Woody Austin remembers runner-up to Tiger Woods at 2007 PGA at Southern Hills

Tiger Woods, 46, returns to Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for this week’s PGA Championship, 15 years after he captured his fourth PGA title at the Perry Maxwell-designed masterpiece.

Woody Austin, 58, will not be there to reminisce. But Austin, a four-time winner on both the PGA TOUR and PGA TOUR Champions, battled Woods from the get-go that week at Southern Hills in 2007. It was his best and really only chance to win a major, and but for a few better rolls with the putter …

“I was in it from the start,” Austin said this week. “I didn't just shoot one round and that was it. I was there from start to finish.”

Austin is quick to point out that across all four rounds, there was only one round in which Woods had a better score than he did. Unfortunately for Austin, and the rest of the field, it was so much lower than anyone else that it allowed Woods to capture the 13th of his 15 major-championship victories.

Woods shot a 63 during Friday’s second round, at the time tying for the low round in major-championship history. It remains his lowest round in a major. No one else was within three shots of him for the day; Austin, who had bested Woods 68-71 on Thursday, shot 70.

Each shot 69 in the third round; Austin got the better of him in the final round, 67-69.

“I was playing opposite of him (Austin had a morning tee time on Friday; Woods played in the afternoon), so I watched on Friday,” Austin said. “He made everything he looked at that day. He doesn’t win the tournament if he doesn’t.”

Austin missed a chance to be in the final group with Woods. Who knows if that might have affected the outcome? Instead, Austin started the day four shots behind Woods and one group in front of him.

But Austin did put some pressure on the world’s No. 1 player at the time. He strung together birdies at Nos. 11, 12 and 13, and when Woods bogeyed the par-3 14th with a highly uncharacteristic three-putt, Austin was only one back.

“All I knew was 14 is a helluva tough par 3, 16 is a helluva tough par 4, and 18 is a helluva tough par 4,” Austin said. “So I thought, ‘If I can get close to him, and maybe he can make a bogey.’ He’s human. So when I hit it close at 15 … that was the one I needed to make. If I made that one, I would have been tied for that quick little instant. So then he made birdie on 15 to go back up two (strokes), and 16 is not a birdie hole, 18 is not a birdie hole. I basically lost my last chance to keep the pressure on unless he made a mistake. That ultimately was the one that I needed.”

Austin remains a great ball-striker and a player who is as mentally tough as they come. He currently stands No. 20 in the 2022 Charles Schwab Cup standings, including a tie for second at the Cologuard Classic in February to go with three other top-15 finishes.

During his PGA TOUR days, he was one of the players who didn’t shrink next to Woods.

“If you look at my track record, I’m one of the few people who always shot under par with him,” Austin said. “I enjoyed being in his arena. … My first time I ever played with him, I shot 65 when he said, ‘Hello world,’ in Milwaukee (Woods made his debut at the 1996 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee). …

“Like I said, I loved it. I really enjoyed it because how could you not enjoy being inside an electric arena? I mean, this game is so … it beats you up so much. … But if you're in that arena every day, where even when it's a bad day, you've got all this positive electricity going on -- pumping you up, keeping you motivated so that when you do do something right, the place goes crazy. How could that not be fun?”

Austin played in 20 other majors with a best finish of T16.