Woods leaves lasting impression on golf world

Everyone wants to be part of history, to be close enough to touch it, to hear it, to see a defining moment. This year in sports, that meant being around Tiger Woods.

He won the U.S. Open and the British Open by a combined 23 strokes to complete the career Grand Slam at age 24. He added the PGA Championship to become the first player since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three straight majors.

Woods' season was voted The Associated Press Story of the Year by member newspapers and broadcast outlets, receiving more than twice as many points as Bob Knight getting fired as Indiana basketball coach.

Woods was also Story of the Year in 1997 when he won the Masters with a record score and set off Tigermania.

It reached a new level of hysteria this year.

Two men dressed in tiger costumes, black and gold stripes painted on their faces, leaned against the ropes along the third fairway at Pebble Beach in the final round of the U.S. Open, knowing Woods eventually would pass by close enough to touch.

Woods never saw them. The rest of the field never saw Woods. He won by 15 shots.

At St. Andrews, Woods strolled over the Swilken Bridge on the 18th fairway Sunday. Dozens of fans bolted past the marshals, hopping and splashing across the 6-foot stream, desperate for a glimpse of history.

Woods held aloft the claret jug, the youngest player to win all four major championships.

In Michigan, fathers carried sons on their shoulders in the pre-dawn hours of a routine pro-am round, just to say they were there, and that they saw Tiger Woods. It was his first tournament since winning the Grand Slam. Cameras flashed against the iron-gray sky, making the first tee look like a disco.

In the locker room at Glen Abbey Golf Club during the Canadian Open, a couple of PGA Tour players sat around the table speaking in hushed, incredulous tones. The subject was Woods.

"Driver, sand wedge," one of them said, shaking his head.

The day before, Woods had hit a 380-yard drive and a sand wedge into the par-5 18th and finished his round birdie-eagle-birdie-eagle. The next day, he hit a 218-yard 6-iron out a fairway bunker, over the water and right at the pin to clinch his ninth victory of the year.

Woods always sends the crowd home with something to remember, and this was a season that will be talked about for years to come -- unless he can top it in 2001.

"I did think this was possible," Woods said of his awesome season, perhaps the best ever in golf. "And I think it's possible in the future. That's why I play the game."

He plays the game like no other.

Woods finished at least fifth in 17 of his 20 tournaments. His last round over par was on May 7, a streak of 47 rounds that not even three major championships could stop.

His raw scoring average of 68.17 was the best ever, breaking the mark of 68.33 set by Byron Nelson in 1945. He won six straight tour events, the most since Ben Hogan in 1948. He became the first golfer to finish He plays the game like no other.

Woods finished at least fifth in 17 of his 20 tournaments. His last round over par was on May 7, a streak of 47 rounds that not even three major championships could stop.

His raw scoring average of 68.17 was the best ever, breaking the mark of 68.33 set by Byron Nelson in 1945. He won six straight tour events, the most since Ben Hogan in 1948. He became the first golfer to finish

under par in every tournament he played.

And he had at least a share of the lead in 11 of the last 12 rounds in the majors, the tournaments that define great players.

In the AP voting, Woods received 62 first-place votes for 1,376 points. Knight got 10 first-place votes and 610 votes. The New York Yankees winning the Subway Series got three first-place votes and 468 points.

Ten points were awarded for first place, down to one point for a 10th-place vote.

Rounding out the top 10 were: the St. Louis Rams winning the Super Bowl; John Rocker's inflammatory remarks about New Yorkers and his return to Shea Stadium; cancer survivor Lance Armstrong winning his second straight Tour de France; the Sydney Olympics; the Los Angeles Lakers winning the NBA title; former Carolina Panthers receiver Rae Carruth going on trial in the slaying of his pregnant girlfriend; and the U.S. baseball team beating Cuba in the Olympics.

Woods already had golf worked into a frenzy with his eagle-birdie-birdie finish to win the season-opening tournament in Hawaii, and with his seven-stroke comeback over the final seven holes to win at Pebble Beach in February, his sixth straight victory.

He even made news by changing balls, from Titleist to Nike, and winning the Memorial by five strokes.

But his summer was one for the ages.

With nothing worse than a par over the final 26 holes, he won the U.S. Open with a record 12-under 272 on a course where no one else broke par. The 15-stroke margin was the largest in a major, beating the 13-stroke victory by Old Tom Morris in the 1862 British Open.

On to St. Andrews, and more incredible shots. From behind the 17th green, the toughest hole in golf this year, he used the back slope of the infamous Road Hole Bunker as a slingshot and saved par.

Woods went on to win by eight strokes with a 19-under 269, the lowest score in relation to par in the 140 years majors have been played. He made history at the home of golf.

The final piece was the PGA, where Woods got an unlikely challenge from Bob May and produced his greatest golf of the year.

Both shot 31 on the back nine, and Woods won the three-hole cumulative playoff. The famous uppercut was replaced by an animated Woods chasing after his birdie putt on the 16th, pointing his finger at the ball until it disappeared into the cup.

Along with joining Hogan with three straight majors, he became the first player to win back-to-back PGAs since it switched to stroke play in 1958.

The majors were over. Woods was not.

He won a World Golf Championship at Firestone by 11 strokes, the final birdie coming in the dark as the gallery flicked lighters as if at a rock concert. He won the Canadian Open with a shot most players wouldn't dream of hitting, the 6-iron out of the bunker and over the water to the pin.

"He's an extraordinary player who comes along once every generation," said Grant Waite, runner-up in Canada. "Or in his case, maybe once in forever."