Does golf need to be Tiger proofed ?

Tiger Woods's win today was a testament to his incomparable ability, but not much else.

Beginning with his opening-round 65, Woods served notice he can turn even the most severe U.S. Open test into a country club championship, complete with A, B, C and D flights.

Get ready to hear it again: Does golf need Tiger-proofing?

Without a serious challenger, he pushed deeper into red territory than any Open golfer had ever gone, maybe just to demonstrate that he could. His closest pursuers, Ernie Els and Miguel Angel Jimenez, came home with 3-over-par, 287 totals that would have been good enough to win a handful of previous Opens. At this one, that score was 15 strokes behind Woods.

It was harder to see this coming than Woods's breakthrough win in the majors at the 1997 Masters. Augusta National is no pushover, but with wide fairways, benign rough and gentle breezes, it will never be mistaken for Pebble Beach. The Masters rewards accuracy on the greens, but big hitters like Woods enjoy a considerable advantage everywhere else.

The Open is a different kind of beast. Its patron saint was Ben Hogan, who mastered the art of hitting fairways and greens, over and over, no matter how treacherous the surroundings. Hogan became so much the quintessential Open golfer that when the U.S. Golf Association needed a model to set up its courses, he became the man.

But Woods has made himself into that man, and if truth be told, into the man that must be considered every time a major championship course is set up. His skills are now so sharp and so varied that his game travels as smoothly as wheeled luggage. He can overpower courses, or pick them apart by hitting fairways and greens until the competition is dizzy. The most unusual thing about today may be that Woods did it with a few men uniquely qualified to tackle the Tiger-proofing question trailing close behind.

Next month Woods travels to the British Open at St. Andrews with a chance to complete a career Grand Slam at 24, two years younger than Jack Nicklaus when he managed the feat. Michael Bonallack retired last year as secretary of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club after spending years setting up British Open venues. He may have left the business just in time.

"You can't stop him by tricking up the course,'' Bonallack said. "What purpose would that serve? He's already proven he's the only one who could handle this place.

"Besides, championships are supposed to identify the best golfer in the world,'' Bonallack added. "There can't be an argument whether that was achieved this week.''

Walking alongside Bonallack were Tim Finchem, commissioner of the PGA Tour; Dick Ferris, who heads the consortium that bought Pebble Beach recently; and Dick Ebersol, president of NBC Sports, which televised the Open.

Woods has turned the other 200 golfers in Finchem's employ into extras in his personal highlight reel. His 12-under par score -- lowest ever in an Open -- made Ferris's jewel look ordinary, like those courses the PGA Tour regulars carve up after the car, phone and overnight delivery companies plant their logos alongside the 18th green. And just as Woods's dominance inflated Ebersol's telecasts, that quality could take much of the drama and most of the air out of the future.

But not one of them would change a thing.

Yet.

"I don't know how you'd do it anyway,'' Finchem said. "Longer? More punishing? That would just be more to his advantage."

Ferris was close by to see Woods's birdie try at No. 2 graze the lip of the cup, then slide by. The hole had been shortened by 20 yards and converted from a par-5 into a par-4 for this Open after a 100-year-old tree guarding the green was lost. Woods birdied the hole only once in four tries, but could have done so every day.

"We had reasons for changing No. 2, but if anything, the way he's played argues against Tiger-proofing,'' Ferris said. "One of the charms of the great venues is that you're playing against the greats of the past on the same ground. Why give that up?''

Ebersol pointed out that TV ratings have climbed steadily since Woods arrived on the scene. If anything, the audience is clamoring for more of Woods and his pyrotechnics, not less.

"Having benefitted for almost a decade from the dominance of a guy named Michael Jordan, I suspect we're fine for some time to come,'' he said. "We've had two athletes in my time -- Muhammad Ali and Jordan -- that draw fans from outside their sport.

"Every indicator we have says Tiger is the next one."

Changing the set up wouldn't help, either. Woods's opponent isn't the course anymore. It's history.