One of the most unlikely friendships in professional golf is that of Tiger Woods and Justin Thomas. Woods turned professional in 1996, a full 17 years before Thomas joined the Tour. Yet the two hit it off instantly when introduced over a casual dinner, became neighbors in Jupiter, Florida, and grew into something neither probably expected: a brotherhood. And that bond, as it turns out, began long before that dinner, at the 2000 PGA Championship.

On a Sunday in August at Valhalla Golf Club, a seven-year-old boy stood near the gallery ropes and watched one of the greatest duels the sport had ever produced. He was barely tall enough to see over the crowd and couldn’t have fully understood what was unfolding in front of him. That boy was Justin Thomas, and the tournament was the 2000 PGA Championship. The week Tiger Woods defeated Bob May in a historic three-hole playoff to claim his third major of the year. What Thomas witnessed that day did not just stay with him; it changed him entirely.

Tiger Woods Conquers Valhalla

Woods came to the 2000 PGA Championship, having won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by 15 shots and The Open Championship at St. Andrews by eight strokes. A third consecutive major would make him the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in a single year. The stage and the pressure could not have been higher.

The championship was held at one of the most demanding courses. Valhalla was designed by Jack Nicklaus and featured thick bluegrass rough and tricky multi-tiered greens. In a touching subplot, Nicklaus himself was playing in his final PGA Championship, paired with Woods for the first two rounds, the first time the two legends had ever competed together.

Woods opened with a 66 to share the lead, then followed with a 67 to sit alone at the top. Nobody was giving much thought to Bob May, a 31-year-old journeyman ranked 48th in the world who had opened with an even-par 72 and sat five shots back after two rounds. Expected to fall meekly to Woods’s game, May did otherwise. He fired a 66 to Tiger’s 67 in the final round to force a three-hole playoff.

The back nine of Sunday’s final round was extraordinary. Both men shot 31 coming in, and the Kentucky countryside practically vibrated as they marched toward the finish. May curled in a double-breaking 15-footer for birdie on 18. Woods answered with a five-footer to force the playoff. Then, on the very first extra hole came the moment the sport would never forget: Woods, chasing his birdie putt into the hole, pointing at the ball as it fell into the cup. He parred the next two holes, and it was done.

Woods, lifting the Wanamaker Trophy, said, “This is probably one of the greatest duels I’ve ever had in my life. Hats off to Bob. He played his heart out.”

When Woods returned to Valhalla for the 2024 PGA Championship, he was asked what he remembered most from 2000, and his response was measured.

“I just remember the pressure that I felt, the chance to do something that Ben Hogan did in 1953,” he said. “The summer was a whirlwind… making a putt on 18 and getting into the playoff and making a nice putt on the 16th hole, running after it. A lot of great memories from that week.”

It was from the clubhouse that the seven-year-old Thomas watched the putt on 18 drop to force the playoff.

“Just him winning the PGA there and the playoff with Bob May, I mean, I was there. It was my first, I guess, big major, big tournament that I can remember a lot of. I just remember watching from the clubhouse when he had that putt on 18 to get in the playoff and just the, you know, half-second, one-second delay of just the crowd going nuts and then going out on TV.”

The Moment That Changed Justin Thomas

Justin Thomas went home from Valhalla that week with two things: Jack Nicklaus’s autograph, his biggest prize as a starstruck seven-year-old, and a VHS tape of the entire championship. That tape became one of the most-watched objects in the Thomas household.

“I would say I’ve watched that tape of the 2000 PGA at least 100 times,” he said. “Whenever there wasn’t something on TV, I’d just pop it into the VHS, even though it got to the point by the last couple of sessions that I basically knew every word Jim Nantz said in it.”

Justin’s grandfather, Paul, had played in the 1962 U.S. Open, and his father, Mike, had been the head pro at Harmony Landing Country Club in Kentucky for more than 30 years. But it was that Sunday at Valhalla that transformed a family pastime into a burning ambition.

“I would say this tournament at this golf course is a lot of the reason I feel like, for my love for professional golf and wanting to win majors and golf tournaments,” Thomas said years later.

Justin Thomas is now a 2x PGA Championship winner.

After winning his first major in 2017, he sought out Woods for advice. Woods watched him play and delivered a blunt verdict that Thomas did not move the ball enough. For someone who had just won a major championship, that kind of feedback could have stung. Instead, Thomas took it as gospel. He spent the years that followed developing a full arsenal of shot shapes, and that evolution directly contributed to his second major victory at Southern Hills in 2022.

JT arrived at the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills with a fever, unable to practice on Tuesday of the week, and still came back from a seven-shot deficit to defeat Will Zalatoris in a playoff.

“I was dripping cold sweat in the middle of the night,” he said. “I’d wake up and be burning up, thinking there’s no way this is going to be a good week, and then I go and win.”

And the man he once watched from behind a rope? Thomas has said of Woods, “He’s been a lot, man. I respect him so much. I looked up to him and his golf game, how he won, how he went about it.”

The little boy who went home clutching Nicklaus’s autograph as his greatest souvenir that week later became Nicklaus’s business partner in a luxury golf estate in Florida.

When Woods was told that Thomas, standing nearby at that same press conference, had described watching him win at Valhalla as a core childhood memory, he smiled. “I don’t know if JT was in diapers still or not,” Woods said, drawing a laugh from the room. “But having a major come to your hometown where you grew up, it’s special for him. Special for Mike, Jenny, and everyone who’s been involved in his life. This is his hometown.”