Woods May Be Having Delusions of Grandeur

What is the hardest thing to do at the Masters? Chances are we will find out this week.

Is it . . .

* Keeping your ball dry at the 12th hole?

* Finding a parking space on Washington Road?

* Finding a street corner that doesn’t have a Waffle House?

* Getting your putts to drop on greens so fast the flagsticks have checkered flags?

* Figuring out if Tiger Woods wins, is it a Grand Slam?

At the very least, it’s an interesting debate, especially in a sport in which history is ritual, on a course co-designed by the patron saint of golf named Jones, in the first and most pristine major of the year, at a time when the topic of golf’s Grand Slam could be dominated by only a single player.

Of course, that would be Tiger Woods, the once and--everybody says--future champion, the person voted most likely to succeed in every tournament he plays.

Now, consider the venue. We’re not saying that the Augusta National Golf Club lays it on a little thick in the history department, but the Grand Slam name himself, Robert Tyre Jones Jr., is listed at the top of the club letterhead, as president in perpetuity. (Clifford Roberts is listed right there under Jones as chairman in memoriam.)

So, it seems only fitting that Woods has a chance to make history--of some kind--at such a tradition-rich place as Augusta National if he wins the 65th Masters tournament starting today on some of the most famous real estate in golf.

For those of you not keeping score at home, here is what’s going on:

Woods has won the last three majors--the 2000 U.S. Open, the 2000 British Open and the 2000 PGA Championship. If he wins the 2001 Masters, that’s all four major championships. In a row. Consecutively.

But not in the same year.

So does that make it a Grand Slam?

Positively maybe.

Tiger thinks so, but only sort of:

“I would only consider it [a Grand Slam] because I was holding all four at the same time.

“There’s two thoughts: Obviously, one, you’ve got to do it in the calendar year, which I’m positively not going to deny. It’s a harder one to do because you have to win the Masters to start off with. Or you can get hot during the summer, which I did, and continue throughout the entire summer and hopefully turn it on again in the spring.

“If I win the Masters, hopefully it will be considered the Slam. And in my estimation, it would be, because I would hold all four at the same time.”

So, in Tiger’s estimation, it’s not the Grand Slam at all, but it’s clearly the Grand Slam.

That really clears it up.

No one has ever won all four of the modern majors in one calendar year. The idea that there were four modern major golf tournaments and that winning them all would constitute a Grand Slam didn’t even occur to anybody until 1960, 30 years after Jones had won his Grand Slam--the U.S. and British Opens and the U.S. and British Amateurs.

But a modern slam didn’t exist until sportswriter Bob Drum, a buddy of Arnold Palmer, dreamed it up, with Palmer’s cooperation.

Palmer had already won the 1960 Masters when he won the U.S. Open at Cherry Hills in Denver, closing with a 65 and beating an amateur named Jack Nicklaus by two shots.

Before the British Open at St. Andrews, Drum presented the idea of a modern Grand Slam, winning all four in one year, which Palmer had the chance to do. It was a public relations ploy, but the idea caught on quickly. Unfortunately for Palmer, Kel Nagle ruined his chance for the new Grand Slam, beating him by a shot at St. Andrews. Then Palmer tied for seventh in the 1960 PGA Championship at Firestone Country Club.

Even the original Grand Slam was a clever bit of PR. When Jones, an amateur, won the four biggest tournaments that golf had to offer in 1930, the feat was dubbed the “Grand Slam” by his Boswell, Atlanta sportswriter O.B. Keeler.

But the modern Grand Slam? There was no Masters until 1934, and the PGA Championship wasn’t included in any list of “major” golf tournaments until Drum and Palmer anointed it as such.

Woods already has a “career Grand Slam,” a feat he accomplished last summer with his record 19-under total in the British Open at St. Andrews. His eight-shot victory over Thomas Bjorn made him the youngest player to have won all four major championships--at 24 years 6 months and 23 days.

Nicklaus was 26 when he completed his “career” Slam in 1966. He and Woods, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan and Gary Player are the only players to have won all four major pro titles in their careers.

But four in one year? Hasn’t happened.

Ben Hogan was the closest. He won the first three majors of 1953--the Masters, the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club and the British Open at Carnoustie, but he did not enter the PGA, which conflicted with the British Open.

Nicklaus came close a couple of times. In 1966, he won the Masters, but was third at the U.S. Open won by Billy Casper, then won the British Open but tied for 22nd at the PGA.

Nicklaus was halfway there in 1972 when he won the Masters and the U.S Open, but he was second to Lee Trevino by a shot in the British Open and tied for 13th in the PGA.

Palmer had a second crack at the Grand Slam in 1962. He won the Masters again, but was second at the U.S. Open when Nicklaus beat him by three shots in an 18-hole playoff at Oakmont.

Because Palmer was instrumental in the Grand Slam business in the first place, you would assume he might have a strong opinion about Woods’ quest. You would be correct.

“That’s bull . . . ,” Palmer said last week of spreading a Grand Slam over two years. “That’s not even close. The Grand Slam is in one year and anybody that changes that is sensationalizing something that isn’t real.”

Palmer believes a one-year Grand Slam is pretty much out of the question, for almost everyone, although he did leave the door open for Woods.

“My whole idea was, it isn’t likely that someone is going to do the Bobby Jones Grand Slam because players don’t stay [amateur] long enough to do that. Jack and Tiger are two guys that I know of in the modern day that could have done that, [but] that isn’t happening and isn’t going to happen.

“I said . . . it would be nice to create a Grand Slam of the Masters, the Open, the British Open and the PGA. Bob Drum liked [the idea] and wrote about [it] and it has steamrolled ever since.

“[But] it has to be in one year. If there’s anybody that wins four of them, it doesn’t make a Slam, but that’s great.”

Sam Snead said he has to agree. Snead’s missing major was the U.S. Open, but he won the three others.

“I guess you can’t say it’s a Grand Slam unless it’s all four in one year,” he said. “Has to be in the same year. It’s simple. But Tiger can say, ‘I’ve got all four,’ and not too many can say that.”

This entire discussion wouldn’t have much shelf life if Woods didn’t keep it going, but it’s hard to blame him.

And he has used fuzzy math before to further his cause, which he doesn’t need to do, of course. In some interviews during his non-winning streak that dated from last August until he won consecutively at Bay Hill and the Players Championship, Woods would include European Tour events and special events as victories, but not add them to the total number of tournaments he had played in discussions of streaks.

He also said that his scoring average was virtually the same during his non-winning streak as it had been through the same number of events he had played last year. At the same time, however, he failed to recognize his adjusted scoring average, which is how the Vardon Trophy is measured.

These are all minor points, of course. The fact is that if anyone is going to snag a Grand Slam, no one has a better chance than Woods.

But the speculation that a Woods victory this week at the Masters would constitute a Grand Slam should be laid to rest, according to Palmer.

“If he wins it, he’s starting a new one, but it’s not a continuation of last year,” Palmer said. “You know, that takes the fun out of it. That takes the kick out of winning the Grand Slam.

“If there’s someone that can do what we’re talking about, it’s Tiger. There is no question that he is the odds-on favorite for possibly doing that. But it’s one year.”

Nicklaus, who won 18 major championships, says a Woods victory at Augusta National certainly would be a triumph.

“To win the Masters, to hold all four at one time is unbelievable,” he said. “That’s fantastic. Nobody has any argument with that. And I think if you hold three at one time, that’s great too.

“I held three at one time, only because the PGA was played in February in 1971 [and in 1972]. I won the Masters and the U.S. Open and then I went to the British Open and ended up losing that by a shot. So I came within a shot of holding all four of them at the same time.”

So, if Tiger wins the Masters and holds all four major titles at the same time, is that a Grand Slam?

“I don’t think I am the guy to determine that,” Nicklaus said. “Don’t ask me that question. I mean, it is a Grand Slam. You know, a Grand Slam is winning all four of them in one year. What is your year? Calendar or fiscal? . . . I don’t know. It would be pretty special, whatever it is.”

And thank you too, Jack for clearing it up.

Perhaps the easiest way to end this discussion is for Woods to win the Masters and then the three other majors this year. That would do it.

At least Woods maintains a sense of humor about the whole thing.

He admitted that when he first considered the Grand Slam, he thought of it in one calendar year.

“Yeah, I did,” Woods said. “But looking at the trophies that I have on my mantel, three are lined up. Put another one on there and it looks pretty good.”

Grand, in fact.

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Tiger Woods in 2001

The 2001 U.S. PGA Tour season record of Tiger Woods, who tries to become the first player to win the four major professional titles in a row when the Masters begins today:

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Event Under-Par Score Place Mercedes Championship 12-under 280 Tied for 8th Phoenix Open 13-under 271 Tied for 5th AT&T; Pebble Beach 8-under 280 Tiedfor 13th Buick Invitational 17-under 271 4th Nissan Open 5-under 279 Tied for 13th Bay Hill Invitational 15-under 273 Won Players Championship 14-under 274 Won

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