Tiger Woods is 25 today. It is an age when most of the game's leading players were only finding their feet in professional ranks. Yet Woods, with five major professional titles to his credit, has already earned sufficient money to send himself and 100 of his colleagues into comfortable retirement.
By the time they reached 25 . . .
Bobby Jones (on March 17th 1927) had won two US Opens (1923 and 1926), one British Open (1926) and two US Amateurs (1924 and 1925).
Ben Hogan (on August 13th 1937) was impoverished and nine years away from his first major title.
Jack Nicklaus (on January 21st 1965) had won the US Amateur twice (1959 and 1961), the US Open (1962), the US Masters (1963) and the USPGA (1963). But he would be 26 before securing all four professional majors with a British Open triumph at Muirfield.
Seve Ballesteros (on April 9th, 1982) had won the British Open (1979) and the US Masters (1980). Through his victory in the USPGA Championship at Valhalla last August, Woods set a record for the most money earned in a single season on the American Tour, which still had almost three months to run. He became the first player to successfully defend the USPGA since it changed to strokeplay in 1958 and the first player since Hogan in 1953 to win three major championships in the same year.
At 24 years, seven months and 21 days, he was the youngest to capture five "majors", breaking the mark set by Nicklaus (26 years, two months and 21 days) in winning the 1966 US Masters. In the process, he won the US Open by 15 strokes, the British Open by eight and the USPGA after a play-off with Bob May.
After his victory at Pebble Beach, Woods was asked: "How good do you think you are?" His reply was typically modest. "I'll try to keep improving and I will probably have a better understanding when I'm 60 years old. By then, I would be able to look back at my peak and how long by prime was. You really don't know until you go through it."
Only a few weeks later, through the enterprise of J P McManus, he was playing in a charity pro-am at Limerick GC. Then came the British Open at St Andrews where, on the final day, Royal and Ancient captain, Sir Michael Bonallack was moved to comment: "It was my first chance to watch him (Woods) closely. He played ultra safe for the first nine holes of the last round, then cut loose. He has total control, is a great striker of the ball and is highly intelligent."
At Valhalla, Tom Watson enthused: "We are witnessing a phenomenon here that the game may never, ever see again." Even Woods spoke extravagantly about his protracted duel with May, saying: "It's been an incredible battle. Shot for shot, that's as good as it gets." All the while, Nicklaus was drawn repeatedly into a sequence of events unprecedented in tournament golf. And typically, the Bear succeeded in reducing Woods's achievements to the very essence of competitive play.
"Every time I turn on the television, he holes a putt," he said, slightly bemused. "I swear I turned on the television seven or eight times during the US Open and all I saw was him walking after a 30-footer and picking it out of the hole. When you putt like that, the game becomes awful easy."
We await the next phase in what has become an extraordinary dominance. In the meantime, Happy Birthday, Tiger.
Quote: "You see too many serious-looking golfers these days: I would like to see golfers smile more. And all beginners must be helped to understand how to behave on the course." - John Uzielli, captain of the R and A for 2001.
