ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -- The golf world began counting down the days about the time Tiger Woods laced up his spikes for his final-round romp around Pebble Beach, the U.S. Open triumph that set up what is perhaps the most anticipated major championship of a generation.
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| Tiger Woods' closest call at the British Open was a third-place finish in 1998. |
Now the Open Championship is upon us, and how fitting that it has come to this: Golf's bold young champion chasing a career Grand Slam at the home of golf.
The Old Course has been the scene for some memorable British Opens, but what happens if Woods pulls off the unthinkable and captures his fourth different major title before his 25th birthday?
Only four players have won The Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship in a career.
Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan did it at a time when nobody acknowledged the feat. Gary Player made it in 1965 with his U.S. Open victory, Jack Nicklaus a year later at age 26 with his British Open triumph at Muirfield. Although Nicklaus went on to win each of the majors at least three times, no other player has done so.
Not Arnold Palmer. Not Sam Snead. Not Tom Watson. Not Lee Trevino. Not Raymond Floyd. Palmer never got a PGA, same for Watson. Snead failed to win the U.S. Open, and Trevino never won The Masters. Floyd missed out on the British.
"Back in those days, nobody talked about the Grand Slam," Nicklaus said. "It wasn't until about three, four, five years later that I found out there were only four of us who had done it. Nobody ever said anything about it."
When you consider how many great players never won them all, it is amazing that anyone ever thought winning the four majors in the same season was possible.
But Palmer was brazen enough to believe back in 1960 when he came to St. Andrews for his first British Open, helping revitalize the championship. Palmer had won The Masters and U.S. Open that year, and a conversation with Pittsburgh Press golf writer Bob Drum sparked the idea of a modern Grand Slam.
"He and I were flying to St. Andrews for the British Open, and we were sort of reminiscing a little bit about the year to that point," Palmer recalled. "I had just won the U.S. Open, and I had also won The Masters. I said, 'It would be great if I could win the British Open and the PGA.' And Drum said, 'Yeah, it would be perfect. It would be the Grand Slam. If (Bob) Jones could do it and call it the Grand Slam, so could you.'
"One thing led to another. He got me all excited about it. I said there is no reason in the world why it shouldn't happen. He said, 'We'll make it happen.' He wrote about it. At the Open, he got the British press all excited about it. And they picked up on it."
Palmer, of course, did not pull it off. He finished runner-up to Kel Nagle by a single shot. But a concept was born. And since that time, only Nicklaus has been able to win The Masters and U.S. Open in the same year (1972). Hogan remains the only player to win three modern majors in the same year, capturing The Masters, U.S. Open and British Open in 1953.
Nicklaus, too, had a date with destiny at St. Andrews.
"Bobby Jones had always said that a great golfer's record is never complete unless he wins at St. Andrews. I think he felt that way about himself," Nicklaus said. "So when I won here in '70, that was something that I wanted to do very badly."
Jones had been an inspiration to Nicklaus growing up at Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio, where Jones won the U.S. Open in 1926. Nicklaus once considered playing the game as an amateur, as Jones did.
"I heard all about his 13 major championships," said Nicklaus, who won the 1970 British Open at St. Andrews in an 18-hole playoff over Doug Sanders. "I walked into the press room afterward and they said, 'Jack, that's 10. Only three more to tie Bobby Jones,' " Nicklaus recalled.
"It never entered my mind until that day. I won 10 majors before somebody started counting them. That was the first time I ever thought about numbers."
No doubt, Woods has been thinking about them. He had Nicklaus' records posted on his bedroom wall as a youngster, his gauge for greatness.
Don't think Woods hasn't considered getting there faster than Nicklaus.
"To have the opportunity to complete the career Grand Slam at the golf course where it all started is very symbolic," Woods said. "Every player who has played the game has always wanted to win at St. Andrews."
It's almost too much to believe, winning at golf meccas Pebble Beach and St. Andrews in the same year, completing the career Grand Slam, becoming the first player in 18 years to win the U.S. and British Opens back-to-back.
Woods has put himself in that position.
It should be fun to watch him try.
Bob Harig, who covers golf for the St. Petersburg Times, writes a column every Tuesday for ESPN Golf Online.
