The Legend Grows

Now that he has completely wrecked Pebble Beach and made a joke out of the 100th U.S. Open, Tiger Woods clearly needs new worlds to conquer. The poor guys Woods is pounding must have their own ideas, like a nice place far away . . . Neptune, possibly.

For four days, Woods made it look so simple, it was almost as if he wasn’t playing the same game as everyone else. He just kept hitting fairways, sinking putts, laughing between shots, losing contact with the field, running away with the thing.

So what does Woods do next?

Put Microsoft back together. End drought. Putt with his shoe. See, the chances to break new ground here are endless.

After the performance Woods put on at Pebble, there is a tendency to get carried away with the possibilities, at least pertaining to golf, so it’s probably a good idea to take the calm approach and merely examine the facts.

He is the best player in the world.

His popularity worldwide is unmatched.

He is only getting better.

He is scaring the polyester pants off the rest of the players.

Sounds reasonable. Add it up and you can see why. At 24 and in only his fourth full year as a professional, Woods has three major championship titles among his 20 PGA Tour victories. That’s more than any active player still trying to beat Woods on the tour.

The U.S. Open was supposed to be a tough major for Woods to win and it was simple instead. And if you’re looking ahead to the next major, the British Open, well, St. Andrews couldn’t be any more inviting if they spray-painted the greens in tiger prints.

It is the home course of golf, St. Andrews is. It’s also absolutely tailor-made for a long-ball slugger like Woods, with lots of safe places to hit it. Five years ago, John Daly won there, for goodness sake.

There are probably some who found Woods’ four-day destruction of Pebble Beach uneventful. They wish the U.S. Open could have been a little more competitive.

That’s certainly not Tiger’s fault. What would you expect him to do, knock a few more balls into Carmel Bay to make it closer? Actually, the Open was competitive . . . Tiger had his tournament and the 155 others had theirs.

In golf, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Woods is in a class by himself. If you listened much to the other players this week, it’s almost as if they no longer expect very much of themselves when they match up against Woods.

How that shakes out is staggering. Not only is Woods playing at the top of his game, he also has a mental advantage over the players he must defeat because they often feel they don’t have much of a chance.

That kind of edge hasn’t been seen in golf since Jack Nicklaus, who in his prime could intimidate his peers simply by showing up on the course and knocking a few balls over the fence at the driving range.

Comparing players from different eras is sort of pointless, but that’s how it’s done in sports. And you would have to say that at this juncture, nobody compares to Woods in his peer group.

In the cool light of historical perspective, the only player Woods can be compared with is Nicklaus, regarded as the greatest of all time.

Nicklaus had three majors and 12 PGA Tour victories before he turned 25. Plus, his staggering total of 18 major titles and 71 tour victories set a high standard for Woods.

However, you can argue the fact that Woods is further ahead of his contemporaries than Nicklaus was ahead of his--and that there are more quality players that Woods has to beat than Nicklaus had to beat.

But there is absolutely no question that Woods changes the standard by which we judge excellence in golf.

Nicklaus won the U.S. Open four times, but he never won by 15 shots.

Nicklaus won the Masters six times, but he never won by 12 shots, as Woods did in 1997.

Woods has won three of the four majors and is one British Open away from completing the career Grand Slam. Only Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Nicklaus and Gary Player have won the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and the PGA Championship.

Since the beginning of 1999, a span of less than 18 months, Woods has won 13 times. That’s the best run since Nicklaus won 14 times in 1972-73 and Arnold Palmer won 14 times in 1962-63. Sarazen. Hogan. Nicklaus. Player. Palmer. This is extremely potent company, but it’s the kind to which Woods belongs. Maybe someday, historians will look at the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. They will dogear the page in the record book to mark the place where golf turned into a brave new era.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Tiger and Bear, Oh My

Comparing Tiger Woods with Jack Nicklaus before each turned 25:

WOODS

Majors won: 3 (Masters, PGA, U.S. Open)

Tournaments entered: 95

Tournaments won: 20

NICKLAUS

Majors won: 3 (Masters, PGA, U.S. Open)

Tournaments entered: 76

Tournaments won: 12