Woods casts shadow at PGA

Associated Press

Given the circumstances of a most peculiar year, the slogan of the final major — “Glory’s Last Shot” — might not apply to Tiger Woods.

In some respects, the PGA Championship is more like a fresh start.

This is the seventh time in his 15 years on tour that Woods has come to the last major of the year without having made any progress toward the record that matters the most to him — the 18 professional majors won by Jack Nicklaus.

In three of those seasons, he was changing his swing. Last year, he was going through a divorce.

This year, he simply hasn’t played.

Since closing with a 67 at the Masters, briefly sharing the lead on Sunday until his game stalled and he tied for fourth, Woods went four months without playing a full round because of recurring pain in his left knee and Achilles tendon. He only missed four tournaments he ordinarily would have played, but two of them were the U.S. Open and British Open.

“We get four chances to peak per year, and unfortunately, I was only able to try and peak for one,” Woods said. “Obviously, my timetable isn’t very long to try and peak for the last one here.”

Yes, it’s his last shot of the year to try to win a major.

Could this also be his last shot at restoring belief that he still can reach or even break the Nicklaus benchmark? That he could get back to No. 1 in the world? That his red shirt on Sunday could still mean something?

Some of these could get answered when the 93rd PGA Championship gets under way Thursday at Atlanta Athletic Club.

Woods is only 35. Nicklaus, when he was this age, went on to win five more majors in his career, and the Golden Bear might have won more if he had not already broken the record once held by Bobby Jones.

But the trauma in Woods’ life — physical and emotional — makes him an old 35.

It’s more than the four surgeries on his left knee dating to his freshman year at Stanford. Woods used to walk into the locker room or onto the practice range fully aware that the other players were looking him as golf’s best player, and the guy they would have to beat. Now they look at him the way everyone else does, wondering what’s going on inside his head, curious what kind of scores he might post.

The swagger is gone because Woods hasn’t won a tournament in 20 months. Three of the last five major champions are in the top 10 in the world and still in their 20s — U.S. Open champion Rory McIlroy, Masters champion Charl Schwartzel and defending PGA champion Martin Kaymer.

Like so many other young players, they have no reason to be afraid of Woods because they have not competed against him at his best.

And there are no guarantees they ever will.

The PGA Championship doesn’t get the same respect from the public as the other majors, some of that because it’s at the end of the schedule and football starts to occupy American minds.

But there is no denying how tough it is to win. It features by far the strongest field of any major, with 99 of the top 100 in the world ranking scheduled to play.

For some, there could be a sense of urgency.

That particularly holds true for Lee Westwood, the first golfer to replace Woods at No. 1 in the world late last year and the best active player to have never won a major.

Luke Donald is No. 1 in the world and also without a major.

And don’t forget the Americans, although that’s been easy to do lately. They now have gone six majors without winning, dating to Phil Mickelson at the 2010 Masters, the longest drought since this configuration of majors began in 1934. The highest-ranked American is Steve Stricker, who is 44 and starting to run out of time.

“It’s the last chance this year, and then we’re all a year older,” Stricker said.