Key putt on 17 seals Championship

Sergio Garcia was sprinting across fairways and leaping like a pixie through the air as the crowd screamed in excitement. Tiger Woods kept his feet planted firmly on the ground, just when it mattered the most.

A wild back nine at Medinah Country Club nearly ended today with the unthinkable -- Woods blowing a five-shot lead with seven holes to go in the PGA Championship.

It did end with a mentally exhausted Woods winning his second major championship, thanks to a gutsy 8-foot par putt on the 17th hole when just about everything seemed to be going wrong.

"I thought just go ahead and trust your stroke and bury it," Woods said. "It released perfectly and I looked up and the putt was going in."

Woods appeared to have only the formality of a victory lap down the stretch after making a curling birdie putt on the 11th hole to get to 15-under and take a five-shot lead over Garcia.

Two holes later, though, Woods had lost three shots to par and Garcia had birdied No. 13. The lead was only one and the raucous crowd lining the fairways and greens was being treated to a show unlike any seen before at the normally staid PGA Championship.

The Spanish teen-age sensation was ripping balls through trees and at pins. He was running after shots and leaping in the air to see where they landed.

And Woods was leaking badly, in dire need of something, anything, to stop the momentum.

He got it with the putt on 17, curling it in from the left into the center of the hole.

"I remember it a foot and a half away just zeroing in on the left side of the hole," Woods said. "As it went in, now it was just time to go to 18."

Woods said he knew Garcia had the momentum going into 17, but also knew he still had a one-shot lead.

"Even though I lost four shots on two holes, I still had the lead," Woods said. "That's what I tried to focus on. Even though Sergio had the momentum, I had the lead."

Garcia also had the crowd, something almost as inconceivable in the era of Tigermania as Woods blowing a lead on a Sunday afternoon.

In seven previous tournaments, Woods won every time he had the lead going into Sunday. In all those tournaments, he also had the crowd rooting for him to win.

Not at Medinah, where one fan yelled out, "I hope you don't shank it in the water" as Woods approached the tee of the water-protected 17th.

"They were saying some pretty tough things," Woods said. "I couldn't afford to show any emotion the way the crowd was. They were saying some things that shouldn't be said."

Woods didn't shank it in the water on 17, but he did miss the green, hitting a 7-iron that bounced once and then disappeared into the thick rough surrounding the green.

He chipped out short, then faced a putt that would either keep him in the lead if he made it or make it a two-way tie going to the 18th tee.

When the putt went in, the tenor of the crowd changed as they roared in celebration.

"I heard the people screaming on 17 and I thought Tiger made birdie," said Garcia, who was waiting to hit his second shot on 18 when the putt dropped. "I thought I didn't have a chance then."

Garcia did have a chance, and he hit a pitching wedge to about 20 feet. But his birdie putt slid by the hole, leaving Woods only in need of a par on the final hole to win his first major since the 1977 Masters.

Woods split the fairway with a 3-wood, then hit a wedge about 15 feet right of the hole. He lagged it close, then tapped it in, sighing and closing his eyes more in exhaustion than jubilation.

"A five-shot lead can evaporate very quickly," Woods said. "I've given myself chances and I've been there. Sometimes you just need some luck to go your way."

Or one big putt to go in.

AP