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Tiger takes aim at a rare major double

Woods has a shot to be the fifth to win the Masters and U.S. Open in one year.

By BOB HARIG, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 12, 2002

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. -- Forget about the Grand Slam. How about just getting halfway there?

To win all four of golf's major championships in the same season, you must, of course, win the first two. Sounds simple enough.

Yet it has happened just five times -- Ben Hogan did it twice -- since the Masters was first played in 1934, and not in 30 years. Jack Nicklaus, in 1972, was the last player to win the Masters and U.S. Open in the same season.

Tiger Woods is the only player with the opportunity this year.

For all the talk about the three-time Masters champion running the table to win the first modern Grand Slam, it can't really become a hot topic unless Woods wins the 102nd U.S. Open, which begins Thursday at Bethpage State Park.

"Well, I've done four in a row before, but it would be nice to do four in a row in the same year," Woods said. "It would be different than how I did it the last time."

Woods, who has won five of the past eight major championships, won four in a row from the 2000 U.S. Open through the 2001 Masters. He joined Hogan (1953) as the only players to win three majors in a year and added the Masters the next spring to become the first to win four in a row.

The Tiger Slam, it has been called.

For all his success, Nicklaus accomplished the Masters-U.S. Open double just once and lost to Lee Trevino by a stroke at the British Open at Muirfield that year. Arnold Palmer, who won the first two in 1960, finished second at the British Open, a stroke behind Kel Nagle.

In the past 42 years two players have captured the first two majors, and they were two of the greatest in history.

That's why the feat rarely is discussed. "It used to be laughable," PGA Tour player Brad Faxon said.

Woods has a way of changing things. At 26 he has completed a career Grand Slam and has seven major titles.

"Nothing is out of his reach," Faxon said. "Nobody's been able to handle pressure like this guy. I'm a believer."

When Woods won the Masters in April, he held off five of the next six players behind him in the world rankings, including defending Open champion Retief Goosen, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh.

Woods needed only a final-round 71 at Augusta National to win by three strokes.

"There were a bunch of guys, and I'm talking about some good players, very good players, who were looking over their shoulders," Nicklaus said of this year's Masters. "They couldn't find a way to get it done because they were more worried about someone else than they were about themselves."

Els, who was within three of the lead on the closing nine, made a poor decision at the 13th hole that led to triple-bogey 8. Singh made quadruple-bogey 9 at the 15th. Mickelson faded after a brief early charge.

"It is a very difficult challenge to compete against him," Mickelson said of Woods. "He is able to do things with the golf ball that not many can even envision. It's a wonderful challenge."

Els, No.3 in the world and two-time U.S. Open champ, said it's hard for other top players to forget about Woods.

"Jack's right," Els said. "I think guys get sucked into Tiger's game plan. Especially guys who consider themselves close to his level. At the same time I'm sure he doesn't play against me or Mickelson or the rest of the players. He goes out there and plays the golf course.

"That's why there's such a big gap. I think guys have found themselves playing to his level, or at least trying, and are competing against him instead of against themselves or the golf course."

Perhaps that is the best defense against Woods. Although he set a major-championship record when he won the 2000 U.S. Open by 15 strokes, other Open venues have not been that kind to him. Other than a tie for third in 1999 Woods has failed to crack the top 10 in the Open. He was 12th last year and finished tied for 19th in 1997 after winning the Masters each year.

Woods also has been spotty with the putter. He ranks 135th on the PGA Tour in putting at 1.717 strokes per hole and is 164th in putts per round with 29.75.

Still, he won the Bay Hill Invitational and the Masters and is the only PGA Tour player this year with two victories.

"To be honest, the only thing I can do is go out there and play and give it my best," he said. "For my own expectations level, I come to every tournament to try and win. And that's what I'm going to try and do again this week."

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