Monday, July 24, 2000
Woods takes his place among
greats
By Hank Gola
New York Daily News
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland - They swarmed the
18th hole. They mobbed the balconies and filled the windows of
the old gray houses and venerable Rusacks Hotel. They even tried
hurdling Swilken Burn.
That's how they once cheered the triumphs
of Tom Morris, Bobby Jones, Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus. That's
how they saluted Tiger Woods Sunday as he wrapped up the career
Grand Slam on the mother of all golf courses, St. Andrews.
Woods, who added another scoring record
to the ones he holds at the Masters and U.S. Open, can no longer
be measured against his peers. He must now be held against players
like Nicklaus, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Gary Player, the four
others in history who have won golf's four current major titles.
And none of them did it by age 24.
“Those are true champions right there,”
Woods said with the silver claret jug gleaming in front of him.
“They've been the elite players to ever play the game. To
be in the same breath as those guys is very special, very special.”
Take it from Tom Watson, who has five British
Open championships but lacks the PGA title needed to complete
his crown. “He is something supernatural,” Watson said.
“He has raised the bar to a level that only he can jump.”
Woods fended off the world's second-ranked
player, David Duval, in head-to-head play and finished eight shots
ahead of Ernie Els and Thomas Bjorn, the largest margin of victory
in the British Open since 1913, when J.H. Taylor won by eight
strokes over Ted Ray.
His final-round 69 brought him to 269, 19-under,
the best score vs. par in any major, ever. In fact, the only major
in which he hasn't set a scoring record is the PGA, where he will
defend his title next month at Valhalla in Louisville.
“I guess I've exceeded a few dreams
and I'm behind on a couple of others,” Woods said. “So
far I've had a wonderful, wonderful young career and hopefully,
I can continue to have the success I've had. If I don't, that's
fine, too. I am going to keep working on my game, keep trying
to get better.”
That's a scary thought. He couldn't get
much better than he was at Pebble Beach (U.S. Open) and St. Andrews,
two courses on which he played two different styles to win by
a combined 23 shots.
Woods tore up the Old Course not by attacking
it but by waiting it out. St. Andrews has 112 bunkers, many devious.
He didn't visit one - technically.
“I was in a bunker every day,”
he said. “On the practice green.”
He began the day with a six-shot lead on
Duval, who put on some heat by making birdies on four of the first
seven holes. Duval even pared his deficit to three as he shot
32 on the front side.
But Woods, who made just one birdie on the
first nine, pulled away by driving both the 10th and 12th for
two-putt birdies. Duval's birdie try came up just short on 10.
Then he made bogey on 12, a two-shot swing in Woods' favor. The
tournament was over as Duval's back nine spiraled to a 43 that
included an eight on 17 after four lost shots in the Road Bunker.
He finished tied for 11th and later paid homage to the victor.
“I think it was a spectacular performance
to say the least,” Duval said. “He simply did not make
mistakes and capitalized on the holes you would expect him to
capitalize on.”
Woods finished out the tournament with a
five-foot putt for par that broke Nick Faldo's record, set at
St. Andrews 10 years ago.
“I couldn't care less about the record,”
he said. All I wanted was four straight rounds in the 60s. That
was something I did not do at Pebble Beach and I did not do at
Augusta.”
Woods has bigger milestones ahead, like
Nicklaus' mark of 18 majors. For now, that can wait.
“I'm just going to wind down,”
Woods said. “I think my body and my mind deserve a rest.”
For a few weeks, everybody else can have
a chance.
(c) 2000, New York Daily News.
Visit the Daily News online at http://www.nydailynews.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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