ALTHOUGH Jack Nicklaus' haul of 18 professional majors was long considered as close to untouchable as any sporting record ever gets – on a par with Byron Nelson's 11 consecutive PGA Tour wins in 1945 or boxer Rocky Marciano's 49 consecutive heavyweight victories during an unbeaten career – the bookmakers now think so little of the phenomenal mark set by the Golden Bear that Tiger Woods, currently on 12, was an unbackable 1/12 yesterday to accumulate 19 or more major titles.
Understandably impressed by the manner in which he came from behind at the Desert Classic in Dubai, carding 31 on the back nine to shoot 65 and win his fifth consecutive tournament, the odds makers were also offering a miserly 12-1 against Woods winn
ing all four majors this summer. No professional, of course, has won the Grand Slam before and Woods was a more realistic 50/1 to accomplish the feat as recently as the end of last season.
Perhaps taking note of how Tiger has won seven of his past eight events – he was runner-up in the other – the bookies were not exactly seized by generosity when they offered 100/1 against the world No1 winning every event he tees up in this season. And if you fancied a flutter on him at Augusta for the Masters, he's priced at a parsimonious 11/10.
Frightened, perhaps, of being burned by shrewd punters who regard Tiger as the closest thing in sport to a certainty, the odds offered by Ladbrokes do the game and the man a disservice, in as much as they create the illusion that bagging majors is easy, winning Grand Slams is all in a season's work, and eclipsing the career record of the greatest player who ever lived is virtually a certainty.
None of these sentiments, as any follower of golf appreciates, reflect the reality. What makes Tiger's recent stretch of form so jaw-dropping is how he's turned the phenomenal into the common place. We've known for a long time that Woods was the best of his generation, possibly the greatest individual athlete since Muhammad Ali. But did we know he was this good?
After Woods birdied five of the last seven holes in Dubai on Sunday to overtake Ernie Els, what we didn't know until the dust settled was that Woods pieced together his second win of 2008 with a driver he'd never used before. Asked if his performance had sent out a message to his rivals, the ever phlegmatic Woods replied: "I don't know about messages. I'm happy about just winning two tournaments.
"You know, last week, I played pretty well and this week I broke my driver on Wednesday. I had to use my back-up, which I didn't like very much. I spun it too much. It was fine on Thursday because the wind didn't blow. But as soon as the wind started blowing, I had a hard time controlling the driver. So I was happy just to get a win somehow."
With the rest of the golfing world gleefully willing to hyperventilate over Tiger's accomplishments, it's little wonder the man himself takes such long, steady breaths and quietly underplays his hand. Unlike Ian Poulter, who exposed himself to ridicule by unwisely blowing his own trumpet last week, Tiger errs on the side of understatement.
That's why his comments about the Grand Slam are so subtle. He knows he usually wins more than four events each year. In 2008 he just has to win the right four. "If you put it all together, and have luck on your side," he said, "all the stars will line up. So, yes, I think it's possible."
There's nothing wrong with a statement of intent as long as you have the wherewithal to make good on the declaration. Take "Broadway" Joe Namath, a quarterback with the New York Jets in the Sixties and Seventies. Apart from being a terrific American footballer, Namath once appeared in an advert for shaving cream with Farah Fawcett-Major and gave an interview to Playboy in which he claimed to have slept with 1,000 women. His liking for Johnnie Walker also led to a sponsorship deal with the whisky firm.
Namath was colourful alright, but he could also play. Before the Superbowl match of 1969 against the Baltimore Colts, a team touted as the greatest in American football history, the quarter-back declared:
"We'll win the game. I guarantee it." As it turned out, the Jets did win and Namath was the man of the match. His boast turned out to be a shrewd prediction.
Don't be surprised if Tiger's thoughts on the Grand Slam are similarly prescient. It's the reason the bookmakers will grudgingly offer you 12-1 against him pulling off a feat many once believed impossible.
WOODS WAGERS1-12
To win 19 or more major titles
1-5
To win at least one major this year
7-2
To fail to win any major this year
11-10
To win the Masters
12-1
To win golf's Grand Slam of Masters, US Open, Open and US PGA in 2008
100-1
To win every event he tees up in this season
The full article contains 880 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
