GOLF: On Sunday evening, long after Tiger Woods had left the scene of his latest facile triumph to put whatever celebratory drink he desired into the claret jug, literally hundreds of common folk walked the first and 18th fairways of the Old Course.

It was a tranquil scene and, to a man and woman, each seemed blessed merely to have the chance to walk on the same ground as the man who is currently the greatest golfer on the planet.

In many ways, seeing so many people out on the fairways simply soaking in what had happened a few hours before re-emphasised what makes St Andrews special. It is a course of the people, with those resident in the university town having the opportunity to play the links time and time again for a ridiculously low annual fee.

Yet, throughout the four rounds, there was also considerable evidence that the old links is increasingly becoming obsolete in meeting the demands of modern major championships, with so many par fours reduced to long par threes.

Woods didn't agree with such an assessment. But, then, given the way his game suits the course more than any other, you'd expect he wouldn't.

"I certainly think it does," he replied, when asked if it still stood up as a test for major championship golf. "This golf course plays very hard, very fast . . . there are some courses you feel comfortable on and (for me) this is certainly one of them.

"I enjoy the lines here. I don't feel uncomfortable over any shot, look-wise. I fell in love with it the first time I played it."

So, Tiger's a fan. What would you expect? On the two times he has played here as a professional, he has won.

But the fallout from Woods's victory in this year's British Open is not so much that he won, but the manner of his victory. He won with seemingly total control by five strokes and, it appears, in this modern era he is the only player who can win by a sizeable margin in any of the majors.

Where most majors have been claimed by one or two strokes in recent years, Woods apart has shown he has the ability to decimate. He holds the record margin of victory in the US Masters (12 shots in 1997) and the US Open (15 shots at Pebble Beach in 2000).

Granted, there were larger margins of victory in golf's formative years in the British Open: Tom Morris Snr won the 1862 championship by 13, Tom Morris Jnr won the 1870 championship by 12 and JH Taylor won by eight shots on two occasions, in 1900 and 1913, as did James Braid by a similar margin in 1908.

But they were different times, and Woods's wins at St Andrews in 2000 and 2005 have come with margins of eight and five strokes respectively.

What's more, as if to confirm that Woods, who has increased his lead over Vijay Singh in the official world rankings to a four-point average, really is about changing the face of golf. He holds or shares the lowest 72-hole scores in relation to par in all four majors: 1997 - Masters (18-under-par); 2000 - US Open (12-under-par); 2000 - British Open (19-under-par); 2000 - US PGA (18-under-par, tied with Bob May).

As we've know for some time, though, the record he really wants to beat is the 18 majors held by Jack Nicklaus. To Wood's credit, whenever the subject is raised, he will always praise the Golden Bear for his accomplishments. On Sunday, in his post-championship conference, Woods observed that chasing Nicklaus's total would "take an entire career. It's not going to happen overnight. Jack took 25 years to win all 18 of his. It's going to take (me) a long time to win 18 major championships . . . Jack's been there that many times, and there's no player that's ever played the game that's been that consistent in the biggest events. And to have the opportunity to get to 10 already this soon in my career, it's very exciting to hopefully look forward to some good years in my 30s and hopefully in to my 40s."

Nicklaus knows the most intense competition for the game's elite comes from within. He thinks Woods is helped because the bar was raised higher for him than it was for Nicklaus, who had passed the previous record by the time he was 35. "That's the key - can Tiger keep his desire? My desire ebbed and flowed a lot past 35. I wanted to play, but I never really wanted to work that hard. If I had a record to beat, I think I would have won more majors . . . I think Tiger's work ethic is better than mine.

"He has been more single-minded. He doesn't have as many distractions, but I liked my distractions, which was spending time with my family. It's totally up to Tiger. If he wishes to break my record, I'll root for him. I think that would be a great thing for the game."

The next major up for Woods is the US PGA at Baltusrol next month, and he goes in with two wins (US Masters, British Open) and a second (US Open) from his three major appearances so far this season.

Woods has yet to play Baltusrol, but given the links with Nicklaus, who won two US Opens there, you can bet your bottom dollar that the world's number one will be up for the challenge.