There’s no sense in trying to tell the story of Tiger Woods in the context of the PGA Championship because the final Major tournament of the year isn’t grand enough to provide the context. There’s no sense in measuring Tiger against Phil and Sergio and the others because they can’t measure up right now and chances are they never will. Sunday’s victory at the PGA, Tiger’s 12th career major, pushed him past the legendary Walter Hagen and leaves him No. 2, only six shy of Jack Nicklaus’s all-time, once thought to be the unapproachable mark of 18. Watching Tiger now is as much theatre as competition, which is what happens when sport is raised to art, when it commands not only respect but admiration. At the turn of the 20th century, Jack Johnson raised sport to that level. And then Red Grange and Jack Dempsey. And then, of course, Babe Ruth raised it to a level that, 80 years later, defines great athletic performance in America. Tiger striding up the 18th fairway in that red shirt on Sunday might as well be Ali’s red tassels popping in the ring or Jordan’s tongue wagging in the fourth quarter. He swings with the prodigious physicality of Ruth, while maintaining the precision of Joe Montana. He controls a golf ball the way Pete Maravich did a basketball, thinks his way around a golf course with the depth of intelligence that Ted Williams thought about hitting, and goes about the mission of winning with the same ferocious will that characterized Jordan. The mark of any great player in any sport in any era is finishing what he started. And Tiger, after his 68 in the final round, is 12 for 12 when leading or sharing the lead entering Sunday. Nobody in golf has done that. Lance Armstrong was seven for seven in his final Tours de France. Michael Jordan sandwiched six straight championship seasons around two that carry an asterisk because of retirement. And the worst news imaginable for his peers is that Tiger won’t be satisfied. Earl Woods didn’t raise him to be satisfied. And Tiger, far from being bored, still has time to get better. Worthy competitors who have the stomach for a challenge are in trouble because Tiger said after winning on Sunday that he has a “better understanding of how to get more out of my round’’ than he did after winning here in 1999. He said he handles his emotions better, is better mechanically, better mentally. “I’ve made a bunch of strides’’ since winning at Medinah seven years ago, he said. That first PGA victory was the beginning of the stretch that carried Tiger to seven majors in 11 tries, which makes us wonder whether he feels, once again, he is on the cusp of something special. Tiger was asked whether he’s playing as well now as he was in 1999-2001 and he said, somewhat surprisingly: “Yes. Yes. I’ve learned since then, yeah. I feel like things are pretty darn good right now.’’ Michael Wilbon
