Woody Austin, 2007 PGA Runner-Up to Tiger Woods, Is Still Annoyed

Tiger Woods won his 13th major at Southern Hills, but late-blooming pro Woody Austin was in the hunt the entire way. The week haunts Austin to this day.

He may be viewed by some as simply a footnote in history, one of the 17 different players to finish runner-up to Tiger Woods in a major championship. But Woody Austin remains annoyed.

Annoyed by the treatment he received that week in Tulsa, Oklahoma, from the media, who he believed gave him no chance at the 2007 PGA Championship. Annoyed that “Tiger could do no wrong.’’ And annoyed, too, that he was unable to get the job done in his best shot at winning a major championship.

Austin, 58, might be better known for the time he bent a putter over his head in frustration on a green or when he slipped into a pond at the Presidents Cup.

But he was a later bloomer who was PGA Tour rookie of the year at age 31, befriended Woods for a short time after the game’s new star turned pro, and gave him a battle at Southern Hills – where the PGA Championship returns this month after 15 years – before Woods prevailed.

“From a playing perspective, it was obviously the one major where I played four solid days in a row; that was always my problem,’’ said Austin, 58, who that week was the only player not to shoot any round over par. “I didn’t have a bad day. I tell people, my biggest problem I had that week was in the media room. That was my biggest disappointment.

“I have no problem with tough questions or if I’m playing bad. But the part that bugged me was Tiger could do no wrong. And nobody else was good enough. Nobody could say anything against that. Each day I was talking about how good I was playing and I could beat him if I’d putt better. But you can’t say that.

“That was the only major I was in the media room all four days. They made it seem as if I was supposed to seem so ecstatic for where I was. I wasn’t allowed to feel disappointed that I didn’t make any putts the first three days and I should be ecstatic.’’

Austin, who won four times on the PGA Tour (three times in sudden-death playoffs), won his first event at the 1995 at the Buick Open and was the PGA Tour rookie of the year.

The next year, when Woods was an amateur, he and Austin played a practice round at Oakland Hills in advance of the U.S. Open. It was Woods and Jack Nicklaus vs. Tom Watson and Austin.

“It was just a little friendly match, but Tom and I won 1-up,’’ Austin said.

Later that year, after Woods turned pro, they played together for the first time in competition at the Greater Milwaukee Open, where Woods was making his pro debut. Their pairing came in the third round.

“I shot 65 and got done and I got a call from my father,’’ Austin said. “He said, “I didn’t even know you were playing with him until I saw you shake his hand at the end.’

“I loved playing with him. We played a few practice rounds together after he turned pro. I enjoyed the arena he had. Being inside the arena was great. Way better than playing ahead of him or behind him. Even if they weren’t rooting for you, the electricity and atmosphere was so great. You got psyched because there were so many more people following than normal.’’

Austin never had the chance to play with Woods at Southern Hills. He shot a first-round 68 to trail leader Graeme Storm by three shots, while Woods shot 71.

The tournament is most remembered for daily 100-degree-plus temperatures and Woods’ second-round 63 in which he lipped out on the final green, denying him at the time the lowest score ever shot in a major championship.

The score of 63 gave him a two-shot lead over Scott Verplank and Stephen Ames with Austin four back and in fifth place. A day later, Austin remained four back, but in a tie for third, after matching Woods’ 69.

As he did following the second round, Austin lamented his inability to be in a better position, fully believing that – had a few more putts dropped – he would be leading.

“If you asked me the first two days I could have shot what he shot yesterday,’’ Austin said on that Saturday referring to Woods. “I got a little lambasted yesterday for the way I felt I played. But I could go through his round yesterday and I outplayed him at least four or five shots, and he beat me by seven. I could run down his round because I watched it. And I had it inside him all day long, and he beat me by seven shots. So if I have his round and I play that way, then I think I can shoot 63, also.

“Now, obviously with the nerves and whatever that’s going to go into trying to win my first major, the odds are a little bit tough. But if I play that way and I do that, then yeah, I can go as low as anybody.’’

Austin had a reputation as a supreme ball striker who was lacking as a putter. His best statistical putting year, he said, was 64th. He feels today, as he still competes on the PGA Tour Champions, that putting kept him from more success, and while he might have come to terms with it now, it bugged him then.

Heading into the final round of that PGA, the difficulty was clear. Woods held a three-shot advantage over Ames and four shots over Austin and had never failed to deliver when at least tied for the 54-hole lead in a major.

“I was under the mindset ... sure he was the best player in the world, no question about it,’’ Austin said. “But they made it to be that you didn’t beat him unless he played terrible. They made you feel as though no matter how good you played, you weren’t good enough to beat him, unless he screwed up. And I didn’t believe that.’’

But Austin made it interesting. A stretch of three straight birdies on the 11th, 12th and 13th holes brought him with two shots, and when Woods three-putted the 14th, the lead was down to one.

“I was two groups ahead of him and I had an 8-footer on 15 (for birdie) and I missed it,’’ Austin said. “He birdied it. I could have pulled even and that was the one I needed to make.’’

Woods went on to win his 13th major championship. It was his fifth major over the past three seasons and, at age 31, all the talk was about him catching Jack Nicklaus and his record total of major championships. He was now just five away.

The win was his fifth of the year on the PGA Tour, a week after he won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone. He would go on to win twice more, at the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship, claiming the PGA Tour’s first FedEx Cup title.

Austin was left to wonder what might have been. His final-round 67 was good for a solo second-place finish and his best in a major. Not that it was any consolation at the time.

“Like I said (after the second round), you cannot give somebody seven shots, especially someone who happens to be the best player in the world. Like I said, I went over his round and over my round, and I outplayed him from tee to green. Sevens shots I gave up in one round. Now, I wasn’t supposed to be disappointed? A person in my position cannot give that man that much cushion. That’s why I was disappointed and that’s why I came up short.’’

All these years later, Austin still wonders.

“If I’d have putted the way I did on the back nine on Sunday (earlier), it wouldn’t have been a tournament,’’ he said. “I would have been far enough out front, I would have definitely won. But you give him a three-shot lead, as he had, you wouldn’t be running him down. I shot 67 on Sunday and made him play. But he’d never have been in front if I had putted well the first three days.

“That’s the part I tried to emphasize and they looked me like I was nuts, like you can’t say that. But I outplayed him that week from tee to green. But he did what he did back then. He shot 63 on Friday, made everything that round won him the tournament.’’