Monday, July 24, 2000
From the Grand Slam to the
Triple Crown
By DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) — Only four
players had won the career Grand Slam until Tiger Woods completed
the cycle with an unprecedented romp around the Old Course to
win the British Open. Next up is a chance to join some really
exclusive company.
Ben Hogan was the only player who won three
major championships in one year, in 1953. That's what awaits Woods
next month, when he makes his first visit to Valhalla Golf Club
for the PGA Championship.
“I've always said you would like to
have your game peak at four different times a year,” Woods
said. “That's something you always hope for and plan for.
To actually have it happen is a different story. Hopefully, my
game will be ready for the PGA.”
Everyone else better hope he gets lost on
his way to Kentucky.
Winning major championships is not an issue
with Woods. Lately, the only drama is what kind of record will
fall.
In the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, he became
the first player to finish in double digits below par (12 under),
broke a 138-year-old record with his 15-stroke victory and tied
the U.S. Open scoring record at 282.
A month later, Woods arrived at the home
of golf and made even more history.
He won the British Open with a 19-under
269, a record score at St. Andrews and the lowest score in relation
to par ever in a major champion. His eight-stroke victory over
Ernie Els and Thomas Bjorn was the widest in 87 years.
Two majors — one the toughest test
in golf, the other the oldest. Woods won them by a combined 23
strokes, playing 31 strokes below par.
“In one way, it is incredible to watch
a guy play so much better than the rest of the world,” Els
said, a runner-up in all three majors this year. “In another
way, it's tough to sit down here and talk about him every time.
“I might have to get used to it, but
I guess that's the way it goes.”
That's the way it's gone for just about
everybody this year. Aside from two bad holes in the first round
of the Masters — a double bogey and triple bogey — Woods
might very well be going for the Grand Slam in one year.
He didn't have anything that remotely resembled
trouble in the British Open.
The Old Course has 112 pot bunkers, but
the only time Woods even glimpsed any of them was when he watched
chief challenger David Duval flail away four times to get out
of the Road Hole bunker on No. 17 in the final round Sunday.
“I was in a bunker every day,”
Woods said. “But it was on the practice green.”
He made only three bogeys all week, two
of them on three-putts. The British Open is regarded as the one
major where luck is the best club in the bag, only Woods never
needed a fortuitous hop over four rounds.
He knew exactly where he was going —
into the history books.
“To win a major championship, it is
a different thought process and a different understanding of the
game,” he said. “Most majors, you're going to have to
go out there and understand that par is a wonderful score. It
brings out the best in players, guys who can strike the ball the
best, keep their emotions in check and make the big putts.”
He was all that.
If par is a good score in majors, Woods
has been simply great. Including his 4-under 284 at Augusta National,
where he finished fifth behind Vijay Singh, Woods is now 35 under
in the majors.
“It was a spectacular performance,
to say the least,” said Duval, whose triple bogey on No.
17 dropped him out of the top 10 in the British Open, and caused
him to lose his No. 2 spot in the world ranking to Els.
Woods has been that way for over a year
now.
Sunday was his 23rd consecutive round under
par. He has six victories in 14 events this year, and 15 out of
his last 27 over the last 15 months.
“He is something supernatural,”
said Tom Watson, who had been the last player to win the British
Open and U.S. Open in the same year. “He has raised the bar
to a level that only he can jump. Someone is going to have to
use some Flubber in the bottom of their shoes to be able to jump
over that bar.”
Watson is the only player to win the British
Open at five courses, none at St. Andrews, the old, gray town
where golf has been played for more than 500 years — but
never like this.
Only two other champions had won a British
Open with four rounds in the 60s — Greg Norman at Royal St.
George in 1993, and Nick Price in 1994. The Royal & Ancient
Golf Club tried to toughen the Old Course by moving five tee boxes
back and making the walls of the bunkers nearly vertical.
Look for a new rule next year that says
anyone still in their 20s who already has won the Grand Slam must
play with one hand tied behind the back.
Or use the gutta-percha ball.
Of course, Woods did that on the 342-yard
ninth hole during a practice round. He still made par.
“What really stinks about it is the
fact you can't control him,” Paul Azinger said. “In
every other sport, you can control your opponent. Except for this
sport. You can only focus on your own game.”
All the while, Woods is focusing on the
record books.
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