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On Site
Witnessing the day when history became a man
Posted: Sunday April 08, 2001 8:34 PM
Updated: Tuesday March 26, 2002 9:42 PM
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Tiger Woods has now won as many majors (6) as Nick Faldo and Lee Trevino, and is only one behind Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead and Harry Vardon. AP |
By Tom Rinaldi, CNNSI.com
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- So often in sport, it is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
Yet certain victories, the rarest kind, are so great, they seem like triumphs for all.
We feel such wins as our own.
And we call them our history.
Sunday, history carried a club, stuck its approach, and sank its putts.
History was a man.
He got here as a one-man parade at Pebble Beach to win the 100th U.S. Open.
Then he kissed the claret jug at St. Andrews to claim the 129th British Open.
Then he pointed toward destiny at Valhalla to take the 82nd PGA Championship.
On Sunday, when Woods birdied No. 18 to win the 65th Masters, he did more than beat the field.
He went beyond winning a golf tournament.
In becoming the first man to hold all four of the game's major championships at the same time, he transcended his sport with history's ultimate shorthand: Greatness.
If his eyes welled with tears for a moment, and he hid behind his dark hat, we filled in the shadow with our own expression -- an awe-filled smile.
Golf, of course, is just a game.
On Sunday, Woods' game transcended the course and ascended into memory, right before our eyes.
And memory signed its scorecard, and became history.
It's just sports. Just a game. Just golf.
To describe what happened in the final round of the 65th Masters that way, would be to say, "It's just life."
Whether it was Woods sinking pressure putts that we've never stood over, or missing ones that many of us have made, he achieved something no one else ever has.
He created a new standard, right before our eyes.
Does it matter that it happened on a golf course?
Eighteen holes that became history, and history became a man.
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