ONE COOL CAT

It was supposed to be another Tiger Woods kind of Sunday afternoon, the exclamation installment of a summerlong series for the ages.

In June he had nuked the field at the U.S. Open. Last month he did the same thing at the British. Monumental, yes, but hardly dramatic. This time, at the PGA Championship, his greatness was not defined by the margin of victory.

Instead, some guy that even a PGA Tour junkie couldn't pick out of a lineup nearly made a different kind of history, by riding an obvious out-of-body experience to within a stroke of one of the most stirring upsets this cockeyed game has ever witnessed.

The best player on the planet never loses when he's going head-to-head on the closing back nine. It says so right there in the rule book. Especially if he's chasing the ghosts of Ben Hogan and Denny Shute. Bob May was trying to pull a Francis Ouimet. Or was that Jack Fleck? Anyway, he shoved Woods to the precipice. And how many folks in the past 12 months can say they've done that?

Yesterday at Valhalla Golf Club, Tiger had to play the last 12 holes in 7-under par, and make a 5-foot birdie putt at No. 18, just to get himself into a three-hole playoff, which he won by going birdie-par-par. May, who shot his third consecutive 6-under 66, made all pars. But it wasn't official until his 30-foot birdie putt at the par-5 18th rolled inches wide of the cup.

Both finished regulation at 18-under 270, a tournament record, five better than third-place finisher Thomas Bjorn. They bettered by a stroke the previous record, set by Steve Elkington and Colin Montgomerie in 1995 at Riviera. Elkington went on to win in a playoff.

It might not have been Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus in 1977 at the British Open, but it sure was time-capsule stuff.

"That was one memorable battle out there," said Woods, who joins Hogan (1953) as the only men to win three of the modern majors in a season. "I enjoyed it. It was special, two people playing to a level that you don't usually find.

"We never backed off one another. It was birdie for birdie. That's as good as it gets. "

Woods also becomes the first since Shute in 1937 to successfully defend this title, which he won by one, over Sergio Garcia last August at Medinah. He's the first to win four of five majors, and he now owns the scoring record in relation to par for each of the Grand Slam events. Next April, he'll try to become the first to win four in a row. Until then, he'll savor this one, perhaps even more than his last two.

"That's so far away," Woods said. "I've got one green jacket. I'd like to get another. I just need to stay focused on what I need to do to get ready for [the Masters], and hopefully my game will be ready. If I end up winning, then I will accomplish [the sweep] as a byproduct of that. "

At 24, what's left for him to do, other than win four in one year and surpass Jack Nicklaus on the all-time hit parade?

"I have a lot of admiration for a lot of great champions that have played the game," said Woods, who won $900,000, which, of course, has long been irrelevent. "Jack just happens to be one of them. He's not the only one. Ben Hogan won so many tournaments, it's scary. He was incredible. Especially after the car accident [in 1949], to come back and play as well as he did, at a level not too many players could ever attain. "

When Hogan won his Triple Crown, he couldn't play in the PGA because of a scheduling conflict with the British Open. Plus, his injured legs couldn't withstand the daily grind of 36 holes of match play.

In what's been a symbolic summer, Woods played in the first two rounds with Nicklaus, who might have played in his last PGA. After 54 holes, he led May and Scott Dunlap by one, following a 70 on Saturday. And with J.P. Hayes and Greg Chalmers in fourth and fifth place, respectively, it shaped up as one more walkover. Soon, it turned into a scrum, with Woods doing the chasing.

On the second hole, a par 5, Woods made a bogey, which is just about impossible. But it happened. And when playing partner May made a bird, he was in front. Another bird at No. 4 put him ahead by two. Both bogeyed the sixth.

After that, it was lights out. May kept knocking down flagsticks. If he had been playing anybody else, it would have ended on a TKO. But this wasn't anybody else. Tiger kept coming, making must-birdie putts at 12 and 14, and an even better par save at 15, where May then missed from close range. What could have been a three-shot lead with three to play stayed at one shot, and the ballgame was still on. And nobody closes better.

At 17, Woods hit a 60-degree sand wedge to 2 feet for the tying bird. On 18, both made it on to the green in two, nowhere near the hole. May left himself a second putt of 18 feet with a double break, which he curled in the right side. Tiger had to make his 5-footer for birdie, or make destiny wait for some other time. Was there really any doubt?

He took control by making a 20-footer for three at No. 16, the first playoff hole. They each scrambled for pars at 17. Tiger hit a 3-wood way left at 18, then left a 6-iron in the rough. His third shot landed in the bunker fronting the green. From there, he blasted out to a gimme. May, who also hit a bad drive and a not-so-great second shot, needed to make an almost impossible putt to take it back to No. 13 and sudden death. He gave it a serious run.

"He left the door open [on the last hole], which was totally unexpected from Tiger," said May, the 47th-ranked player on the computer, who had one top-10 finish in 57 previous PGA Tour starts. "I thought I hit a pretty good putt. It just wasn't hard enough. I thought it had an outside chance. Then it just started diving out. You see it going left, you know it's done and over.

"If I would have won today, it would have been a dream come true. I think this is fulfilling some expectations I had for myself that other people have had for me. You might say if I shot maybe 62 today after three 72s, it was kind of a fluke. But I shot three rounds of 66 on a pretty good golf course. So I don't think there's anything fluke about that.

"When I birdied the second hole, I think [the fans] kind of thought, 'OK, this is going to be a little interesting. ' They were expecting Tiger to come out and do like he usually does. He has a tendency to run away with things. But it was early. They seemed to root for me all day. I turned to Tiger and said, 'Is this what you get every week? ' He says, 'You got it. ' When he hit his ball over the trees off the tee at No. 1, I knew it was going to be different. "

May, who was 11th on the European Tour in 1999, grew up in Southern California, where he set many junior records. Naturally, Tiger came along and people weren't talking about May anymore.

"He'd say, 'I'm going to beat Bob May's record,' and this and this, which he pretty much proceeded to do," May said. "So I was hoping maybe I could get a chance to get back at him. You'd like to finish the deal off.

"I didn't try to get caught up in the fairy tale. I don't feel disappointed at all. If you shoot three 66s in a major, you should win. But he proved that that's not good enough. "

At least May never blinked. Maybe the Davis Loves and Colin Montgomeries of the food chain should react accordingly.

At one point in the middle of the round, nine players were within four of the lead, including Jose Maria Olazabal, who a day earlier had become the 17th player to shoot 63 in a major. Now he's the 13th who failed to win the tournament. He closed with a 69, to tie Stuart Appleby (69) and Chalmers (70) for fourth, at 276.

Franklin Langham, playing in his first major, had a 69 for 277. Woods' former Stanford teammate Notah Begay, who beat May by one in Memphis the week after the U.S. Open, had a 70 for 278. Darren Clarke (67), Fred Funk (68), Tom Watson (68), Love (70), Phil Mickelson (70) and Dunlap (75) all finished at 279.

A career from now, nobody will care. They will only remember that Tiger Woods did it again, mostly on sheer will.

On Friday he said he would rather win by a lot. But there's nothing like a good moment of truth, provided you survive.

"I felt pretty comfortable coming into today," said Woods, who stayed on the practice range until darkness Saturday night. "It didn't carry over to the golf course initially, but at least I was hitting solid shots. It was just a matter of time before the putter would come around.

"To have your game peak at the right times, that is what you want to happen. It's hard to rank all of these together. They are all different and unique. This was probably the most exciting one, from a player's standpoint. Knowing that par wasn't going to get it done, that you had to make birdies. Usually in a major you can just kind of cruise in with pars and win. If you hang around, good things usually happen.

"I didn't know that I shot 31 on the back nine until the officials added up my score. I just knew I needed to stay in the present. I don't know if you can say you were amazed. You look back in hindsight and say how special it was. "

Any which way he can.

Send e-mail to kernm@phillynews.com