Woods shares Major joy with favorite girls

Tiger Woods is all smiles after winning the 89th PGA Golf Championship in front of his wife and baby daughter at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Sunday. Reuters

It was the world No 1's 13th major championship victory but first of the year and the first he celebrated with both his wife Elin and two-month old Sam Alexis, who was waiting for him in the scoring trailer.

"It's a feeling I've never had before, having Sam there and having Elin there. It feels a lot more special when you have your family there," said Woods, whose daughter was dressed in a red outfit, copying her father's favourite Sunday attire.

"It used to be my mom and dad. And now Elin, and now we have our own daughter. So it's evolved.

"I wasn't really paying attention when I saw them. I was so excited and just wanted to give Elin and Sam a kiss and get back to signing my score card."

The Southern Hills score card showed Woods with a one-under-par 69 for an eight-under 272 total and a two-shot victory against fellow American Woody Austin.

Woods had four US Tour victories and runner-up performances at The Masters and US Open but he hungered for victory in the US PGA, the last major of the season.

"Any time you win a major championship it's always going to be a great year and this certainly is," he said.

Golf's best player put himself in commanding position by firing a 63 in the second round to equal the lowest score in a major championship.

Woods led by two shots after Friday's round, increased his lead to three in the third and stretched his advantage to five strokes after he birdied the eighth hole on Sunday.

Yet victory did not come easily.

Austin and three-times major winner Ernie Els of South Africa kept up the pressure and the lead dwindled to one before Woods exhorted himself to rally back -- and did just that.

Woods said experience had made him a better player than he was in 2000 when he dominated the sport.

That year he won the US Open at Pebble Beach by a record 15 strokes, took the British Open by eight and claimed the PGA in a playoff against former junior rival Bob May.

"It's just experience," Woods said about what makes him superior now to the all-conquering player who went on to add the 2001 Masters to complete the so-called Tiger Slam.

"Understanding how to manage my game around the golf course, I have more shots than I did then just because of that many more years to learn them, and how to make adjustments on the fly, just comes with experience," he said.

"And I'll say the same thing seven years from now, more experienced than I am now."

Woods won the British Open and the US PGA in 2006 but it was a painful year for the champion, whose father, Earl, died after a long battle with cancer.

"Looking back on the year, golf-wise it's been a good year. I've won a major championship now. I've contended in three of the four. That part's been good. Off the golf course, it's been great.

"Last year the golf was great, but off the golf course was difficult. So I will certainly take this year over last year any time."

Agencies

(China Daily 08/14/2007 page23)