Tue, Jul 19, 2005 page20

• Tiger secures his 10th major

  BRITISH OPEN Tiger Woods shot 70 for a 14-under total of 274 as his closest rival, Colin Montgomerie, shot a 72 to end five strokes behind in golf's oldest major tournament

  • AP
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  So much for all that talk about a "Big Five" in golf.

  It's still Tiger Woods and everyone else.

  At least until Jack Nicklaus comes walking back over the Swilcan Bridge through the mist like a fugitive out of "Brigadoon." And even then, there are no guarantees.

  

  Tiger Woods displays the trophy after winning the British Open on the Old Course at St. Andrews Scotland, Sunday. Woods finished the championship at 14-under-par. The victory marked the 10th time the American has won a major professional tournament.

  PHOTO: AP

  "It's exciting to look forward to some good years in my 30s," said Woods, who doesn't cross that threshold until the end of December, "and hopefully into my 40s."

  With the same mastery he displayed over the Old Course five years ago, Woods finished on the lead lap alone again. And if not for two loose shots over the final three holes at the US Open last month, he might very well be zooming toward the Grand Slam. Again.

  Five years ago at St. Andrews, in the middle of the most sublime run the game has ever seen, Woods won by eight shots and his final score of 19 under was the lowest at a British Open in relation to par. On Sunday, with two of this season's majors pocketed and the final one looming next month, Woods finished five shots clear of the field at 14 under.

  And both times the drama quotient was the same:

  Zero.

  Stop me when this begins to sound familiar.

  "The golf ball was hit so flush all day," Woods said. "Every shot. It was one of those rounds that I will be thinking about for a long time."

  And he is not the only one.

  "He's very complete," said Jose Maria Olazabal, who played alongside Woods on Sunday and was fortunate to get his two Masters wins out of the way before Woods hit his stride the first time. "Right now, there is no competition."

  Woods' so-called rivals -- Vijay Singh, Ernie Els, Phil Mickelson and Retief Goosen -- were supposed to be breathing down his neck. Instead, they melted like ice cream cones in the unseasonably warm Scottish summer. Woods now owns exactly one more major championship trophy -- 10 -- than all of them combined.

  They had their chance. And after what happened here, they have to be wondering when -- maybe even if -- such opportunities will come their way again.

  Woods went winless in the majors from the 2002 US Open until the Masters in April, a streak that stretched over 10 championships. During that slump -- and it's now official -- Singh and Els claimed one each to total three, Goosen added his second and Mickelson won his first and only.

  Of the six players who slipped into the trophy presentations while Woods was off remaking his swing and getting married, only two were well known outside their own households: Jim Furyk and Mike Weir. For the record, it's worth listing the others -- Rich Beem, Ben Curtis, Shaun Micheel and Todd Hamilton -- since odds are we won't hear from any of them again.

  your lying eyes

  So when a BBC TV interviewer asked afterward what Woods thought about all those pronouncements he would never dominate again, he should have said, "Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?"

  Instead, Woods smiled broadly and replied, "I can't say it on the air."

  Still, he couldn't resist saying something.

  "This is one reason why I made the changes. This is the reason why I did it."

  Yet, as recently as the Masters this year, Woods still had his doubts. Coming down the stretch at Augusta, Chris DiMarco turned the tables and began stalking Woods. Tiger abandoned just about everything he and swing coach Hank Haney had worked on, and bogeyed the last two before winning in a playoff. At Pinehurst, a poor chip shot and a balky putter left the door open for Michael Campbell. He ironed out both those problems before he arrived here.

  It's small consolation for his shot at the Grand Slam slipping away. But Woods has now put together his own "Nicklaus Slam," having won every major from which Jack officially retired. And his long-range goal -- surpassing the record 18 professional majors Nicklaus owns -- is closer now that the halfway point is in Woods' rearview mirror.

  "You know that it's going to take an entire career," he said. "It's not going to happen overnight. Jack took 25 years, I believe it was, to win all of his."

  Twenty-four years, actually, but Woods might need the extra time.

  History likely will show that the four other great golfers who spanned Nicklaus' era were tougher and a lot more accomplished than the quartet currently arrayed against Woods. Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player formed the original "Big Three," but Jack squared off against Tom Watson and Lee Trevino in their primes, too. But the fields Woods faces most weeks are deeper, and the pool of talent includes players from the farthest-flung corners of the world.

  "The drive is always to get better," Woods said, a statement he's made so often it could serve as his mantra. "You can always get better, no matter what."
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