Tiger Woods is the main attraction whenever he’s on a golf course.
That was proved true again on Monday as throngs of fans gathered to follow Woods’ PGA Championship practice round at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.
Videos and pictures taken from the course showed Woods tee off at the par-5 10th hole and finish on No. 18.
Woods, 48, is set to play for the first time since making the cut at the Masters in April and finishing 60th. He finished second at the PGA Championship as recently as 2018 but did not play last year after undergoing ankle surgery.
Woods, a 15-time major champion, won a three-hole playoff over Bob May to take the 2000 PGA Championship, becoming the first golfer since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in the same year.
He went on to claim the 2001 Masters and complete the Tiger Slam feat of four consecutive major wins.
Woods has struggled to simply walk 72 holes after suffering severe leg injuries in a 2021 car crash but finished 60th at last month’s Masters and said he knew how he would work toward Valhalla.
“Well, just keep lifting, keep the motor going, keep the body moving, keep getting stronger, keep progressing,” Woods said last week. “Hopefully the practice sessions will keep getting longer.
“I’m going to do my homework going forward… that’s kind of the game plan.”
In 2000, May held a one-stroke lead down the final holes but missed a birdie putt from inside four feet at the 15th hole while Woods sank a 10-footer for par and birdied 17 to set up a playoff. Woods birdied the first extra hole and both men parred the last two holes as Woods grabbed his fifth major victory.
“I’ve talked to him plenty about Valhalla,” said Woods’s pal Justin Thomas. “As soon as I bring it up, he always jokes that I was probably still in diapers it was so long ago.
“I always remind him he was one lip-out away from losing to Bob May in the PGA and not having the Tiger Slam.”
Thomas said Woods doesn’t relate the victory as some epic story.
“When he was going about it, it didn’t seem very difficult, but he was just better than everybody else and it seemed pretty easy at the time,” Thomas said.
The PGA Championship begins Thursday.