`It is the greatest achievement in golf in the modern era." - William (Hootie) Johnson. Talk about lefthanded compliments.

On the other hand, what did you expect the esteemed chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club to say? Even as historians debate the issue of whether Tiger Woods's accomplishments over the past 10 months constitute a Grand Slam or merely a clean sweep of the sport's four major championships, the revisionists are already at work.

Not that anybody really expected the purists at Augusta to accept Woods's feat as the equal of Bobby Jones's 1930 run - he won the US and British Amateur Championships and the US and British Opens - but as the vanquished Masters runner-up David Duval said in another connection on Sunday evening: "It's not even comparing apples and oranges. It's more like comparing apples and peanuts."

Duval was actually replying to an interrogator who had asked him to liken Woods's feat to Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, but the observation is appropriate when it comes to Jones as well.

You wouldn't want to say it very loud on the hallowed grounds of the botanical cathedral Jones (with a little help from Alister McKenzie) carved out of a fruit orchard in Augusta, but what Jones did in 1930 hardly compares with what Eldrick Woods has accomplished since last June - and the fact that Woods's four majors didn't all come in the same calendar year should have absolutely no bearing on the argument.

"If it's not a slam," said David Feherty when we discussed the subject earlier in the week, "it's only because it's even better than a slam."

Comparisons between Tiger's achievement and Jones's 1930 run are entirely misplaced, and here's why: professionals could not even compete in two of the four "majors" (the British and US Amateurs) Jones won. Not only did he not have to face the likes of Gene Sarazen, Walter Hagen and Henry Cotton in winning those two events, but the field he beat consisted of a bunch of doctors and lawyers like himself.

Jones circa 1930 shouldn't be the standard at all. No one has matched Tiger's run of four straight modern majors, but if you're looking for valid comparisons, what Ben Hogan did almost half a century ago is at least worthy of mention in the same breath. In 1953, Hogan won the Masters, US Open and British Open in an era when it was logistically impossible to play all four events. The USPGA, a matchplay tournament in those days, finished the day before the British Open began, and since Hogan was obliged to qualify at Carnoustie, he was playing a qualifying round on the day the PGA semi-final was taking place in Birmingham, Michigan.

As it happened, following his near-fatal car accident in 1949, Hogan forever eschewed the PGA Championship, but he couldn't have played in it that year even if he'd wanted to.

In any event, having, like Tiger, won three majors the year before, Hogan came to Augusta in 1954 gunning for another, and very nearly pulled it off, losing the championship in a play-off when Sam Snead chipped in for a birdie on the 10th. "It never occurred to me, and it certainly never occurred to Ben, that that would have constituted a Grand Slam or even for his fourth straight major," says Hogan's Boswell (and pallbearer) Dan Jenkins. "It wasn't in the same calendar year."

AS awe-inspiring as Tiger's run since last June has been, Jenkins believes a case can be made for Hogan's post-recuperative achievements having been comparable.

"After the accident, Ben played a very limited schedule, but he still won six majors - the US Open in 1950, the Masters and the US Open in '51, and the only three he played in '53 - in four years," says Jenkins. "Tiger has now won six in five years."

Hogan had won 11 of the 25 tournaments he played in 1948, the year before the accident, and in fact had two wins in four tries in 1949 before the head-on collision with a Greyhound bus which broke virtually every bone in his body.

The foremost medical specialists of his day predicted that, even if he did live, he would never play golf again. But in 1950 Hogan played four tournaments, and won two of them - including the US Open at Merion.

He played four events in 1951, and won three of them, including the Masters and the US Open at Oakland Hills. He had an off-year in 1952 with just one win in four tries, that in the Colonial in Texas, but bounced back the next year to set the standard that would go unrivalled for 47 years until Woods matched it last year.

In short, from the beginning of 1950 through the fall of 1953, Hogan entered just 18 tournaments, and won 11 of them - including six majors.

Whether Woods's achievement at Augusta last Sunday constitutes a bona fide Grand Slam may be debated by golfing purists for years to come; but then again, by the time he gets through, there may be no room for debate at all. Unlike Hogan, Tiger's streak isn't necessarily over yet. He could have seven-in-a-row by the time the year is out.