Tiger being Tiger: Woods zoned in on another major title

CHASKA, Minn. -- We've seen this feral look in the eye of Tiger Woods many times before.

Like, say, two years ago at Southern Hills in Tulsa, which represents the last time he played in the PGA Championship.

Woods: 'I'm very pleased at my execution today, especially in the wind.' (Getty Images)

Woods, who already had his blinders and game face on, was warming on the range before the final round when he spotted an old acquaintance, fighter pilot Dan Rooney, a major in the National Guard who played college golf against Woods in the mid-1990s. Rooney was summoned by Woods, who was fiddling with his clubs.

"What do you call a black man who flies planes?" Woods asked the pilot.

Rooney, both at a loss for words and stunned by Woods' playfulness right before tip-off time, said he stammered out an I-don't-know answer of some sort. Just like the guys in the tournament, Woods had Rooney right where he wanted and issued the coup De grace, which we'll clean up a shade for print purposes.

"A pilot, you moron," Woods cracked, reeling in Rooney completely.

•  Tiger leads by 4 | Leaderboard | Elling: Vijay | Blog

Zing. Later that day, Woods won a fourth PGA title, his second in succession. Two years later, Rooney, who followed the world's No. 1 from inside the ropes that weekend in Tulsa, still marvels at how Woods' mental homing device was zeroed in.

"That joke was the only time he broke radio silence the whole weekend," laughed Rooney, who is again on hand this week. "I'm not sure he said two words the rest of the time."

Back again after missing last year with his knee issues, Woods is locked and loaded, leaving the field to hope he doesn't make a joke of the PGA this weekend, too.

Seeking his 15th major title, Woods scratched and scraped his way to a 2-under 70 to take a four-stroke lead over Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh and three others into the weekend. He's set to put some finality in the season's final major: He's won the past 12 times he's had at least a share of the 36-hole lead in PGA Tour events and is 8 for 8 in the majors.

Then there's that familiar stare. When Woods was asked after his round if he felt like he'd ever choked in a major, he uttered not a word, and looked his inquisitor in the eye with a cold glare that said what Woods didn't bother to utter. He made an almost imperceptible shake of his head from side to side.

Uh, that would be an emphatic no, people.

•  Michaux: Glover the same guy -- with experience | Coverage

Which doesn't leave much hope for the other guys, who are left to find silver linings as Woods hoists the silver trophy. With the lead on the weekend, especially at majors, Woods has proven practically impassable.

"It's got to break at some stage," Harrington said, breaking out in a smile. "Might as well tell myself that. In fairness to Tiger, that's never going to last forever. Maybe he'll be 60 when it's broken, but it's never going to last forever."

Woods was at his tenacious, gritty best on a day when the greens looked like pizza crust and the wind blew like a blast furnace. Of the players in the top 16 after the first round, Woods was the lone man to break par.

The secret to his winning record when running out front is pretty simple.

"In order to have a lead in a major championship you can't be playing poorly," Woods said. "All the times that I've been in this position, I have played well. And I'm playing well now. "So it's just a matter of continuing what I've been doing this week. I'm very pleased at my execution today, especially in the wind."

He's a good executioner, all right. But even Woods had to admit that past performance is not always an accurate predictor of future earnings.

"Just because I'm 12 for 12 doesn't mean anything tomorrow," he said. "Those things I did 12 times don't do a damn bit of good tomorrow."

Mentally, though, it's plenty meaningful.

Woods stumbled early and actually surrendered the outright lead to a series of guys who quickly nosedived, like Alvaro Quiros, Graeme McDowell. Then he made consecutive birdies on Nos. 6 and 7, then reeled off three straight starting on the 14th. Color analyst David Feherty, handling duties in the TNT broadcast, cracked that it looked like "Gulliver was shaking off the Lilliputians."

After all the tumult atop the board, Woods will play Saturday with a rather large and familiar foe, Singh, a man with three majors among his 34 career wins. Singh, like Harrington, isn't likely to faint straightaway.

"Vijay isn't going to make a lot of mistakes," Woods said. "He doesn't. He's won a bunch of tournaments in his 40s, I think it is the most ever.

"He's going to be very consistent. It's going to be a lot of fun for both of us tomorrow."

Well, based on Woods' conversion rate, he's at least half right.

Harrington played with Woods in the past three tournament rounds over two events and cracked that it will be "not bad to have a day off," but he saw nothing over that span to indicate anything other than a victory is in the pipeline.

"His game looked solid again today," Harrington said, shaking his head vigorously. "I think he's good in that position because of the fact the reason he's a good frontrunner, he can pick and choose his shots and he's not been pushed into shots he doesn't have to hit.

"He's very good at that and waits his chances. And he hits enough close and then he holds enough putts, and all that sort of stuff adds up to he'll probably break par twice on the weekend so the rest of us are going to have to play really well."

That was pretty convincing. Not that we needed any arm-twisting to believe it.