Sporting Thoughts
TIGER WOODS' RECENT triumph at the US Masters to record an unparalleled fourth consecutive major victory, has provoked frenzied discussion among sports fans across the world. Can it be said that Woods has won the Grand Slam, bearing in mind his feat was spread across two seasons? Is he the greatest golfer the world has seen? Indeed, is he the greatest sportsman of all time?
In dealing with the first of these questions, professional golfers themselves seem to be divided over what constitutes the legendary grand slam. Although a largely artificial title - there is, after all, no special prize for any player to hold all four trophies simultaneously - its status has been raised by the fact it has become an elusive honour.
Arnold Palmer has been the most vocal in declaring that all four majors must be won in a calendar year for the grand slam to be claimed. Meanwhile Woods himself states "if you can line up all four trophies on your coffee table, you've got a pretty good claim to the Grand Slam."
To side with the old master over the young maestro, over the years the golf Grand Slam has always been regarded as similar to the tennis Grand Slam with importance attached to its completion in a calendar year.
This is not to take anything away from the 'Tiger Slam' - the most remarkable achievements in all the time I have been watching sport - and one of my most fervent hopes for the sporting summer ahead is that Woods does go on to win the next three majors to end all arguments.
Unsurprisingly, the exploits of Woods lead to comparison with the performances of the great golfing sportsmen of the past. Of course, with 'only' six major championships to his name he is still a distance behind Nicklaus' record of 18, which drives him on so relentlessly, although the statistics of the equivalent stage of Nicklaus' career makes extremely similar reading.
His influence off the course is strikingly similar to the money and new faces that Palmer helped to bring to the game in the late Fifties and early Sixties. There is no doubt he has the all-round game to become the greatest not simply in terms of statistics of tournements won, but also in popular opinion.
His consistently brilliant driving, iron play and recovery shots allied to an incredible ability, possessed seemingly only by the great, to hole vital putts at the right time, give him a psychological hold over his opponents that is rarely broken.
My advice to you is to sit back for the next decade or so and watch a sporting phenomenon at work, by the end of which time there could be another name to put alongside Muhammed Ali when considering not only impact on the sporting world, but on society as a whole.
3rd May 2001