LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Golf has always had its story lines of David beating Goliath, when virtual unknowns have come out of obscurity to claim victories in major championships.
This is a sport in which a journeyman named Jack Fleck beat a legend named Ben Hogan to win the 1955 U.S. Open in San Francisco, a sport in which John Daly went from hick to folk hero in the 1991 PGA Championship across the Indiana border at a place called Crooked Stick.
Yesterday, in the final round of the 82nd PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club, Bob May nearly did to Tiger Woods what Fleck did to Hogan. But given the place Woods holds in the game as the No. 1 player in the world and likely to be its greatest champion ever, May might have secured his own spot in history.
May will certainly be treated as more than a footnote, given the way that he stalked Woods for 21 holes before succumbing by one stroke in a three-hole aggregate playoff. But he saw close-up what others have witnessed throughout Woods' record-book career.
"I think if you shoot three straight 66s in a major championship, you should win," said May, 31. "But you're playing against the best player in the world and he proved that's not good enough."
After both players finished the 72 holes of regulation in 18-under-par 270 - a record for the PGA Championship since it went from match play to medal play in 1958 - Woods birdied the first playoff hole to take a lead he would never relinquish.
He secured victory when he blasted out of a greenside bunker on the third playoff hole to within a foot, and tapped in for par after May narrowly missed a treacherous, 30-foot birdie putt that would have forced sudden death.
The victory gave Woods, 24, another place in the record books, this time next to the legendary Hogan as the only players to have won three major championships in the same season. It was the second straight PGA Championship for Woods, who became the first player to win two PGA titles in a row since Denny Shute won back-to-back championships in match play in 1936 and 1937.
It also gave credibility to a course that was criticized when it hosted its first major championship, the PGA, in 1996, when one PGA Tour journeyman, Mark Brooks, beat another, Kenny Perry, in a playoff.
The course, and the PGA of America, came under fire from the players after the first two rounds this year weren't completed on the same day because it took many more than six hours to play 18 holes.
Woods was happy to do his part to help bring some respectability to a course designed by Jack Nicklaus, with whom Woods played the first two rounds this year.
"I think it does," Woods said. "It's got to go down as one of the best duels in the game, in major championships. Granted, there have been some great ones, but I think this one goes up there.
"Both of us shoot 31 on the back nine on Sunday afternoon with no bogeys. I played the last 12 holes in 7-under par. That's not too bad."
After making a bogey on the par-5 second hole and watching May birdie there, relinquishing the lead he had held since the opening round, Woods showed why his career has been filled with memorable comebacks.
Trailing by two shots when May made another birdie on the par-4 fourth hole, Woods had only one thought in his head. It remained there after both bogeyed the par-4 sixth hole.
"I was only two back," recalled Woods. "And to have 12 holes, and be only two back in a major championship, you just need to hang around. If you kind of hang around, good things happen. I tried to get back to even par on the day through nine holes and I was able to do that. Birdie [Nos.] 7 and 8 right there. Now the ballgame is on."
It appeared the ballgame was over on the par-4 15th hole. After May, still leading by a stroke, hit his 7-iron approach to within 6 feet of the cup, Woods let his 8-iron approach get away.
The ball went left of the green, and he could only get his chip to within 15 feet of the hole. But as he has done so often throughout his career, and again yesterday, Woods made the putt and gave a trademark fist-pump as it went in.
"When I was standing over the putt, I knew if I had made mine, it would make his putt a bit longer," Woods said later. "I felt if I had missed it, he would make it.
"That's just kind of the way the flow of the round had been going. If I could somehow did down deep to concentrate and control all my emotions and nerves and bury that putt, I just felt that it would make his putt a little more interesting."
It did. May missed.
"Yeah, it was critical," May said. It was a putt that if you get too aggressive, it could get away from you and run away."
Instead of leaving with a possible three-shot lead with three holes to play, May was still ahead by one. After the players made pars on the par-4 16th hole, Woods gained an advantage when he crushed his drive more than 320 yards on the 422 yard par-4 17th.
May hooked his drive into a trap, and Woods stuck a sand wedge to within 3 feet, making birdie to tie May at 17-under par.
