Woods only getting into the swing

The really scary thing about Tiger Woods is that he just gets better and better. "He's probably the most recognisable sportsman on the planet right now," remarked Ernie Els, a player mauled and mentally scarred by the Tiger's exploits throughout the millennium year.

Truth is, Woods - the world's number one golfer - is on a different planet to everybody, especially when it comes to playing the majors. When the stakes were at their highest in 2000, he delivered: Tiger finished a record 15 strokes ahead of his closest pursuers in the US Open at Pebble Beach; he was eight strokes ahead of the rest in winning the British Open at St Andrews; and he was 18-under-par for the four rounds of the US PGA at Valhalla, where he eventually beat Bob May in a play-off.

His win at St Andrews made him, at 24, the youngest winner of the career Grand Slam. Nobody was surprised. In joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus in that elite club, Woods was fulfilling a sense of destiny. And, if you are to believe his father Earl, he's only just got started. In the week of the British Open, Earl was asked if his training of Tiger was finished? "No," he replied, "the painting isn't complete . . . there's more scenery that has to be filled in, some smoothing of the rough edges. Besides, I haven't signed it yet."

So, you see, there is more to come.

What Tiger Woods delivered this past year, however, was truly astounding. If he was usurped at the US Masters at Augusta National (when Vijay Singh became the only other major winner of the year), the rest of the season was all about one man and his victory trail on one continent after another. By season's end, he won nine times on the US Tour, including the British Open, plus wins in Thailand and South America, and earned prize-money of almost $10 million.

In Tiger Woods, we're all privileged to be observing someone special. As Tom Watson said during the year: "Someday I'll tell my grandkids I played in the same tournament as Tiger Woods. We are witnessing a phenomenon here that the game may never, ever see again." His win at Pebble Beach was certainly phenomenal. Woods was the first wire-to-wire winner of the championship in 30 years, but, more than that, his dominance was not just of one tournament, rather of the sport itself. In testing conditions on the cliff-top course on the Pacific's Monterey Peninsula, Woods showed he possessed shot-making imagination to go with his flawless swing and also the mental resolve to make pressure putts.

As if to show some human frailty, Woods even suffered a triple-bogey at the fourth hole in Saturday's third round. By the day's end, he had still earned a 10stroke lead to carry into Sunday's final round. "Who knows where he will go from here?" wondered Els in the aftermath of a mauling which saw him share the runners-up place with Miguel Angel Jimenez, all of 15 shots behind the champion.

"All week, I've had a sense of calm," remarked Woods. "Whatever happened I was able to stay focused and concentrate on every shot." The win enabled Woods to beat the 138-year-old record for the size of victory in a major championship, established by Old Tom Morris in the 1862 British Open when he won by 13 shots. But it also put him just one win - the British Open - away from achieving the career Grand Slam.

St Andrews, the home of golf, in July was tailor-made for Woods. Very little wind and hard, fast fairways meant that Woods had his destiny in his own hands. Yet, it was indicative of his sublime course management that he didn't once visit any of St Andrews 112 bunkers in the four days of play.

Each day, as players trooped off the 18th green, filed into the recorder's hut and out again to face the assembled media who had come from all over the globe, the talk was of Tiger, Tiger, Tiger. Past champions like Watson shook their heads and talked of how he was playing a different game to everyone else. And they meant it.

Woods was the only player in the field to shoot four rounds in the 60s. Having trailed Els by one shot after day one, he was three ahead of the field after day two and was six in front at the end of the third round. By the time Woods, with his omnipresent smile displaying rows of ivory teeth and his trademark red top (his power colour), walked to the recorder's hut for the last time on Sunday evening, he had stretched his winning lead to eight shots. His final round 69 for a 19-under-par total of 269 meant he beat Nick Faldo's championship record over the Old Course and he had also become the youngest career Grand Slam winner and secured his place in golfing history.

What else was there to do? Why, retain his US PGA title, of course. After the seaside strolls of Pebble Beach and St Andrews, the defence in Valhalla was different. There, Bob May emerged as the unlikely hero of the underdogs.

In Sunday's final round, Woods found himself two shots behind with 12 holes to play. What did he do? He played the rest of the journey home in seven-under-par to force a play-off with May. In the three-hole showdown, Woods combined the majestic with the mundane and scrambled to victory. But it counted as another major, the fifth of his career and the third of the year.

Not since Ben Hogan in 1953 had any player won three majors in a season, but Woods in 2000 moved the bar to a new level. According to US Tour chief Tim Finchem, Woods may be the "most admired, most successful, most popular athlete in the world", but there doesn't seem to be any end to his hunger for glory . . . And that is why his fellow professionals are wondering how they can pursue him so that they are not left even further behind.