Tiger Woods aiming to get even better in the future
No one saw this kind of year coming, except for Tiger Woods.
Ten months ago in Hawaii, before he hit his first shot of the season, Woods offered some insight into what makes him the best player in the world and why he reacts to so many incredible feats as if they were tap-in pars.
"I've always been a big believer that you never arrive, but it's a wonderful journey,'' Woods said on the eve of the Mercedes Championships. "You never put a limitation on your own abilities. If you put a limitation on it, you can't get any better."
Scary as it seems, the best may be yet to come.
While Woods has four tournaments left on his tour around the world -- Thailand, Hawaii, California, and Argentina -- golf's official season came to an end Sunday along the Costa del Sol in southern Spain.
And not the way Woods imagined.
With one last chance to become golf's first $10 million man and
its first 10-time winner in 50 years, Woods failed to make enough
birdie putts in the American Express Championship and was upended with a double bogey on the par-5 17th at Valderrama, one of golf's most cursed holes.
Instead, he had to settle for what will be argued was the greatest season in golf.
Woods won nine tournaments, the most in one season since Sam Snead won 11 times in 1950. He became the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three major championships in a season, and the 24-year-old became the youngest player to complete the career Grand Slam.
Not good enough?
He set scoring records in his three major championship victories -- 12-under par in the U.S. Open, 19-under in theOpen, and 18-under in the PGA Championship, which he won in a thrilling, three-hole playoff over Bob May.
And his most impressive record was completed Sunday with an even-par 72. His actual scoring average this year was 68.17, shattering the mark of 68.33 that Byron Nelson compiled in 1945.
Woods also became the first player to finish every PGA Tour event under par.
The only sour note of the year was the way it ended.
For the third consecutive week, Woods was within two strokes of the lead going into the final round and failed to win. Such are the expectations he now faces.
The World Golf Championship event instead went to Mike Weir, who
played brilliantly over the weekend with rounds of 65-69 and won by
two strokes over Lee Westwood.
It was an inspiring victory for the left-handed Canadian, who
only three years ago was playing in some tournaments back home
where the purse was less than $100,000. By winning Sunday, he
cashed a first-place check for $1 million.
More meaningful than the money was the field -- a collection of
the best players from around the world, especially the one at the
top.
"Any time Tiger plays in the tournament you win, it makes you
feel very good,'' Weir said. "He's far and away the best player
in the game right now. If he's in the field, he's always the man to
beat."
What Weir found the most impressive about Woods is not how many
times he won, but how many times Woods could have.
"He's always going to be right there,'' Weir said.
Perhaps the only way to stop him is the tag-team method. Duffy
Waldorf sneaked up from behind with a 62 to win at Disney three
weeks ago. Phil Mickelson -- the other lefty -- played in the group
ahead and closed with a 66 to win the Tour Championship.
This time it was Weir who applied the pressure by hitting 32 out
of 36 greens over the final two rounds on a nonsensical course that
has cork trees in the fairways.
"That's just the nature of golf,'' Weir said when asked about
Woods' failure to win the last three weeks. "He was on a
tremendous run -- and still is.''
The next question is where Woods will go from here.
The first stop was London for a clinic today at Hyde Park, then
the Johnnie Walker Classic in Thailand, then the PGA Grand Slam of
Golf for the major championship winners. Given that Woods won three
of them, the PGA of America had to find two substitutes.
He plays his Williams World Challenge in Thousand Oaks, Calif., the week after Thanksgiving then hooks up with David Duval for the World Cup in Argentina.
Woods's 2001 season will start with the Mercedes Championships in
Hawaii, a new year with more room to improve.
It is difficult to imagine how Woods can get better. He had a
3-over 73 in the first round of the GTE Byron Nelson Classic -- mark the date down as May 11 -- and never had another round over par the rest of the year.
Then again, Woods revamped his swing after winning the 1997 Masters by a record 12 shots. He was never satisfied with hitting long and scoring low. He wanted a swing that would contend anywhere, any week, against anybody.
There are no limits to what he can do. And so far, it's been quite a journey.
