TOUR NEWS:IN THE company of Colin Montgomerie a couple of weeks back, prior to Tiger Woods's latest dominant performance at the WGC Accenture Matchplay, the question of whether or not Woods could win the Grand Slam of all four majors this year was, not for the first time or the last, raised over the lunch table.
Monty didn't ponder too long. "He's due a win at Augusta," he observed, noting that Tiger's last green jacket was won back in 2005. "US Open at Torrey Pines? Yes. US PGA at Oakland Hills? Yes. In fact, the only thing that could stop him winning all four majors might be his tee time at Royal Birkdale (for the British Open), if he gets the wrong side of the draw."
In short, it could take the mercurial weather gods to derail Woods where mere mortals have failed in recent months. Certainly, the evidence of recent months is that Woods has moved onto yet a higher level than he even attained in accomplishing the so-called "Tiger Slam" in 2001, when his win in the Masters gave him all four majors at the one time.
This latest stellar performance from Woods in claiming his third Accenture crown and the 15th world golf championship title of his career (in 26 appearances), would indicate the world number one's hunger to win remains as insatiable as ever; and, perhaps, it is worth noting that, in the six months alone since he won the Bridgestone Invitational last August, he has won almost double the prizemoney that Jack Nicklaus claimed in his entire career.
Since retaining the Bridgestone at Akron, Woods has gone on a streak that has seen him win eight of the nine tournaments he played in. The exception was the Deutsche Bank championship, when he finished second.
In that run of nine tournaments, he has amassed over $9 million in prizemoney, compared to the total career earnings of $5.7 million that Nicklaus accumulated in a career that spanned 25 years. Using the money barometer again, it should be noted that Woods has won over $19.8 million in world golf championship events alone since their inception, and has so far earned $78.8 million in career earnings.
As Stewart Cink, the vanquished other player in the final of the Accenture pointed out after his defeat, you can use statistics all you like but they just confirm one thing. "He's the best that's ever played," said Cink, adding: "I think maybe we ought to slice him open to see what's inside there . . . maybe nuts and bolts."
If there are times that Woods resembles a machine, it is his mental attitude as much as anything that has elevated him to the level he has attained in the game.
Woods is now more than double the points average ahead of Phil Mickelson, the world's number two ranked player: 21.24 points to 10.11, which means there is a bigger gap between Woods and Mickelson than there is between Mickelson and the last ranked player in the world!
In the aftermath of his win over Cink, Woods provided evidence his win streak (now up to four straight tournaments on the US Tour but up to six when including the Target World Challenge and the Dubai Desert Classic) would provide more inspiration.
He remarked: "I love winning and I hate losing. But, you know, that's how my father was. My father was the same way. Anyone who knows my mom (would know), my mom is probably more fiery than my dad. That's kind of the household I grew up in. We were always competitive.
"You never backed down to anyone. And that's the fun part about competing, it's the fun thing about playing sports.
"My dad, in his former occupation, you back down, you die. So you can't have that mentality."
Woods also refuted suggestions that, maybe, he had peaked too soon in the season. "I've got a plateful to work on . . . you can always get better, you can always keep improving. Golf is fluid, it's always evolving and always changing. You work hard on the short game, then you lose your long game.
"Work on your long game, then you don't putt well. You don't putt well, you work on your putting, all of a sudden you lose your long game. It's just one of those things, you always have to keep a handle on every single facet of the game.
"And a lot of times you just don't feel like there's enough time in the day for that because there's so much that you have to do in order to improve and there's so much you have to do to get better and so many things that you have to do to keep a handle on things."
No evidence of a slow-down from Tiger, so. Indeed, when asked if he felt he could win every tournament he played in, Woods responded: "That's my intent. That's why you play. If you don't believe you can't win an event, don't show up."
Woods isn't expected to play again until the Bay Hill Invitational at Orlando next month, a tournament he won on four consecutive occasions from 2000 to 2003.