Tuesday, August 22, 2000
Woods knows no bounds
By Ed Sherman
Chicago Tribune
(KRT)
After Sunday's thrilling show, it now seems to be a foregone conclusion:
Tiger Woods will own every significant record in golf.
And probably sooner than later.
What Woods is doing to golf is comparable to Babe Ruth hitting
54 homers in 1920, nearly doubling the previous record, or Wayne
Gretzky registering 200 points in a season when 100 had been the
standard.
Woods' feats already are astounding. And don't forget, he's still
only 24.
His title at the PGA Championship on Sunday sparked discussion
about whether Woods has put together the greatest season in golf
history. If it isn't the best, it definitely is in the top three,
along with Bobby Jones' Grand Slam in 1930 and Ben Hogan's three
major wins in 1953.
Woods equaled Hogan's mark, becoming only the second player to
win three modern majors in a season with Sunday's triumph at Valhalla.
It was his seventh victory of the year.
“Three major championships and the season is not over for
Tiger,” said Tom Watson. “It would have to rank up with
the best.”
Pick a statistic, any statistic. They all are staggering.
Woods has won more than $6 million for the year, more than double
his nearest challenger's earnings. Only in his fourth full season
on the PGA Tour, he is the first to surpass $18 million in career
earnings.
Since winning the 1999 Memorial, he has 15 victories, having won
58 percent of the events he has entered. This comes on a PGA Tour
where two victories in a season is considered to be a career year.
Woods won the three majors by a combined 24 strokes. While viewers
flocked to their television sets to watch his runaways in the
U.S. and British Opens, they really got excited about seeing somebody,
in this case Bob May, giving him a good fight.
The big-market overnight numbers for Sunday's telecast were a
10 rating and a 23 share for CBS. That means an audience of 10
million homes and 23 percent of the TV sets in use were tuned
in.
It peaked during the final 30 minutes, with a 17.6 rating and
33 share, figures usually reserved for “Who Wants to be a
Millionaire?”
The audience was the most for any major outside of the Masters
since 1981. The numbers figure to get bigger on Woods' march through
history. Here are the big goals still in his path:
The Grand Slam: Is there any doubt now that Woods will achieve
this once unthinkable feat? If not for a 75 in the first round
at the Masters, where he finished fifth, Woods probably would
have won all four this year.
Woods will go into next year's Masters with a chance to win four
majors in a row. It would be a version of the Grand Slam, considering
Woods would own all four titles at once. But the true one would
be winning all four in one calendar year.
“I've got one green jacket,” Woods said. “I'd like
to get another one. I just need to stay focused on what I need
to do to get ready for that tournament, and hopefully my game
will be ready.”
Nicklaus' 18 majors: Nicklaus had four majors through his fourth
full season. Woods now is at five after a comparable point.
To put five in perspective, Woods now has the same amount of major
titles as Byron Nelson and Seve Ballesteros, and is only two behind
Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen.
By being paired with Woods last Thursday and Friday, Nicklaus
got firsthand evidence why his record of 18 majors is likely to
fall. Like Nicklaus, Woods has geared his game to peak in the
majors.
“To have your game peak at the right times, that's what you
want to have happen,” Woods said. “I was fortunate enough
to have my game at a pretty good level for three of the four majors.”
Snead's 81 victories: With 22 victories, Woods is more than a
quarter of the way to Snead's all-time mark of 81 PGA Tour victories.
If Woods keeps averaging eight victories a year, which seems to
be a realistic notion, he could reach Snead by his 33rd birthday.
A career total of 100 titles is not impossible.
A round of 58: Potentially the best player ever definitely has
the potential to shoot the best round ever. Thus far, Woods' low
round in competition is a 61 at the 1999 GTE Byron Nelson Classic.
He also has a pair of 62s.
If any player has a chance to shoot the first 58, it is Woods.
Nelson's 11 in a row: Woods made noises about challenging Nelson's
incredible mark by winning six in a row earlier this year. Given
the competition and staggering consistency required, this figures
to be one mark that Woods probably won't achieve.
Still, it would be foolish to bet against him. `(Peaking) at the
right times, that's what you want to have happen. I was fortunate
enough to have my game at a pretty good level for three of the
four majors.'
(c) 2000, Chicago Tribune.
Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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