For Woods it's nearly a Slam dunk

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© St. Petersburg Times
published June 18, 2002

They will tell you that it never has been done. Oh, Bobby Jones won golf's four majors in a calendar year in 1930, but that was before the Masters and the PGA Championship.

To be exact, no one ever has won golf's current four majors in the same year.

Not yet, anyway.

If we learned anything from the U.S. Open, it's that there's nothing Tiger Woods can't do. The way this guy plays, no record is safe; no milestone is out of reach. Not Jack Nicklaus' 18 major titles. Not the record for career tour wins (81 by Sam Snead). And not the Grand Slam.

"There's no telling what he can accomplish over the next 20 years," Jeff Maggert said.

Just look at what he has done lately. Sunday's U.S. Open title was his sixth major in his past nine appearances, and his seventh in his past 11. With each one it seems the gap is widening between himself and everyone else. There's already talk about him being not only the greatest in the game but maybe of all time. Maybe even the greatest athlete ever.

Now all he has to do is win the British Open and the PGA Championship to win the Grand Slam. For just about anyone else, you might as well be asking him to walk on water. But for Tiger, it might be more like a walk in the park.

He already has won four straight before. They just weren't all in the same calendar year. But four straight is four straight.

"If anybody can do it, Tiger is the man," veteran Jose Maria Olazabal said. "Listen, if every player plays at the highest level possible, Tiger will win. He's at a different level."

Mind you, Woods thinks those four majors he won -- the 2000 U.S. Open, British Open, PGA Championship and 2001 Masters -- count as a Slam, but he's wrong. A Tiger Slam, yes. But not a Grand Slam.

"You can call it what you want," Woods said, "but when I was at home, I had all four trophies on my mantle."

Frankly, it doesn't matter because he stands a good chance of having both before the end of the year.

Who's going to stop him? Phil Mickelson? Get real. David Duval? He couldn't even make the cut last week. Sergio Garcia? He'll be too busy whining about the weather. Ernie Els? Remind me again the last time he won a major?

Look, the only person who seems to have any shot at beating Tiger is Tiger. He didn't even play that well Sunday, at least not by his standards, and still walked away from the field.

Two bogeys to open the final round? When has that ever happened to Tiger? He was beatable, but no one could pull it off. Sure, he won by only three strokes, but it would have been by more if he didn't play it safe down the stretch.

"If he's on, nobody's going to beat him," his father, Earl, told a New York reporter. "You can take all those guys out there and if they're on and Tiger's on, it's over. They can't beat him."

Next is the British Open at Muirfield in Scotland, then the PGA Championship at Hazeltine National near Minneapolis. Both courses favor his game. Hazeltine is plenty long, and Muirfield is a links course, which Tiger loves.

No, Muirfield won't be easy. The course is notorious for its bad bounces, and the conditions are likely to be soggy and cool. And Tiger never has played Muirfield, which might be cause for concern.

Then again, he never had played Bethpage Black before last week, and we saw how significant that was.

Surely, it can't be any trickier than Bethpage Black. When only one player is able to finish under par, you can be sure the course had everything to do with it.

Muirfield will be tweaked a bit to make it even more challenging. But, so far, we've seen few courses that can tame Tiger.

After the U.S. Open, several players conceded that Tiger could run the table, which is probably a good thing because the last thing you want to do is give him extra motivation.

Nick Price, Olazabal and even Nicklaus said they like his chances, and John Daly said Woods is so good "he doesn't even have to be on his game."

They should know, because they and the rest of the tour are the only things standing in Tiger's way.

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