Tiger gets hot -- in more ways than one -- to win No. 13

TULSA, Okla. -- The perspiration beads dripped off his nose, down his chin and, at one point, from the bill of his sweat-saturated black cap.

Tiger Woods goes back-to-back at the PGA for the second time in his career. (Getty Images)

Tiger Woods was bathed in sweat, if not swimming laps in it.

And not solely because the 89th PGA Championship shall officially go into the meteorological record books as the hottest major in history after weathering four consecutive days of Tulsa's triple-digit boil, either.

No question, Woods' 13th major-championship victory was due to equal parts perspiration and inspiration -- and for the first time in a while, plenty of the latter was supplied by his fellow competitors.

Over the years, Woods' final-round performances have seemed more like coronation processions than tournaments, with his peers fainting along the way and Woods quickly shifting into cruise control, auto-pilot or defensive mode.

Sunday at Southern Hills Country Club, feisty veteran Woody Austin and resurgent star Ernie Els threw more than a small scare into Woods, both cutting his lead to a thin shot on the back nine, but the world No. 1 rallied yet again for a two-stroke victory at 8 under par.

Whether he was dodging bullets or sweating them, Woods found a way to pull it off. Speaking of hot, you'd have needed a degree in French to understand the dog-cussing Woods was giving himself after three-putting the 14th for a bogey, allowing the surging Austin and Els to creep within a stroke.

"I felt like, you know what, I got myself into this mess, and now I need to go earn myself out of it," Woods said. "I did some serious yelling at myself going up to the 15th tee, just to get back into what I needed to do."

His internal ears sufficiently blistered, Woods split the fairway with a 4-iron off the tee and tossed a 7-iron to within 15 feet, his best shot in roughly an hour. When his birdie putt dived into the cup, he pointed at the hole with his right index finger, thumb cocked like a pistol, eerily reminiscent of his duel with Bob May at the 2000 PGA.

He beat May, too, incidentally. Bang, bang, you're dead.

"I just kept telling myself I still had the lead," Woods said.

He'd keep it, too. Els, Woods' most consistent rival over the years, shot 66 and nearly erased a six-shot overnight deficit. The Big Easy, after some lean times the past two years, looked like his old self when he birdied three of the first five holes on the back nine to creep within a shot, but he followed with a sloppy drive on the daunting 16th, a 507-yard par 4. The best he could muster was a bogey, and he failed to make another birdie coming home.

"Being behind, you're still trying to push, but it's difficult to make birdies down the stretch," said Els, who finished alone in third, three back. "It's a good finish here."