CADDIE'S ROLE:MOST OF you will recall a defining moment in your golfing career when you surpassed yourself. When you went beyond what you thought you were capable of which culminated in you beating your opponent, your own record or simply hitting a shot you never thought you could possibly hit.

Those who are not fortunate enough to have had this experience, be patient; one day it may happen. It will reaffirm why you bother going back out to play the game.

There is a golfer in America who does this virtually every time he plays. If he doesn't it is the exception, not the rule. Top golfers consistently make good decisions and tend to perform no matter what hardships are thrown at them, in good times and bad. They make the right decisions, they do the right thing, they make it happen.

We were in the spectacular and vast state of Arizona last week for the Accenture WGC Matchplay Championship. The scenery beyond the traditional stands, draped in advertising framing the holes, was like the landscape from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. If you shut your eyes you could hear the menacing whistling in the background.

Matchplay is an unusual form of golf for the modern professional who is almost mechanically prepared for four-round strokeplay golf. It is like a lottery trying to pick winners over 18 holes head-to-head where the top seeds play against the lesser; Tiger Woods played the 64th-seeded player JB Holmes, number two played the 63rd ranked golfer and so on.

The question "how?" sprung to my mind as I watched incredulously as Tiger Woods dug himself yet again out of the depths of a desert canyon that for most mortals was too steep to escape. Three down with five to play is never a great position to be in. The crowd thinned over the closing holes as they sensed a vanquished Woods. To those who don't know any better he may have been down. He didn't think he was out, though. He never does.

JB Holmes played excellent golf but he didn't "get it done", as they would say in the vernacular over here. We are frequently told about what separates the great from the good; quality of ball striking, length, sand play, chipping, putting, plane of the golf swing (if you ask a swing coach). The fact is at the level that was represented at Dove Mountain last week virtually all the players do all of the above mentioned attributes with aplomb. What really separates them is the intangible, unquantifiable, almost supernatural qualities that only Harrison Ford or Sylvester Stallone possess in the fantasy world of the big screen.

We seem to have our own fantasy man on tour in the shape of the greatest golfer that ever lived. (Apologies to those who still cling to nostalgic memory of Jack or Arnie as the greatest, Tiger is only half-way there and already he has accomplished so much.)

To indicate the great man's humility a journalist with a good relationship with Tiger whispered "lucky" to him as he made his way to the press room. To which he responded with a big grin on his face, "I know".

Sitting in the caddie shack having been beaten in the first round by the accomplished young Argentine Andres Romero and watching Woods' escapade amongst colleagues who live in the real world of professional golf was sobering. To experience their sense of expectation as they looked at Tiger crawl back to victory in a miraculous fashion is an indication of just how even my hardened fellow bagmen expect Tiger to succeed even in the most fatuous position.

Despite Tiger's intimacy with the desert during the week of the matchplay, in territory where the snakes play amongst the sagebrush and the saguaro cacti, he prevailed.

Was it karma, talent, good fortune, the position of the moon, timing or destiny? I don't know and I don't think anyone else does no matter how much they might try to persuade you with impressive rhetoric that they do.

With putts of 14, 17, 22 and 36 feet from the 14th culminating in three consecutive birdies and an eagle the world's best golfer went from three-down to one-up and his unfortunate opponent didn't get the option to make a mistake in the denouement to first round.

You can ask any expert from psychologists to coaches to make sense of what happened in the desert on Wednesday of last week and not one of them will convince me that it is anything other than the unquantifiable nature of humanity to look at a desperate situation and relish the thought of escaping from it or shudder at the prospect of the challenge and capitulate.

A friend of mine once asked Tiger about his ideal round of golf. How would it go? He had asked other top players the same question and got a fairly standard reply about good shots and birdie putts amounting to a 62.

With Tiger his vision was dramatically different. He would hit long drives and hole his approach shots. If it was remotely possible he would consider it a probable. He is an exceptionally talented dreamer whose dreams are realised often and always at the most opportune moment. Dreams have always been open to interpretation.

What I am saying is that Tiger would have prospered in the desert with nothing but a bag full of rattlesnakes and a state full of saguaro. How? Well I am going to ask all the experts I know this week to explain it and I am not anticipating any of them to have a feasible answer other than "Tiger".