He's not the Tiger of old, but still pretty good
By Ron SirakST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- Five years ago, there was an aura of majesty surrounding St. Andrews when Tiger Woods captured the British Open by eight strokes to complete the career Grand Slam at the tender age of 24.
Coming on the heels of his 15-stroke victory a month earlier in the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, the victory on the Old Course was a coronation of sorts, and most who witnessed the ease with which Woods won assumed the scenario would be repeated for years to come. In many ways, Tiger was done a disservice because the ease with which he won allowed people to undervalue the accomplishment. We assumed this was the way it was supposed to be.
He was perfect.
If anything, the relative struggles Woods experienced when he went from the 2002 U.S. Open to this year's Masters without a major championship victory has intensified the appreciation of what he has accomplished. And, if anything, there is an enhanced appreciation of Woods because he appears now as more human -- not the miracle-making machine, but rather a man playing a game over which mastery is a borrowed commodity. Tiger the Near-Perfect is much more compelling to watch than Tiger the Perfect.
For two days at St. Andrews, Woods was his old dominating self -- grabbing the 36-hole lead with rounds of 66 and 67. And, truth be told, those scores were probably the highest he could have shot, considering the way he played on a course seemingly made for his style of play, which combines ferocious power with imaginative touch around the greens. That his third round of 71 could have been several strokes higher if not for some impressive saving putts over the last three holes, and that his closing-round 70 was more brilliant defense that overwhelming offense simply shows the way Woods' game has matured.
Part of what we saw this week at St. Andrews was an aspect of Woods often ignored -- he grinds as well as anyone who has played the game. Yes, the shot-making skills are talents few golfers have ever possessed, but just as surely no one also surpasses Woods' heart and courage.
For more than half of the final round, Woods was in an intense duel with Colin Montgomerie and Jose Maria Olazabal. They tried their best, but Woods simply wore them down. When push came to shove, it was Woods -- who led Montgomerie by only one stroke and Olazabal by two when he walked off the 10th green -- who played the back nine in even-par while Monty and Ollie both closed with 39.
It would be easy to say that the final margin of five strokes over Montgomerie and six over Olazabal and Fred Couples -- who sneaked into the top-three while no one was watching -- did not reflect the actual closeness of the tournament, but the opposite is very much the case. Woods never trailed after making a birdie on No. 9 in the first round, and even when his lead dwindled to one stroke there was never any sense that he was in real trouble. Except for a couple visits to the gorse bushes, he simply controlled his ball magnificently all week.
Not to be lost in all of this is the fact that more pages in the golf history book were written in Woods' hand on Sunday. He now has 10 professional major championships, passing Ben Hogan and Gary Player to move into third on the all-time list behind Walter Hagen (11) and Jack Nicklaus (18). And, with his three U.S. Amateur titles, Woods now has 13 majors overall, tying Bobby Jones for second place behind the 20 recorded by Nicklaus. Woods has also completed the career Grand Slam for the second time. He now has won four Masters, and the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship twice each. Only Ben Hogan, Gene Sarazen, Gary Player and Nicklaus have completed the career Grand Slam. Only Nicklaus has done it more than once, winning six Masters, five PGA Championships, four U.S. Opens and three British Opens.
That Woods should accomplish so much in a historical sense at this tournament should come as no surprise. He is all about history. Remember, this is the kid who growing up had Nicklaus' accomplishments taped to his refrigerator and checked off each as he matched or surpassed it.
Anyone with a sense of what Tiger is all about should have known coming into this week that he would win. First off, the venue was the Old Course. That's special to Tiger because it is the home of golf. Secondly, there was the fact that Nicklaus was playing his last British Open. When Jack played his last U.S. Open -- 2000 at Pebble Beach -- Tiger won. And when we all thought that same year that Nicklaus was playing his last British Open, Tiger won. The man has a sense of the moment.
And so it comes to this: Just when it started to seem as if we had seen the best of Tiger Woods, we are presented the possibility that maybe an even better one is ready to step into the spotlight. When Woods hit his dry spell and went 0-for-10 majors from mid-2002 until this year's Masters, it was easy to think that the stretch he had in which he won seven of 11 major championships from the 1999 PGA Championship through the 2002 U.S. Open -- winning three majors by eight, 12 and 15 strokes -- it was his version of Bob Dylan writing "Blowin' in the Wind" and a ton of other great songs before his 25th birthday.
How was he ever going to match that?
But one well publicized swing change later, Woods is once again the undisputed No. 1 player in the game. Forget those alleged challenges by Vijay Singh, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen. Over the last 13 major championships there have been 12 different winners. Only Woods has won twice. Over the last 13 major championships there have been eight guys who won their first major. Woods just got his 10th. OK, so Els and Singh have three majors, Goosen two and Mickelson one. That means that the other four of the "Big Five" have a combined nine majors -- one short of Tiger.
What we witnessed when Woods went through half of '02 and all of '03 and '04 without winning a major championship was a window of opportunity for all those other guys to fatten their résumé. But no one stepped forward and took advantage of it.
In the 13 majors beginning with the 2002 British Open, Mickelson, Singh, Els and Goosen each won one major -- the same number as won by Ben Curtis, Shaun Micheel, Rich Beem and Todd Hamilton.
Does anyone really want to question who the best player in the world is? Tiger's back. That's bad news for his competition, and great news for the fans. And how fitting that he reasserted his domination on a week when Nicklaus said goodbye.
The man has a sense of history -- and there are more pages in the history book to be written in Tiger's hand. And let's just put aside that "Who's No. 1?" debate for now, OK?
Ron Sirak is the executive editor of Golf World magazine
