If the U.S. Open field were to be listed alphabetically, Tiger Woods would have been the last person.
By Sunday evening, he was the last man standing.
Having captured the season's second major championship, the U.S. Open, Woods is now two more major victories away from accomplishing the Grand Slam. He has said that he has done the Slam before by winning four straight majors from 2000 U.S. Open to 2001 Masters. However, it says here that the Grand Slam has to be completed in a single calendar year, starting from the Masters to the PGA Championship.
Woods is now halfway to the 'real' Grand Slam. He is also only the fifth golfer to have won the first two majors of a season, following the footsteps of Craig Wood (1941), Ben Hogan (1950, 1953), Arnold Palmer (1960) and Jack Nicklaus (1972). Nicklaus lost the Open Championship that year by one stroke to Lee Trevino. The 1972 Open was held at Muirfield Golf Links at Scotland, the site of this year's Open Championship.
Think that is inauspicious for Tiger? Don't worry. If the performance of the golfers who finished behind Woods at this season's first two majors is to be any indication, then there won't be much of a challenge to Woods.
Going into Sunday at the U.S. Open, seven golfers were within six shots of the lead. Thus, if there ever was a chance for so-called Tiger chasers to redeem themselves, this was it. Among those near Woods were Sergio Garcia, whose 67 on Saturday put him in the final pairing with Woods, and Phil Mickelson, who would contend for a major on his 32nd birthday. It would be the first time the brash Garcia would play with Tiger in a final round at a major, while Mickelson was in a group ahead seeking that elusive first major title in his 40th major championship. Especially after the dreadful Masters Sunday, on which five of top-10 players in the world folded at the sight of Tiger, Mickelson, world's No. 2, and fifth-ranked Garcia had much to prove.
Frankly, though, neither Garcia nor Mickelson should have been expected to catch Woods. First, this was no regular PGA Tour event. How can anyone make up four shots on Tiger just to tie him on a U.S. Open Sunday? Only three players broke par 70 in the final round, and Woods turned out to be the only player under par for the championship, just as he was so in winning the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. The Bethpage Black played extremely difficult the entire week, and the rain over the previous two rounds had made the longest U.S. Open host play even longer.
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