on Saturday to march up the leaderboard and trail leader Gil Morgan by just one heading into the final 18 holes of play.

Brooks had three PGA Tour victories under his belt at this point: the 1988 Canon Sammy Davis Jr.-Greater Hartford Open and a pair of wins in 1991 at the K-Mart Greater Greensboro Open and Greater Milwaukee Open. But aside from a top-5 finish at the 1990 U.S. Open at Medinah, he’d yet to get into serious contention at a major.

With the winds whipping like they often can on the Monterey Peninsula, Brooks folded in the final round, posting two double-bogeys on the front nine and finishing with an 84 that dropped him down the leaderboard. Fellow Texan Tom Kite navigated the blustery conditions and went on to win the title.

Brooks persevered after the devastation, and a lesson was learned. While major moments offer major rewards, it’s often just as important to relax and focus on the individual moments as it is to get caught up in the grandeur.
“That was my crash-and-burn majors experience,” Brooks said. “You realize it’s truly not life and death, right? It’s damn near it. But it’s truly not life and death. I think if you look back on a lot of guys, a lot of them went through something. The Watson meltdown at Carnoustie. You know, everybody probably had a meltdown somewhere.

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“So I went in after that and made an assessment. Why did I break down? Most of the time it was because it had something to do with the way you were thinking. I didn’t adjust to the situation properly. They call them halftime adjustments, and when a guy doesn’t make the right halftime adjustments, you’re probably going to get your butt kicked. So that was all part of the learning process. And for me, that all came at Pebble Beach.”

The pain didn’t subside quickly. Brooks, now 63, admitted to feeling the gut punch after his final-round debacle for a lengthy stretch.

“It took several months. You’re doubting yourself. You don’t think you’re good enough,” Brooks said. “But I got to play with the winner, Tom Kite. So I watched it and it was interesting. He managed his ball really well. And, of course, his short game was phenomenal at that time. That’s when he was probably the best. And maybe for a period of time there he was the best at that.”

So armed with first-hand knowledge, when Brooks found himself in a similar situation four years later at the PGA Championship, running near the top of the leaderboard at Valhalla he had that experience to lean on. Of course, this year’s PGA Championship is at the same famous Louisville course.

In each of the first three rounds, Brooks was positioned just behind the leader. He was two shots behind Kentucky native Kenny Perry after the first round, sat in a tie for third behind Phil Mickelson and Justin Leonard after the second round and was in a tie for second with Vijay Singh after the third.

Mark Brooks, right, and Kenny Perry, left, shake hands after Brooks won the PGA Championship after a one-hole playoff at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., Sunday, Aug. 11, 1996.

Russ Cochran, another local product, was two strokes up heading into the final round after a scintillating 65 on Saturday. The left-handed Cochran seemed well-positioned for his second PGA Tour victory and first major win, especially in light of his familiarity with the environs. Although to get across the finish line, he’d have to contend with a constellation of stars within four shots of the lead, including Mickelson, Singh, Leonard, Steve Elkington, Greg Norman and Nick Price.

And Brooks, who with his Pebble experience far off in the rearview, now had the ability to stay in the moment, even when a tough field was fluctuating up and down the leaderboard.

Paired with Brooks in the final grouping, Cochran faded early in the round while the Texan charged, using birdies on Nos. 6, 7 and 8 to get to 12 under.

“It was pretty clear early on that Russ was going south and he wasn’t going to have a chance to contend,” Brooks said. “I’ll be honest, I don’t remember one shot he had. I don’t remember all of mine, either. It’s kind of interesting because a lot of people remember who they played with. I’m not being rude, but I don’t remember who I played with many times. If you ask me in all my wins who I played with the last round, I usually don’t have a clue.

“The inconsequential shots, I don’t really remember. There are cliches, you know, ‘One shot at a time.‘ Well, you really play golf a shot ahead. You’re always playing one shot ahead, but you’re actually then focusing on the shot in front of you — period. I got really good at that. I mean if you said, ‘What’s your strength?‘ That was my strength and I had to learn whatever you want to call it, mind tricks. I had to use processes to compartmentalize situations. And I was always doing stuff to shorten the time or make the task seem attainable.”

With one native out of the way, Brooks had to focus on Perry, who also was comfortable navigating the Kentucky bluegrass. Using five birdies in seven holes, Perry charged ahead while Brooks gave three strokes back in a four-hole stretch.

But Perry posted a bogey at the par-5 18th hole, although he still held the lead at 11 under with a host of players within striking distance. One by one, however, they fell to the side. Defending champ Elkington found the bunker on 18 and missed a 10-footer that would have put him in a playoff. Singh made bogey on the final hole and missed the playoff by two. Tommy Tolles also made a charge and had an eagle putt on 18 that would have evened him up with Perry, but missed.

That’s when Brooks kept it simple. Needing a birdie on the final hole to get into sudden death, he knew his best chance was to play to the fat part of the bunker in front of the 18th green.

“That was the play all week,” Brooks said. “I was hitting my 3-wood well at the time. And I knew if I caught it at 102 percent I could carry that front bunker, but there was a 90 percent chance I was going to hit into the bunker. I knew that was the shot and I was only thinking one shot ahead.”

Brooks plunked it in the sand, hit his wedge to a few feet and drained a putt to force bonus golf. Perry, meanwhile, had neglected to hit the range with the title on the line and by the time the playoff started, he was cold and at a disadvantage.

Perry famously hooked his ball through the fairway on the first playoff hole while Brooks averted danger and reached the green in two. After Perry got caught in the rough on both his second and third shots, Brooks knew the trophy was his.

He has never talked about the championship with Perry, but sympathizes with the former Western Kentucky University star, especially since the questionable decision to forego practice swings while on TV has long been considered the wrong one.

“It’s been interesting to watch Kenny’s interviews much later in life. Dang, dude. I feel bad for him,” Brooks said.

“The thing that’s interesting is a lot of this is as much about sacrifice as it is hard work. I was a bit of party boy, you know, until I was about 29. After that U.S. Open, I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since then. There’s more sacrificing than there is work, in my opinion. Yes, it’s physically exerting, no doubt. You’re out there hitting like 500 balls a day. It’s exhausting but it’s not comparable to a lot of manual labor things, right?

“But then you accomplish something. You win a tournament like the PGA Championship. It’s something special.”

Louisville Sluggers: Bob May, Tiger Woods traded blows in epic PGA Championship at Valhalla in 2000

For that one week in 2000, they put on one of the greatest shows the game has ever seen.

It’s so easy now, with more than two decades of hindsight, for all the victories to converge into one uninterrupted stretch of dominance. The Tiger Woods of 1999 and 2000 won 17 PGA Tour events in his early 20s and suddenly, explosively, was the dominant force in golf.

He had fully burst into the spotlight with his eye-popping performance at the 1997 Masters, shattering the scoring record with the most dominant display in major championship history. After a relatively quiet year in 1998 in which he reworked his swing, he stared down a young Sergio Garcia to win his second major title at the 1999 PGA Championship at Medinah Country Club in Illinois.

Entering the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, Woods was without doubt the star, capable of shotmaking and power and putting prowess unmatched by his older peers.

Spoiler alert: Woods won that PGA Championship, part of the greatest streak in golf history. But that 2000 PGA Championship was special, because Woods was pushed to an extent he rarely experienced during the peak of his powers. Almost every great shot he hit was matched in the final round, and for once, the ultimate frontrunner had a running mate down the line at Valhalla.

Tiger Woods and Bob May duel at Valhalla

👉@MichaelRMason @rgoodson21 @timothygreenman @bogeyj33 pic.twitter.com/suG6kaDxFj

— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) March 26, 2020

Woods had started the year on a heater, winning early-season Tour events in Hawaii, California, Florida and Ohio. And he was just getting warmed up.

Woods blew away the field at the 2000 U.S. Open in June at Pebble Beach, notching a 15-shot win for the largest victory margin ever in a major. He then claimed his fourth major title and second in a row at the Open Championship in July at the Old Course at St. Andrews, this one by a mere eight shots. He had claimed three titles in a stretch of four major championships, and he had locked up the career Grand Slam before his 24th birthday.

If it seemed as if Woods couldn’t lose, it was because he wasn’t doing much losing. He headed into the PGA Championship as the strong favorite at Valhalla Golf Club, and he had exposed this fact to all who dared challenge him. Tiger was the man to beat, and nobody seemed able to do it.

Enter Bob May

Nobody wants to be called a journeyman, but that description perfectly fit May, then a 31-year-old who had split time between the PGA Tour and the European Tour. He had never won on the PGA Tour, but his impressive junior-golf record in California had once been a target for a younger Woods. At the start of the PGA Championship at Valhalla, May had climbed to No. 48 in the world.

As the Championship progressed into Sunday’s final round, May vs. Woods had all the makings of a classic David-vs.-Goliath matchup that nobody saw coming. It’s easy to look back now and say the outcome seemed predetermined based on Woods’ sterling record as a closer, but that would be a case of hindsight being 20/20 because May was determined to take it to Woods.

And Woods, coming into Valhalla on an 18-month hot streak, looked entirely human for a spell in the third round and again early in the fourth.

Valhalla’s course was designed by Jack Nicklaus with major aspirations, having first hosted the 1996 PGA Championship won by Mark Brooks in a playoff over Kentucky native Kenny Perry. The layout featured thick bluegrass rough and tricky Nicklaus greens, many of which included several tiers.

Jack’s swan song

By the 2000 PGA Championship, the 60-year-old Nicklaus was nearing the end of his major championship career. The course he built in Kentucky would be the last he would play in the PGA Championship. But there was one more reason to watch the Golden Bear. He was paired with Woods in the first two rounds, Vijay Singh occupying the third spot in their group.

It was the first time Nicklaus and Woods played competitive rounds together.
Woods wasted no time showing off in front of the man whose records he was chasing, shooting 6-under-par 66 to share the first-round lead with Scott Dunlap. A second-round 67 gave Woods the outright lead by one over Dunlap, who was playing some of the best golf of his life.

By and large, Woods did it by manhandling Valhalla’s four par 5s. With length to spare, Woods was 7 under par on those holes after playing each of them twice, seven birdies in eight attempts.

“I knew that he was good, but I had never played with him in a tournament before,” Nicklaus, who missed the cut by a shot, said during a televised interview after the first two rounds. “And he is so much better than I thought he was. It just absolutely amazed me. It was a unique experience for me to play with him the last two days.”

May, meanwhile, didn’t get off to the greatest start. By then a Las Vegas resident, May was an incredible longshot after opening with an even-par 72. A talented iron player, he climbed into the fringes of contention with a bogey-free 66 in the second round, but he was five shots behind Woods on a packed leaderboard.

Nobody could have predicted what would come

In Saturday’s third round, May racked up seven birdies in a 10-hole stretch and hung a second consecutive 66 on the board. Woods, meanwhile, started struggling a touch with his putter — nothing too alarming, but not every putt was dropping as some fans had come to expect. He was still dominating the par 5s in general, but a double bogey on the par-4 12th included a missed 3 footer.

Woods hung tough for a 2-under 70 and a one-shot lead over May, who was one shot clear of Dunlap and JP Hayes. But, unexpectedly, there appeared to be gaps in Woods’ armor.

Sunday turned into one of the greatest two-man duels in major championship history. Woods and May, paired together in the final group, distanced themselves from the field. And despite many expectations, it was May who started hot.

Woods struggled early with two bogeys in the first six holes, including a three-putt on a par 5. Meanwhile, May flipped the script with birdies on two of the first four holes. He bogeyed the sixth, but as the pairing walked to No. 7 tee, the journeyman had a two-shot lead and appeared fearless, throwing great iron shot after great iron shot at a Woods who couldn’t seem to dodge the blows. David had Goliath on the ropes.

But No. 7 is a par 5, and Woods did what he does on such holes, making birdie to cut May’s lead to one. Woods then reheated his putter with a 12-footer that found the cup on No. 8 to reach 13 under par and square what soon would become a two-man match. The contestants took a breather with pars on No. 9 before heading to the back nine.

After the turn, they threw birdies at each other hole after hole. May had three birdies in a row on Nos. 10-12 to take a 1-up lead despite Woods birdieing Nos. 10 and 12. They both birdied the long par-3 14th, May again knocking his approach inside Woods’ before each rolled in a putt. May again struck a beautiful approach on 15, but this time he misread his birdie putt and settled for par after Woods had made a 15-footer for his par, later calling that save a deciding point of the tournament.

Woods stuck a wedge approach tight on 17 to pull even with May as they lapped the rest of the field, and with the title on the line each man reached the par-5 18th green in two shots. Neither eagle putt came close, with May actually running his off the green and onto the fringe before Woods missed by 5 feet.

By this point, each player had four birdies on that back nine, and with everything on the line in regulation, neither backed down on 18. May knocked in his long birdie putt from the fringe, fist-pumping on his way to retrieve the ball from the hole. Woods then rolled his shorter putt home to tie May at 18 under par at the end of regulation, generating a Woods fist-pump of his own.

Each man shot 5-under 31 on that back nine, no bogeys between them. Woods had to birdie seven of the final 12 holes to catch the underdog May: No player had pushed Woods to those extremes in any of his previous major victories.

A playoff first at the PGA

They set off for a three-hole aggregate playoff, the first time that format was employed in the PGA Championship, replacing the previous sudden-death method. And Woods struck early.

May drove left into tall rough on Valhalla’s 16th, and his second shot found more rough short and right of the green. From there, an exceptional pitch-and-run trundled across the green, up to the back tier and to within a few inches to secure a par.

But Woods, having found the fairway with a 2-iron tee shot and having hit the green with his approach, rolled in a 25-footer for birdie. And it wasn’t just that Woods made the putt. He followed the ball toward the hole, quick-stepping as it approached the cup and pointing as it tumbled in, giving the cameras one of his most iconic reactions. His birdie drew the first and only blood of the playoff.

Both men struggled on No. 17, May getting up and down from a greenside bunker while Woods was forced to pitch out of the trees with his second, bouncing his ball off a cart path and over the green before scrambling for a par to maintain his one-shot playoff lead.

Then came one of the luckiest breaks of Woods’ career. On the third and final hole of the playoff, he badly tugged his drive toward trees and bushes. After a few tense seconds in which nobody seemed to know where the ball was, it could be seen on the television coverage rebounding down a cart path to a much better location, albeit still in light rough.

Tiger Woods 2000 PGA — Tiger Woods celebrates making a birdie putt on the 18th hole to force a playoff at the 2000 PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo: Donald Miralle/Allsport)

There has been speculation that Woods’ ball was either kicked or thrown by a fan, but there’s no solid evidence to promote such a claim. If his ball had remained in the thickest trouble, his one-shot lead would have been in peril.
May also pulled his drive into the rough, and both men missed the fairway with their ensuing layups on the par 5. Woods then found the front bunker with his third shot, while May blasted his approach from deep grass onto the green within 25 feet of the hole. This thing wasn’t over yet, as a make by May or a bad bunker shot by Woods could yet square the playoff.

Woods then did what he does, blasting from the sand to within 18 inches to guarantee his par. May needed to sink that 25-footer for birdie, and for most of its length it appeared as if he might have done it. But the putt broke hard near the end and missed by inches, and Woods had his third major victory in a row.

“Anytime you get to play against the best, and be able to come out on top against the best, it’s always going to be more satisfying,” Woods said after the round. “The last two years the PGA Championship has drawn the best field, and I’ve been very fortunate to be able to win. But to be able to tee it up and go toe-to-toe against the best players in the world, that’s what you dream about.”

May had come within a whisker of knocking the wind out of Woods, ultimately falling one shot shy of victory in regulation and then losing by just one shot in the playoff.

“I wanted to concentrate real hard out there today and, you know, prove to people I can play out here,” May said in a post-round television interview. “It’s not a question anymore. I went out and played a good solid round of golf, and was just one shot too short.”

The two players’ careers diverged greatly after that PGA Championship before suffering similar infirmities.

Woods kept winning, racking up a total nine PGA Tour victories in 2000. He added the Masters title in 2001, giving him all four major trophies in a row. Call it a non-calendar- year Grand Slam if you like or not, but there’s no denying it was the greatest professional major streak in the history of the game.

May kept swinging well in the weeks after the PGA Championship, finishing third at the Reno-Tahoe Open the next week and adding three more top-20 finishes on Tour that year. Over the next several seasons, he continued on Tour before hurting his back in 2003, the spinal injury eventually leading to surgery. After more than a year away from golf, he returned to play a handful of more seasons before more pain led to a second surgery. After turning 50 in 2018, he tried to qualify for the PGA Tour Champions but has played only a handful of events. Much of his focus has shifted to the eponymous golf academy he operates in Las Vegas.

Woods, meanwhile, went on to arguably the best career in professional golf history with 15 major titles and 82 PGA Tour victories before suffering a series of injuries himself, including his own back problems that led to multiple surgeries.

All these years after his stunning showdown with May in Louisville, Woods is also trying to prepare his body for PGA Tour starts.

The two players were on divergent paths that eventually led to similar pain and limited play. But for that week at Valhalla, each was in his prime, and they put on one of the greatest shows the game has ever seen.

How has Tiger Woods fared at Valhalla Golf Club? Here’s a look at the two times he’s competed there

Valhalla has welcomed the world’s best (including Woods) back to the Bluegrass State for the first time in nearly a decade.

In one of the greatest careers in the history of sports, Tiger Woods has been vexed by a few golf courses.

Valhalla Golf Club isn’t among them.

In the middle of his record-setting 2000 season, he felled Bob May in a playoff to capture the PGA Championship. He also competed in the 2014 PGA Championship at the club.

But Woods, who has 82 PGA Tour victories — included in that tally is 15 major championships, four of them being PGAs — missed two other significant events at Valhalla.

He didn’t play in the 1996 PGA Championship, which was held in early August; Woods didn’t turn professional until later that month, making his PGA Tour debut Aug. 29, 1996, at the Greater Milwaukee Open.

Then there was the 2008 Ryder Cup, remembered for the U.S. ending its three-match losing streak to Team Europe. Woods wasn’t part of the festivities, as he was home recovering from knee surgery — on the heels of his stirring U.S. Open win over Rocco Mediate in a Monday playoff that went 19 holes at Torrey Pines.

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Valhalla has welcomed the world’s best players back to the Bluegrass State for the first time in nearly a decade, as this year’s PGA Championship will tee off Thursday.

Here’s a look at his two previous tournaments at Valhalla — and how he fared:

Tiger Woods points to his ball as it drops for birdie on the first hole of a three-hole playoff against Bob May at the PGA Championship, Sunday, Aug. 20, 2000, at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky. Woods would win the tournament to capture his second PGA Championship.

Result: Win; beat May in three-hole aggregate playoff (Woods was 1 under, while May was even)

Woods entered the PGA seemingly unstoppable. He’d already romped to victories in the U.S. Open and Open Championship earlier in the summer, blitzing those fields by an astronomical 23 strokes. And he also claimed wins in four other events (the Mercedes Championship, the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, the Bay Hill Invitational and the Memorial Tournament) prior to arriving in Louisville.

He wasted no time finding his rhythm at Valhalla, sitting in a tie for first (alongside Scott Dunlap) after the first round thanks to a 6-under 66. Woods bettered Dunlap by a stroke, 67 to 68, in the second round, to take a one-shot lead into the weekend. The pair shot matching 2-under 70s in the third round, with Woods taking a one-stroke advantage into the final day.

But another man made a move on moving day: May, who carded a 6-under 66 to tie Dunlap for second at 12 under.

May refused to let Woods do what he did during his dominant wins at Pebble Beach and the Old Course at St. Andrews and turn the final round into a coronation. May, who never won on the PGA Tour, fired another 66, forcing Woods (who shot 67) to make birdies on each of his last two holes in regulation to get into a playoff.

Woods, as he did so often, came through in the clutch, making a birdie on the first extra hole — producing another one of his highlight-reel moments as he pointed at the ball and walked it into the cup — and going on to win the three-hole aggregate playoff by a shot.

Denying May helped Woods become only the second player in golf’s professional era (beginning with the formation of the Masters in 1934) to win three major championships in the same year; Ben Hogan is the other, achieving the feat in 1953.

Less than eight months later, Woods won the 2001 Masters to cap the “Tiger Slam,” making history as the first golfer to hold all four professional majors at the same time.

2014 PGA Championship

Result: Missed cut

Woods’ second Valhalla appearance wasn’t nearly as fruitful as the first.

The four-time PGA champion made just three total birdies en route to consecutive rounds of 3-over 74, missing the cut by five strokes.

Whether Woods even would play at Valhalla that year was a popular topic of conversation, as he had withdrawn during the final round of the Bridgestone Invitational the week prior, citing a back injury.

The missed cut was only his fourth in 66 major championships since turning professional in 1996.

“It was a long day,” Woods said after completing his second round. “I tried as hard as I could. That’s about all I got. Unfortunately, just didn’t play well. So consequently a pair of 74s is not very good. … The back was sore. No doubt it was sore. It went out on me on the range. I just had to play through it.”

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.

Jack Nicklaus remembers the exact moment he knew it was time to pass the baton (and it included Tiger Woods)

“I had realized that before, but that was … boom! Right in the face.”

For Jack Nicklaus, the moment came in 2000 at Valhalla, the site of next week’s PGA Championship.

Nicklaus, then 60, was playing in what would be his final PGA Championship. He missed the cut at 4 over, not able to recover from an opening-round 77. And when he walked off the course it hit him.

“Man, you need to pass the baton,” Nicklaus said he was thinking. “You can’t compete in this anymore.”

And it was the man who he had just competed against who made Jack realize it was time to move on from competitive golf.

Nicklaus, who lives in North Palm Beach, played those two rounds with Tiger Woods, who now lives on Jupiter Island. Tiger opened with a 66-67 on the way to an 18-under 270 and his third consecutive major championship of the season.

Nicklaus, 84, spoke of that moment last week at the Legends Luncheon in Columbus, Ohio, hosted by the Memorial Tournament, which is scheduled for June 6-9 at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio. Nicklaus is the founder and host of the Memorial.

“I knew that I was getting to where I couldn’t compete (and) it was brought to me very abruptly, in 2000 at Valhalla when I played with Tiger,” he said.

“I had realized that before, but that was … boom! Right in the face. Thirty-six holes of playing with him and seeing how well he played, how he just dominated what was going on, I did that earlier. But I don’t do it now.”

Jack knew who would be carrying that “baton,” as it turned out, for about the next quarter century, which is why that metaphorical handoff was to Tiger. That 2000 PGA Championship was Tiger’s fifth major. He would add 10 more, pulling him to within three of Nicklaus’ record.

And although Tiger, 48, isn’t through chasing majors – he will return to the site of that 2000 PGA Championship next week – it will be an international story even if he just contends in a major going forward.

Nicklaus never has denied Tiger’s extraordinary skill, several times saying his record of 18 majors would have fallen if injuries had not impacted Tiger’s career. He once again praised Tiger’s game, his swing and ability to hit shots that still very few human beings can replicate.

Tiger Woods-DUI-Jack Nicklaus — Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. (Golfweek File Photo)

But it’s the physical toll of multiple injuries, surgeries, and the 2021 car crash outside of Los Angeles in which Tiger nearly lost his right leg that Jack cites as the reason it would be very difficult for Tiger now to compete consistently on the biggest stage.

Something Tiger has been saying for the last two years.

“Tiger has the ability to still play, but obviously doesn’t play as well as he did, and I think a lot of his is physical ailments,” Nicklaus said. “But I watched him hit balls, and he hits the ball pretty well. It’s just trying to keep his body together.

“I don’t know if he can walk 72 holes. He can be competitive for at least two rounds, because that’s what he did at Augusta. … If he can be competitive in the third, then certainly he can be competitive in the fourth.”

Masters 2024 microcosm of Tiger’s post-accident career

This year’s Masters was a microcosm of Tiger’s post-accident career. He set the tournament record with his 24th consecutive cut with a two-day score of 145, 1-over par. But by the weekend his body started breaking down. Woods posted his worst score ever at Augusta in the third round, 10-over 82.

In five majors since the accident, which resulted in his leg being held together by plates, rods and screws, Tiger has been forced to withdraw after the second or third round twice, and missed the cut once.

Tiger’s stunning victory in the 2019 Masters is his lone major championship in the last 16 years. During that span, he has missed 23 of 67 majors.

The 1986 Masters was the last of Jack’s 18 major championships. He was 46. He continued to compete in all four majors for the next 11 years, sixth-place finishes in the 1990 and 1998 Masters the closest he’d come to winning.

The last time Nicklaus played a round of golf where he holed out every putt was the 2005 British Open at St. Andrews. That was the last of his record 164 majors. He rarely plays, but did reveal he got in three rounds at Augusta following this year’s tournament.

“Life passes on and you get old and can’t do the things you used to do,” Nicklaus said. “I just think golf is an amazing sport, and we have the ability to play and compete as long as we do. And find lightning in a bottle occasionally, like I did in ’86.”

Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and golf writer for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.

The 5 best PGA Championships of the last 30 years

So much drama, so many memories, but not quite on the level as these five all-time favorites. Here are the top 5 PGAs of the last 30 years.

The Wanamaker Trophy has been awarded 101 times, and while Brooks Koepka will have to wait a little longer to attempt to three-peat due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, it won’t stop us from reliving some of the great moments in PGA Championship history in what should have been this week for the 102^nd PGA at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco.

For this exercise, we’ve centered on the top 5 PGA’s of the last 30 years, which meant leaving out some great duels such as David Toms over Phil Mickelson in 2001, the underdog story of Rich Beem over Tiger Woods, or how about unheralded Shaun Micheel stiffing it at the 72^nd hole in 2003.

So much drama, so many memories, but not quite on the level as these five all-time favorites.

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Tales of Tiger’s top 10 putts: Downhill knee-knocker is No. 1

In 2000, Tiger Woods tussled with journeyman Bob May with the Wanamaker Trophy on the line. A birdie putt to force a playoff tops the list.

One of the most iconic clubs in golf’s history is a 35.25-inch, chrome-finished Scotty Cameron Newport 2 putter with a single dot on the top line and two distinct red dots, one on the front, the other on the back.

“Yep, it’s been pretty good to me,” Tiger Woods said of the putter he calls “Scotty.”

“Seriously, it’s been a special club.”

What is the best putt Woods has ever made in his career?

1. 18^th hole, Valhalla Golf Club

Final round of the 2000 PGA Championship

Having set records en route to trampling the field in the U.S. Open and British Open, Woods was seeking a third consecutive major triumph as Glory’s Last Shot would play out on the Kentucky bluegrass.

But there would be no waltz to the Wanamaker Trophy as Woods tussled with journeyman Bob May on a steamy Sunday. Woods trailed by 2 early in the final round but played the final 12 holes in 7-under-par to force a playoff with May. His final birdie in regulation came at the 542-yard, par-5 18^th where Woods faced a downhill, knee-knocking 7-footer to get into a playoff. He gently putted the ball, watched it disappear and then nearly fist-pumped the earth in celebration.

Why does this putt rank No. 1? Because Woods says so.

“Considering the circumstance, the pressure, the putt that was so, so, so fast, and the break, that was the one,” he said when asked to name the best putt of his career. “Dead center.”

Woods and May finished five shots clear of the field at 18 under and set off for a three-hole playoff. Woods produced another memorable putt on the first playoff hole when he walked briskly after his 20-footer for birdie and delivered a finger-wagging celebration as the ball fell into the hole. Woods nursed that 1-shot advantage to victory with two pars.

Tiger Woods won the PGA Championship in 2000 at Valhalla in a playoff. — Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship in 2000.

He had won his third major in nine weeks. Eight months later, he completed the Tiger Slam with a win in the Masters. Woods also became the first to win back-to-back PGAs since the tournament moved to stroke play in 1958. He achieved the feat again in 2006-07. Brooks Koepka (2018-19) is the only other player to accomplish the rarity.

None of that would have happened without making the 7-footer on 18.

“I was going for three majors in a row there,” Woods furthered explained why this was the best putt of his career. “Ben Hogan won three in a row and I’ve done it. That’s it. We’re the only ones to win three professional majors in a row.

“And it was the circumstance, the pressure, how well Bob and I played. It was a hell of a shootout and it came in a major. We were matching each other with birdies in a major. That putt on 18, everything on the line, gave me a chance to win. Yeah, that was the one.”

Catch up on the entire top ten list of Tiger’s best putts here: 10-9-8 | 7-6-5 | 4-3-2.

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Enter Bob May

Jack’s swan song

Nobody could have predicted what would come

A playoff first at the PGA