What Tiger Woods said his relationship was like with Michael Jordan after winning the 2006 PGA Championship

Add as preferred source on Google

Tiger Woods may not have won a major championship since 2019, but his stunning achievements on the course won’t be forgotten in a hurry.

Woods could play at the 2027 Open Championship, after it emerged that St Andrews would host the major that year.

But for now the playing time of 15-time major champion Woods has been limited to TGL, an event of which he is a co-founder alongside Rory McIlroy.

Gary Player says Woods and Jack Nicklaus can’t be compared, with the latter the only man ahead of the former in the all-time major titles list with 18.

Both players have three wins at The Open, while Nicklaus is one ahead of Woods when it comes to the other three major tournaments.

Tiger Woods labels Michael Jordan ‘amazing’ after 2006 PGA Championship win

The latter has picked up several memorable wins in his pursuit of Nicklaus, one of which arrived at the 2006 PGA Championship.

The win moved him second in the all-time majors list, but a full-on comparison with Nicklaus was avoided in his winning press conference, with Woods instead asked about the influence that basketball legend Michael Jordan had on him growing up.

READ MORE: Who is Tiger Woods? A look inside the life of the greatest golfer of all time

“MJ was amazing, he really was,” replied Woods. “We were just playing back home in Florida, he came down and he watched his son play some AU basketball down there and he played at Isleworth.

“We have an indoor basketball hoop in the clubhouse, so MJ was in there shooting and showing me some stuff. MJ is still MJ.

“He doesn’t do it for an amount of minutes. He’s only about five or ten minutes now. But the shots he can hit, the fadeaways, the technique, the release, it’s just different.

“It was just neat to have him, when I came out on Tour, basically befriend me and pull me under his wing and say ‘this is the way life is going to be out here if you achieve the things you want to achieve. These are the things you’re going to have to deal with.’

“To have that kind of friend who’s been through it all, where I could talk to him any time about any subject is pretty neat.

“Not too many people have an opportunity like that, but I was very lucky to have him as a friend because I grew up admiring him and what he was able to do with his mind and body and the way he was able to lead. He was absolutely phenomenal. Then as I got to know him as a person, it’s been even better.”

Tiger Woods makes golfing history with third PGA Championship win

Woods was in superb shape going into the 2006 PGA Championship, having only just won The Open in Liverpool.

But that also put pressure on the American’s shoulders, although he dealt with it superbly, progressing expertly after an opening round 69 put him in T10.

READ MORE: Gary Player predicts how many majors Tiger Woods would have won if he never had a golf lesson after the year 2000

Woods moved to T5 after round two, climbing to T1 after round three before storming to a five-shot win over Shaun Micheel.

With the success, he became the first player to secure the PGA Championship twice on the same course, having also triumphed at Medinah in 1999.