Catching the Golden Bear

Ten years ago, Jack Nicklaus remarked that Tiger Woods might be good enough to win as many Masters championships as Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer combined.

Woods says he appreciated the vote of confidence, even though he didn’t agree with it at the time.

“I was wondering what he was smoking,” Woods said Sunday after winning the Masters for the fourth time at Augusta National in a playoff with Chris DiMarco. “I mean, if you saw the way I hit the golf ball in ‘95, I bombed it down every fairway. I had a wedge I flew over the greens and the galleries. That’s not good. I had the length, but I had no understanding of my golf swing or distance control or shot-making.”

Twice since he turned pro, Woods has revamped his swing. The changes, he said, have allowed him to win four Masters, but the real goal is to eclipse Nicklaus’ record of 18 major titles.

As a boy, he hung a poster of Nicklaus’ records on his bedroom wall and started dreaming about beating them. But the one number that stood out was 18.

Woods is halfway there and even though Sunday’s win ended a drought of nearly three years without a major victory, there were signs that he might be back on track to surpass the best player in the history of the game.

On the other hand, it was clear that he can’t just stand on the gas pedal and leave opponents eating his divots like he did when he won seven of 11 majors, ending with the 2002 U.S. Open.

Is he capable of dominating that way again? Phil Mickelson isn’t counting Woods out.

“Obviously it’s possible because he did it,” Mickelson said. “I don’t know if any of us are going to want it to happen again, but it happened just a few years ago.”

For those who might counter that it’s harder now with so many golfers playing at a high level, Mickelson has another answer.

“Right,” he said, “but we had that just before he went on a tear, so you never know.”

Woods is far from being on a tear just yet. He has won three PGA Tour titles this year, compared with just one last season, but has struggled down the stretch in each of them.

For more than a year, Woods has been saying he was “close” and what made Sunday’s win gratifying is that he realizes he doesn’t quite “have it” just yet.

There were times when it appeared that he did have it, including a stretch of seven straight birdies during the rain-delayed third round. DiMarco teed off on the 10th hole with a four-shot lead and within 20 minutes he was behind.

“I didn’t have to play my best to win, and Tiger doesn’t have to play his best to win,” Nicklaus said before the Masters began. “But when he plays his best, he’s probably going to win.”

Nicklaus was 31, two years older than Woods, when he won his ninth major title, and added five more in the next four seasons. Woods hasn’t even reached his 30s, the age when most of golf’s greatest players were at their absolute best.

“I don’t think you’re ever there,” Woods said after his victory. “You never arrive. If you do, you might as well quit, because if you’re already there, you can’t get any better. I’ll never be there.”