One scene at the PGA Championship shows why Tiger Woods is still the biggest rock star in sports

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One scene at the PGA Championship shows why Tiger Woods is still the biggest rock star in sports

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Tiger Woods

Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

The PGA Championship showed Tiger Woods may be more popular than ever.

  • For the second straight major, Tiger Woods was in contention, finishing second to Brooks Koepka at the PGA Championship.
  • The fans in St. Louis flocked to Woods all week and roars were heard even when they just updated his score on the leaderboard.
  • One scene, in particular, after the 18th hole showed that Woods is still the biggest rock star in sports and maybe more popular than ever.


Brooks Koepka won his third major at the PGA Championship, but the star of the show on Sunday at Bellerive Golf Course in St. Louis was Tiger Woods.

After Woods either missed the tournament with an injury or missed the cut at 15 of the previous 18 majors, he was in contention on the weekend for the second straight major. But while the run at the Open Championship was fun, his second-place finish at the PGA Championship felt different, and that was due in large part to the fans.

All weekend, fans flocked on the course or to TVs to see Woods, and if they couldn't see him, they roared when his scores were updated on the leaderboard.

While Woods still hasn't won a major in a decade, one scene at the PGA Championship, in particular, solidified Tiger's return as the biggest rock star in sports. It came as he finished his final round and walked off the green to a bridge that took the players to the clubhouse.

When Tiger walked across the platform and waved, the crowd went bonkers.


Former PGA Tour caddie and current ESPN analyst Michael Collins described the scene on "Get Up."

"When Tiger left the golf course - that walkway off of 18, that's a walkway that goes by [hole No.] 9 - it was slammed with people," Collins said. "And everybody just stood there kinda staring up as Tiger Woods walked across that platform, the staircase. When he just waved at the crowd, they went ballistic." 

Keep in mind, nobody was playing the ninth hole at the time.

Koepka talked about the noise for Tiger after the round.

"Everybody on the golf course heard [the roars for Tiger]," Koepka said. "It was actually quite funny. You could hear the roars when we were on 10 and 11, and then you could kind of hear it trickle down as they changed the leaderboards all the way through. You could hear a different roar like every 30 seconds. So we knew what was going on. It's pretty obvious when Tiger makes a birdie."

Eric McHugh, a St. Louis TV cameraman, told Michael Bamberger of Golf magazine the intensity of the crowd was unlike anything he had ever seen at a sporting event.

"The crowd noise for Tiger was like a storm brewing," McHugh said. "You'd be standing on the side of the fairway, and he'd be walking up it, and it was like a sound wave, building up, getting louder and louder ... I've covered games in the [L.A.] Coliseum, with 85,000 people there, hollering. This was more than that."

Woods may never win another major, but for the first time, we know he can. But even that might not matter to the fans as Tiger appears to be more popular than ever, a true rock star.

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