Wednesday, December 27, 2000
Elite Repeat
Another landslide victory
for Tiger
By Doug Ferguson
Associated Press
Tiger Woods was a repeat winner Tuesday
as The Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year. Like so many
of his amazing victories, it was no contest.
Fresh off his incredible season of nine
victories, three straight majors, the career Grand Slam and shots
that had to be seen to be believed, Woods joined Michael Jordan
as the only three-time winner of the AP award since it began in
1931.
He received 47 first-place votes and 160
points from sportswriters and broadcasters to easily defeat back-to-back
Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong.
Woods became the sixth player to win the
award in consecutive years. The others were tennis great Don Budge,
golfer Byron Nelson, track star Carl Lewis, quarterback Joe Montana
and Jordan, who won it three years in a row.
“It’s very humbling,” Woods
said. “It’s a great honor to be in the presence of such
great names. I didn’t realize that Jordan was the only other
three-time winner.”
Armstrong had eight first-place votes and
72 points, while St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner was third
with 34 points. Points were awarded on a 3-2-1 basis.
Rounding out the top 10 were Pedro Martinez,
Shaquille O’Neal, Rulon Gardner, Jason Giambi, Derek Jeter,
Josh Heupel and Marshall Faulk.
In a sport where two strokes is considered
a comfortable victory, Woods won the U.S. Open by 15 strokes,
a World Golf Championship by 11, the British Open by eight and
two other tournaments by at least four strokes.
It was a year in which he kept raising the
bar, and sailing over it. The higher the expectations, the better
Woods played.
Five straight wins on the PGA Tour piqued
a nation’s interest. Then, Woods made it six in a row by
coming from seven strokes behind over the final seven holes at
Pebble Beach.
Winning the U.S. Open wasn’t enough.
Woods challenged history and whipped that the way he did the rest
of the field — a 15-stroke victory, the largest margin in
the 140 years of major championship golf, a 12-under 272 on a
course where no one else broke par.
Could he complete the Grand Slam at the
home of golf? Just barely. He won the British Open by eight strokes,
set another major-championship record with a 19-under 269 and
never once set foot in any of the 112 pot bunkers at St. Andrews.
He made it three straight majors at the
PGA, the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to do that. He broke
Nelson’s 55-year-old scoring record with an unadjusted average
of 68.17. He didn’t have a round over par after May 7.
When asked at what point in the season he
thought he was capable of winning three straight majors and more
than half of all the tournaments he played, Woods replied, “On
the first day of the year.”
“My goal is to go out there and win
every time,” he said. “Obviously, it’s not going
to happen, but my goal is to compete and win everything. I did
think this was possible. And I think it’s possible in the
future.”
Woods transcended his sport like few others.
His name alone — Tiger — became a new definition for
the highest level of performance — in sports, politics and
on Wall Street.
“He is something supernatural,”
five-time British Open champion Tom Watson said. “He has
raised the bar to a level that only he can jump.”
Woods does things like no one else, and
not just some of the outrageous shots he produces at some of the
most crucial times in tournaments.
He became the first player to finish under
par in every tournament he played, and he has not finished over
par since the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie, a streak of 25
starts. His record streak of 47 rounds at par or better included
three majors, and he went 64 holes in a major championships without
making a bogey.
“Cut him open and I’ll tell you
what you’ll find — a bunch of wires and levers, and
a big heart,” Rocco Mediate said.
When Woods first rose to the top of golf
with his 12-stroke victory in the 1997 Masters, some believed
he did not have the patience or control to ever win a U.S. Open,
that his game was suited to only certain styles.
Woods proved this year he has a game for
every course, every condition, every occasion.
He never made worse than par over the final
26 holes in the U.S. Open, the toughest test of golf that puts
the ultimate premium on par. He won the British Open with four
rounds in the 60s. He owns scoring records in all four majors,
thanks to his 18-under 270 at the PGA Championship, which he won
in a thrilling playoff over Bob May.
Typically ho-hum about everything he does,
Woods admitted his three straight majors were indeed something
special.
“The reason is, they’re played
on three different types of venues, three different settings,
three differing feelings, three different everything,” he
said. “Winning a major in and of itself is so difficult.
And when you factor in the pressures of people coming at you on
Sunday, career Grand Slam, all of those, it’s a pretty impressive
feat.”
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