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Woods begins chase for slam

• The Masters is Tiger  Woods’ chance to jumpstart a run at the single-year grand slam.

Scott Chancey

ALBANY — Tiger Woods seems to have it all.

He’s by far the best golfer on the PGA Tour, the most marketable and — during the past year — he became a father. He then won three of this year’s first four events and, with 88 total professional wins, including 13 majors, not much seems to be missing.

That is, unless one counts winning the professional, single-year grand slam and breaking Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major victories. The legendary Bobby Jones won a single-year grand slam in 1930, but that included the U.S. and British Opens, and U.S. and British Amateurs.

Woods, a four-time Masters champion, thinks it’s possible — even, “easily within reason.”

“I mean, the reason why I said that, you have to understand why I said that, because I’ve done it before; I’ve won all four in a row,” said Woods, who won what now is known as the “Tiger Slam.”

The “Tiger Slam” was adopted after Woods’ victories in the 2000 US Open, British Open and PGA Championship, and the 2001 Masters.

“(The) majority of my career, I think this is my 12th or 13th season out here, and nine of those years I’ve won five or more tournaments, so just got to win the right four,” Woods said. “That’s what it boils down to.”

Woods makes it seem so simple.

Just win four majors in a row?

“I always felt it was possible, too,” two-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson said. “I don’t think it’s an impossible feat. I just think it’s going to be a tough one.”

Considering Woods’ play since he finished tied for second in last year’s Masters to eventual champ Zach Johnson, it would be hard to rule out anything he says.

He has won 10 of the last 17 tournaments he's entered after his last appearance in Augusta, including a streak of five straight PGA Tour wins that ended at Doral.

“It’s just another week,” Woods said. “You have to put whatever happened behind you whether you won or lost, and it’s all about this week. You’ve got to be focused and ready to come Thursday, and get everything going the right way.”

Of course, this is FAR from just another week. This is the Masters, the first leg of a potential grand slam, and defending Masters champion Zach Johnson feels anything is possible with Woods.

“He’s a phenom and he’s won every major and won every major multiple times,” Johnson said. “So I mean, I think everybody would probably agree that it seems like his form, middle to the end of last year and certainly the beginning of this year. I mean, you can kind of compare it to, what was it, 2001, 2002, that time period and that was scary. So he’s still as scary as ever.”

With all that talk about Woods, Padraig Harrington simply tries to focus on the simple golf adage – you against the course.

“I would always say, you know, when it comes to Tiger, you have to actually do your own thing and not think about it,” Harrington said. “You’ve got to play your own game, and it’s the only way to deal with any player, play your own game and do your own thing. If it doesn’t come up good enough, just shake the other guy’s hand and say, ‘Well done.’ ”

Even Nicklaus, who has six green jackets, said years ago that Woods would be a force to be reckoned with, possibly winning 10 green jackets. Now at the age of 32 and going for his fifth, Woods admitted he was a little surprised by those comments.

“Well, I thought he was a little out there by saying that,” Woods laughed. “I haven’t made the cut yet. … Yeah, to have four at this age, it’s a dream come true. You don’t want to envision winning this many this soon.

It takes so much experience and so much knowledge of how to play this golf course. And then obviously to play well at the same time. But I got lucky and played a lot of practice rounds with some past champions and the knowledge they shared with me was invaluable.”

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