Redefining His Sport : Everytime That Tiger Woods Responds to the Challenges, Golf Must Ante Up and the Stakes Are Getting Mighty High

Periodically, sports demolishes our expectations of what is possible. As much as anything, that’s why we keep watching. And that’s why we can’t take our eyes off Tiger Woods now. Within golf, he’s redefining human limits.

Can he win on tour? Yes. Can he win a major? Yes. Can he break the Masters scoring record as a rookie? Yes. Can he win PGA Tour events back-to-back? Yes. Can he take a month’s vacation and still win with “my C-plus game?” Yes. Can he fix his swing in the middle of a disastrous round? Yes. Can he chip, putt and strategize so well that he can win even when he can’t groove his swing? Yes.

Every time Tiger answers a question in the affirmative, the world of golf has to up the ante. And, the stakes are getting mighty high, mighty fast.

Woods has now won five of the 12 tour events he’s entered since October. With each passing month, his dominance seems greater. Those who play against him head-to-head mysteriously go into huge slumps as though sapped by the experience. “What’s his ‘A Game’? Forty under par?” asked one beaten foe.

The measure of a new champion is the stature of the old champion he seeks to surpass. Cal Ripken matters because, long ago, the sports world decided Lou Gehrig mattered enormously. Tiger is now aiming higher than any Iron Horse.

No American athlete has dominated his game more than Jack Nicklaus. In recent years, he was named Golfer of the Century by virtually every publication in the game. Maybe we should have waited until the century was finished.

Even with the best of luck, it’ll take many years for Woods to pass Nicklaus’s 20 major championships. It’s a lifetime project, as Woods has recognized since childhood when he put a chart of Nicklaus’s achievements beside his bed.

Still, it’s not too soon to start putting the first nine months of Woods’s pro career into historical perspective: Nobody has begun this fabulously since Horton Smith won five events at age 20 in 1928, then won eight times in 1929.

Let’s not laugh at Horton Smith. He won a couple of Masters, including the first one. But let’s not take him too seriously, either. Wins were cheaper then. Once, the pro tour was so thin in talent, below the top echelon, that Byron Nelson won 18 tournaments in a season while Ben Hogan won 13 and Sam Snead had a year with 11. Long ago, all that changed. Since 1950, only three men have won even seven events in one year. And the most is just eight, by Arnold Palmer in 1960 and Johnny Miller in 1974.

Here’s the point: By winning five of his first 16 events on tour, Woods has opened the possibility that he may soon dominate his sport more completely than anybody--Nicklaus, Palmer, Tom Watson--in more than 45 years. Considering the strength of modern fields, with players drawn from all over the world, Woods may soon rule his game more impressively than anybody ever.

In addition, Woods is on the verge of bossing golf to a greater degree as a 21-year-old rookie than Jack or Arnie could at any stage in their careers. Bring on the facts.

Nicklaus is the baseline for all comparisons. How often did he win? When he was at his hottest, how complete was his domination? How fast was his start? The Bear’s prime lasted from 1962 through 1978. In 333 tour events in that period, he had 65 wins: 20%. In the majors, he was even better, winning 15 of 68: 22%. Palmer’s record during his peak seasons is fairly close. From ’56 through ‘71, he won 58 of 399 tournaments: 15%. Nobody else in five decades has won even 10% of his career tour starts.

Nicklaus’s best two seasons came back-to-back in 1972 and ‘73: seven wins each season. So, for both years, he was 14 for 37 for 38%. Palmer had a four-year stretch (’60 through ‘63) when he won 27 times in 90 starts: 30%. Only Watson, for three years from ’78 through ‘80, belongs in this category: 16 for 64 or 25%.

Finally, the most impressive rookie of modern times has been Nicklaus. At age 22, he won the U.S. Open and had three titles in 26 starts.

(The only European in this company is Steve Ballesteros with 54 wins on the PGA European Tour. Though he’s dominated his continent, Ballesteros has only six U.S. wins in 20 years.)

So, how does Woods compare to Jack, Arnie and Tom? Last September, in his first four events, Tiger got better each week, finishing 60th, 11th, fifth and third. How’s that for a learning curve? By October, he not only won his first title, but won again two weeks later.

What’s most staggering about Woods is that he might, just might, keep up his ridiculous 5-for-12 victory pace--over 40%--since his first win last year at Vegas.

Lots of Tiger fans are new to golf and don’t realize how dazzling his wins are to others in his sport. Since ‘80, only eight

players have been able to win four

events in any year. Only Nick Price in 1994 has won five.

The conventional wisdom, which Nicklaus endorsed, is that fields are now too deep for anybody ever to be dominant again.

Apparently, it’s time for a shift.

Watson said that a great golfer had to play like he was in a rubber room. From the first tee to the 18th cup, nothing could distract him. Right now, the whole world is Woods’s rubber room.

“The demands on my time have grown exponentially. It’s been amazing. I’ve had to learn the magic word ‘no’ and say it as nicely as possible,” said Woods before the Nelson. Then he added the words that will matter most in a sport that has always and will always measure careers over decades, not months.

“People still fail to realize why I’m out here. I’m here to win tournaments. . . . I haven’t lost sight of my objective.”

Not yet. Maybe not ever.