You didn’t, did you? You didn’t think he was going to lose? You didn’t honestly think Tiger Woods was going to let a 54-hole lead in a major championship get away from him — did you?

Okay, there was a spell in the middle of the back nine when the engraver had to put down his tools for a moment, when headline writers were forced to rethink their angles. There was the briefest of periods when the sweat pouring off Woods’s brow had more to do with the heat Ernie Els and Woody Austin were applying than the relentless Tulsa sun. There was even a stretch of two or three holes when gallery members and viewers around the world began wondering if this might be it — the first time Woods blows a major.

Oh, we of little faith. Just when ordinary golfers might have gotten twitchy and bogeyed two of the last four holes (probably the 16th and 18th — the first and fifth hardest holes on the course respectively), Woods got his very impressive act together with a birdie at the 15th following a sensational 7-iron approach, a 340 yard drive down the middle of the 16th fairway, a safe and thoroughly uneventful par at the 17th, and two majestic irons on to the 18th green to become the only major champion at Southern Hills to make a four on the 72nd hole.

In doing so, Woods demonstrated the definition of true greatness. His talent is colossal, of course, but he is so much more than a great ball-striker and great putter. When the chips were down — and Woods’s chips were certainly beginning to droop — he played four holes of near perfect golf to secure major championship number 13. What few mistakes he made were the result of going after the ball perhaps a touch too aggressively, something that causes a conspicuous loss of height at the start of the down swing, a feeling of being trapped at impact and, consequently, a block to the right or a quick hook. It’s a problem that might have cost him the Masters, and which did him no favors in the final round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont. When he retains his height during the transition, he hits 17 of Oakmont’s greens (third round) and makes a seven-underpar 63 in the second round of the PGA Championship look easy.

Another for whom the game comes easy is Els, who’s finally looking like the player he was before his knee injury. At the Open Championship at Hoylake last year, Els was very much in contention but didn’t play second fiddle to Woods during the weekend so much as fifth oboe. He certainly had Woods thinking yesterday, though, with a final round 66 that included six birdies. There were still a few too many unforced errors, however; mistakes such as missed short putts at the 9th and 11th, leaving a very makeable eagle putt on the 13th a few rolls short, and airmailing a sand wedge from only 95 yards at the 16th, 15 yards past the flag, which led to a bogey.

For Austin — whose nervousness and self-condemnation probably make the game far harder than it should be for someone who swings the club so consistently well, —a final round 67 earned him his best finish in a major. He also now has the final automatic berth in the U.S. team for the Presidents Cup in seven weeks’ time, a rise of 11 places to 13th in the FedEx Cup standings, and confirmation — if indeed he needed it after his fantastic final round 62 in Memphis in June — that he is a very, very good golfer.

Woods, Els, and Austin’s performances should not come as any surprise, least of all Woods’s of course, especially after he obliterated a similarly classy field at Firestone last week.

What is slightly perplexing, however, was that only five people bettered par over the four days. No question Southern Hills is a genuine championship layout. But at only 7,131 yards, with rough not nearly as long as that at the 2001 U.S. Open, and with greens not nearly as hard and quick, you might have expected a lower winning total, a lower cut, and a good twenty or so players in red numbers. Pins, it seems, are getting ever tighter (did you see where they put the pin at the 12th?), and shaved banks (such those behind the 2nd green and to the right of the 12th), once again proved themselves far preferable to mindlessly thick rough. The PGA of America — perhaps more than the green jackets at Augusta National and certainly more than the malevolent folks at the USGA — have worked out how best to set up a golf course for a major championship.

Woods wasn’t supposed to win this major championship, of course. Too many doglegs, some “experts” said. Quite when Tiger began having difficulties with doglegs isn’t clear (at least ten of Augusta’ holes have significant curves), but by conquering Southern Hills and winning his 13th major, he inched closer to Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 — a record that sensible money says he will surpass before the end of the decade.

tonydear71@comcast.net