Woods electric with 64, but winds up second

ST. LOUIS — The ball rested on the edge of the cup, its logo peeking into the hole for what felt like forever.

Back in the day, that ball dropped for Tiger Woods.

On Sunday, it wouldn’t budge.

Woods finished second by two strokes to Brooks Koepka at the PGA Championship to extend his drought without a major for at least eight more months. But after the scrambling, club-slamming, fistpumping, electrifying show he put on over a round of 6-under-par 64 — his best closing round at a major — who can argue that golf isn’t more fun when Tiger’s in the mix?

“There’s nothing like it,” said Gary Woodland, who was in the twosome with the world’s bestknown player. “The energy in that place was unbelievable.”

Even after the excruciating miss on No. 11, Woods would not quit.

He had a 20-foot putt on the 16th green that would have tied him with The gallery stands aside as Tiger Woods hits to the ninth green after driving into the rough. He birdied the hole. Koepka, who was two holes behind. That putt slid just past. And Woods’ last chance to apply real pressure vanished when he pushed his tee shot on the par-5 17th right of the creek running along the right side of the hole. Woods slammed the head of his driver to the ground, then swung it violently in frustration. He scrambled to make par, but by the time he reached the 18th fairway, he was three back of Koepka, who birdied Nos. 15 and 16 behind him.

On No. 18, Woods offered one final flourish. He drained his longest putt of the tournament, a 19-footer putt for birdie, and pumped his fist to celebrate.

Adam Scott was poised to pull off a successful sneak attack on Sunday, quietly hanging

around the top of the leaderboard while all the attention was on Koepka and Woods.

Those two traded body blows across the front nine at Bellerive Country Club, with the roars that Woods was eliciting ahead filtering back to the final group. But after a slow start to his round, including a bogey at the first, Scott proved he had a little fight left. He embarked on a birdie march and briefly pulled into a tie with Koepka.

“I knew what I was up against,” Koepka said, “and Scotty played unbelievably well.”

Just not quite well enough.

He missed a couple of birdie chances after forging that tie, and a bogey at 18 left him with a final-round 67. His 13-under total was good for third place, one back of Woods and three off the pace.

“This was some really good golf this week,” Scott said. “It’s hard to rationalize everything after leading with four holes to play. You want to win in that position. I feel like I’ve led a lot of majors with four holes to play and not won them. But shooting 70-65-65-67 is good golf at a major championship.”

Scott played all week wearing a yellow ribbon on his hat to honor fellow Aussie Jarrod Lyle, the PGA Tour player who died Wednesday after a return of cancer.

“I played hard,” he said after finishing the tournament at 14-under 266. “A bit of a struggle with my game today, but I hung in there.”