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Tiger Woods exposes class gap
In a casual aside on Sunday,
Tiger Woods unwittingly exposed the gap between himself and the
rest of the human race.
Running through the card
of his epochal Masters final round, the 18 holes which made him
the first man to win each of the four professional majors in succession,
Woods reflected on saving par at the 10th.
"I hit a good three-wood
off the tee," he said. "Unfortunately I had some mud on my ball
and it was on the front right of the ball.
"And I was thinking, well,
if I hit it on the front right part of the ball it usually makes
it go a little bit left. And I tried to hit a cut shot to hold it
but it took off and it tumbled."
Such precision and attention
to detail is uncommon in any sport. It is unusual in any walk of
life.
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Woods
acknowledges the crowd on the final hole. Allsport.
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Unfortunately for such fine
contemporary golfers as David Duval and Phil Mickelson, second and
third respectively on Sunday, Woods has chosen their exacting sport
to fulfill his destiny.
A desperately exciting
three-way tussle developed between the trio on Sunday but ultimately
it was Woods, enveloped in a cocoon of concentration, who prevailed
with the big shots at the crucial time.
"I'm amazed at the fact
I was able to play as well as I was able to play when I needed it,"
Woods said.
"I think that's where a
lot of the hard work goes into it, the hours that you spend by yourself
on the range, the putting green, chipping green, out on the golf
course late in the evening, making yourself work that extra bit
because you're probably going to need it."
Without ever playing at
his best Woods was nicely poised after the first two rounds before
easing into top position on the leader board on Saturday evening,
then promptly going out to the driving range to further hone his
game.
Nothing was left to chance,
as he revealed when discussing the shot he considered his best on
Sunday, a huge 300-yard-plus tee shot at the 13th.
"It's a shot I've been
practicing for the last couple of months, knowing that the fact
that I'm probably going to need that shot either on 13 or 14," he
said.
"I've been practicing using
the loft, making sure I have it right. I practiced on the range
all week just in case I might need it."
The fascination of golf
lies in the battle between man and the elements as much as the competition
between individuals. No man in the field had the combination of
Woods's physical gifts and mental strength, but even he is helpless
against the vagaries of the turf or the caprices of the wind.
Woods carded only two bogeys
Saturday, the second coming on the par-three 12th when he drove
into a bunker.
"I knew it was a perfect
eight iron, just a 150-yard eight iron," he said. "As soon as I
made contact with the ball I could feel the wind on the back of
my neck and I said 'Just please don't affect the ball' and you could
see it just push the ball a little bit which made it go in the back
bunker."
The lush green Augusta
National course, bathed in spring sunshine, provided the perfect
backdrop as Woods, watched by his mother and father, received the
winner's green jacket from 2000 champion Vijay Singh.
"Today was a very special
day," Woods told the spectators clustered around the 18th green.
"My mom and dad were out here and that makes it very special."
He was then escorted through
the crowds gathered around the clubhouse to the waiting battery
of television reporters, asking the question he has been subjected
to all week, namely how much did winning the Masters, U.S. and British
Opens and the PGA Championship mean?
"I didn't think as a kid
of winning four straight majors," Woods replied. "I did think of
competing with the best in the world and winning a major. I didn't
ever think of winning four in a row."
Woods's streak began with
the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach last year, followed by the British
Open at St Andrews then the PGA Championship at Valhalla, before
culminating at Augusta National, shrine to Bobby Jones who won a
grand slam in 1930. Jones, co-founder of Augusta National, won the
U.S. and British Opens and Amateur titles.
"Pebble Beach is probably
the greatest golf course we have over here," Woods said. "And St
Andrews is probably the greatest course in the world.
"And then to do it here,
which is probably one of the most historic sites in the world, it's
pretty neat. To win three of the four on probably the three sites
that you'd probably ever pick to win championships on," he marveled.
"I was in such a zone today,
working on every shot, working so hard on every shot. Then I walked
over to the side and I just started thinking, you know I don't have
any more shots to play. I'm done. I won the Masters.
"Some of the golfing gods
are looking down on me the right way."
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