IT WAS the opinion of Paul Gallico, the perceptive American sportswriter of the 1930s, that it's hardest of all to eulogise the best athletes of their age when they're in the process of expanding the limits of their craft. "It's one of the tragedies that the golden age we so rarely recognise," he observed, "is the one that we're actually living through."
If there's an exception to every rule, then there can be few followers of golf who are not already convinced the age of Tiger Woods is as golden as any sporting dynasty ever gets. Right now, the world No1 believes he's playing better than he did in 2
000 when he won nine times and secured three consecutive major championships. "I'm hitting shots that I never could hit before," he confided on Sunday.
When Woods is in full cry is there anything, or anyone, to stop him finding the holy grail of the professional game and winning the Grand Slam in 2008?
In the final round of the Buick Invitational, Woods executed a sublime recovery from behind the green on the par-5 ninth which offered a cameo of the world No1's genius. From a sodden lie, Woods faced a flop shot of huge complexity from mucky grass to a raised green with the flag placed just four or five paces on before the putting surface sloped away violently.
David Feherty, the Ulsterman who commentates for CBS and Setanta, guessed that Woods, provided he hit an exceptional shot, would do wonderfully well to finish 15 feet from the cup. Tiger being Tiger, of course, confounded the pundits. His long, languid backswing cut through the tangled rough at the perfect angle and sent the ball soaring into the California sky before landing as softly as a butterfly on a leaf.
He tapped in for par from a foot or two and went on to win the Buick for the fourth consecutive season by eight strokes from his closest rival.
Mastering the art of the very difficult – the impossible, to mere mortals – meant that Sunday's victory in San Diego was the 62nd of Woods' career, the same as Arnold Palmer. In his 13th season, Woods has now won as many PGA Tour events as any golfer apart from Ben Hogan with 64, Jack Nicklaus on 73 and Sam Snead with 82.
Bearing in mind that Hogan, Palmer and Nicklaus all won tournaments in their 40s and Snead won his last event at 53, there's no telling how many competitions Woods, 32, will win over the coming decades. Provided he stays injury free, Tiger will rack up a record number of successes.
Whether this particular joust with history and the giants of the past means much to Woods is a moot point. Like Nicklaus, Tiger plays to prepare for the major championships. One of the reasons he chose the Buick for his first tournament of 2008 was because Torrey Pines will host the US Open in June.
Bearing in mind this was his fourth consecutive success at Torrey, would anyone wager against Woods stretching that run to five this summer, even if the course set-up for America's national championship is unlikely to allow the game's most gifted golfer to win with a score of 19 under par?
Before then, the promise of a Grand Slam – winning all four majors in the same calendar year – starts for Woods in April at Augusta National. After Torrey Pines, the Open is at Birkdale in July and the US PGA will be staged at Oakland Hills in August.
Tiger himself doesn't rule out the possibility of becoming the first man since Bobby Jones to win all of the game's most important events in the same season – Jones won the Amateur, the Open, the US Amateur and the US Open in 1930.
"For most of my career, I've won more than four tournaments per year," said Woods. "All I have to do is win the right four. If you put it all together, and have luck on your side, all the stars will line up. So, yes, I think it's possible."
There's a showdown looming between Woods and destiny. The bad news for fate is that the world No1 reckons he's not only never played better, but also expects to improve as the season unfolds. "I'm still getting better," he reflected. "I still have holes in my game that I need to fix and need to improve on. I just think that what I've been working on, I'm headed in the right direction."
According to Nick Faldo, there are no doubts. "This will be the year when Tiger does the Grand Slam," he said.
The full article contains 786 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
