Philip Reid looks back on a year that saw Tiger Woods re-established as the undisputed number one
"Under the circumstances, it's one of the best (shots) I've ever hit," said Tiger Woods of his chip-in (left and above) from off the back of the 16th green for a birdie in the final round of The Masters, at a time when his closest challenger, Chris DiMarco, had an uphill birdie putt. "I was just trying to throw the ball up there on the hill and let it feed back down and hopefully have a makeable putt."
Instead, the ball edged its way to the hole, before stopping on the lip for a couple of seconds and, then, finally falling in for birdie. "Somehow an earthquake happened and it fell in the hole," said Woods, who overshot the green with his tee shot. With the ball close to the first cut of rough, Woods chipped onto the ridge on the green and watched as the ball slowly and tantalisingly rolled down the slope and dropped into the hole for a birdie.So, after all, the obituaries were premature. In this year, the death notices were torn up and shredded, consigned to rubbish bins. Instead of scratching our heads and wondering why on earth Tiger Woods should reconstruct a swing that once upon a time had made him great, we were left to shake our heads in wonderment as the chosen one proved his doubters wrong and regained his mantle as the world's number one golfer, a genuine great.
These days, for the every elite golfer, a year's work is determined around one prime factor. How did you do in the majors? Although the close season in golf is effectively non-existent, with players able to compete somewhere for virtually every week of the year, it is the four majors - the US Masters, the US Open, the British Open and the US Open - that really matter.
In the case of Woods, the Grand Slam eluded him. But, boy, he went close with a sequence of 1st-2nd-1st-4th in the four majors that re-established him as the best golfer on the planet. No more walking in Vijay Singh's shadow.
After a period of almost three years since his last win in a major, Woods chose the hallowed ground of Augusta National in April to return from limbo and he was also to raise the most cherished trophy of them all, the claret jug, above his head once again at St Andrews.
But first things first, and the Woods renaissance was first unfurled at Augusta National. At times it was imposing, yet at other times there were hints of human frailty. It's what you expect when destiny is decided by a duel, by two men going head-to-head.
A tournament that began in stop-start fashion as the weather gods fashioned thunderstorms to disrupt ended with Woods and Chris DiMarco - who had led after the first round - as the only two men standing and forced to undergo extra holes.
After day one, Woods had languished no fewer than seven shots adrift of DiMarco. His mortality was best demonstrated by what happened on the 13th green of that first round, when an eagle putt rolled off the putting surface and into Rae's Creek and resulted in a bogey.
Oh, what a hoot, we thought. But, in the end, he was to have the last laugh, defeating DiMarco with a birdie at the first hole of sudden death and slipping the 44-inch green jacket onto his shoulders with tears welling in his eyes as he thought of his ill father, Earl.
It was raw emotion, and it was so, so human. It was an insight into the real Mr Eldrick - the man known as Tiger - Woods, and it was as heart-warming as his golf. In dedicating this latest major win of his career to his father, Woods remarked: "His health has been pretty bad all year, he's struggling . . . (but) he's as stubborn as can be, so he's going to fight through it.
"He's hanging in there and that's why it meant so much for me to be able to win this tournament, maybe give him a little hope, a little more fire to keep fighting."
More than anything, Woods saw the win at Augusta as "validation" for the swing changes he had undertaken with coach Hank Hainey.
When asked if he felt his swing was now where he wanted it to be, he replied: "I don't think you're ever there. You never arrive. If you do, you might as well quit because you're already there and you can't get any better . . . as players, you should never have that moment. You're always trying to get better. I'll never be there."
On yet another magical Sunday to remember in his decade-long professional career, Woods took another giant step in his quest to one day overtake Jack Nicklaus as the winner of most professional majors in a career. Nicklaus has 18, Tiger had won nine. By the time he left St Andrews in July, he would have brought that number to 10. Before then, though, the US Open at Pinehurst No2 had contrived to produce a most unexpected winner in Michael Campbell.
In the gathering gloom of that late Sunday evening in June, the Kiwi clutched the proof of his deliverance and occasionally would move his fingers over the names of previous winners engraved on the trophy, those of Nicklaus, Hogan, Woods. From having no card back in 1998 and relying on sponsors' invites, a whole new world had opened for him. The win earned him a five-year exemption on the PGA Tour, an exemption into the US Open for 10 years, and five-year exemptions into the US Masters, the British Open, the US PGA and the Players Championship.
Golfing life hasn't always been easy for Campbell, who first burst onto the scene in the 1995 British Open and led by two strokes going into the final round, only to close with a 76 and finish third behind John Daly. Tough times followed.
After his brush with glory at the British Open, he suffered a wrist injury that set him back several years and wreaked havoc with his swing. He lost his tour cards and lost interest in the game.
"In '98, I was shooting 80s all the time, close to the 90s. I just could not play the game. I could not focus on what I was doing. I could not swing the golf club.
"Luckily enough, I got a few invites and regained my card for both tours. Emotionally, it's been a bit of a roller-coaster," conceded Campbell, who closed out with a 69 for level-par 280 for a two-shot winning margin over Woods.
On a quite remarkable day's golf in North Carolina, Retief Goosen, who had carried a three-shot lead into the final round, suffered freefall and finished with an 81.
"From the second hole on (which he double bogeyed), I got on the wrong side of the golf course and I got bitten," said Goosen.
Campbell, who had started the final round four shots behind, became the first qualifier since Steve Jones in 1996 to win the US Open. The Kiwi earned his place in the field after coming through the international qualifying at Walton Heath in England two weeks previously and came in under the radar at Pinehurst. He missed the cut in his first five events on the European Tour this season, and became only the second New Zealander (after Bob Charles in the British Open in 1963) to win a major.
By the time of the British Open, it was back to a familiar story; that of trying to catch Woods. But he evaded the clutches of everyone on a course that plays to his strong points like no other.
In taking the 10th major title of his career, and his second British Open, the world's number one commanded the Old Course at St Andrews as if the hollows and swales created by Mother Nature were tailor-made just for him.
In shooting a final round 70 for 274, 14 under par, Woods was claiming the claret jug for the second successive time at St Andrews. Unlike his last title win in 2000, this was different yet equally dominant, a wire-to-wire win.
This time, he didn't avoid the course's 112 bunkers throughout the four days and, this time, he didn't have an eight-stroke winning margin. He had a mere five shots to spare, with Colin Montgomerie closest to him but really nowhere close.
What Woods did do was to reaffirm his supremacy. With Jack Nicklaus using this championship to bid farewell to the majors, it was truly fittingthat Woods - completing what has become affectionately known as the "Jack Slam" by winning at each of Nicklaus's valedictory majors - became just the second player in history to win each of the four majors more than once.
Nicklaus was the first to accomplish the feat. "To have won it twice and complete my career Grand Slam twice (at St Andrews), it doesn't get any sweeter than that," Woods was to remark.
Somewhat fittingly, the US PGA at Baltusrol in August also produced a pillar-to-post winner. Rather than the traditional Sunday evening finish, Phil Mickelson had to wait until returning to the course on Monday for unfinished business to claim the second major of his career, birdieing the 72nd hole - his 276th stroke - for a one-shot win over Thomas Bjorn and Steve Elkington, becoming the first player since Payne Stewart in 1989 to win the PGA by a stroke with a birdie on the final green.
"You're halfway to the career Grand Slam," someone told him. "It's hard for me to look that far ahead yet . . but that's certainly a long-term goal, to get the other two," replied Mickelson, adding: "Right now, I just want to savour this. It was one of the most stressful tournaments for me because I was on the lead or tied every night."
Finally, though, it would seem Mickelson has learned how to live with stress. A bit like Tiger, really.
