Posted 4/14/03 9:57 am ET

In his father's words, 'he's like a forest fire'

Earl and Kultida Woods, Tiger Woods' parents, sit with his girlfriend, Elin Nordegren, during the green jacket ceremony. Andrew Davis Tucker/The Augusta Chronicle

By Scott Michaux
The Augusta Chronicle

The gap is closing, all right. It's closing faster than anyone other than Earl Woods could have imagined. The gap that's closing is the one that separates Tiger Woods' seven majors and three green jackets from Jack Nicklaus' 18 and six.

When it comes to Tiger's vision of the golf world and his place in it, the decal at the bottom of his rearview mirror isn't the same as the ones on the Buicks he's always hawking on TV.

Objects in mirror are FARTHER than they appear.

"You ever see a rabbit try to catch another rabbit?" asked Woods' father at the stoop of the Eisenhower Cabin, with the bright light and sharp shadows of early evening accentuating the wreckage of the day with perfect clarity. "If you blink your eyes and open them, you'll find that the rabbits' positions are just the same. If one goes faster, the other goes faster."

Earl slows down to translate so that there can be no misunderstanding. He says what his son believes but is too polite to tell.

"Tiger is continuously improving and will get better and better and better," Earl said. "Whether these guys get better or not is inconsequential."

The world laughed at Earl Woods six years ago when he heralded the coming of his son with trumpets blaring. It was the same laugh that greeted Nicklaus when he played a practice round with the amateur Woods and stated flatly, "This kid could win as many green jackets as Arnold and I combined."

This bloodiest of Masters Sundays, with five of the world's fastest rabbits on Tiger's tail, we saw it more vividly than ever. More vividly than the 12-stroke demolition in 1997. More vividly than the final of four-in-a-row last year.

This Sunday, Tiger was Jack. He cruised down the rails of Augusta National while everyone else jumped the tracks. He steered through the wreckage - and no one ever doubted he would.

"I don't know what happened to them, I just know what happened to Tiger," Earl said. "He was on a very comfortable plane. He knew that par was a good score and that someone would have to make birdies to beat him."

Nobody stood up. Not reigning U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen and his golden putter. Not 2000 Masters champ Vijay Singh. Not two-time U.S. Open champ Ernie Els. Not the spectacular Phil Mickelson. Not two-time Masters champ Jose Maria Olazabal or his Spanish heir Sergio Garcia.

"He's like a forest fire coming and you don't have anyone to stop it." Earl said.

Mickelson talked three weeks ago about being the only player in the world to take the battle to Woods, and Mickelson has done it on lesser occasions.

But has anybody really stepped up?

"I don't think so," said Earl. "It isn't for lack of trying. I really generally feel that these guys are striving to be the best they can be, but there's a limitation on talent."

The father has been preaching the virtues of the son since he detected the closer within his 6-year-old boy at the Junior World Championships in San Diego.

"I told him that he had that gear that he could kick himself into any time he wanted to," Earl said.

Tiger didn't have to use it Sunday. He took himself to a comfortable cruising altitude and let the autopilot take over. That's a lesson Earl taught Tiger that Phil didn't get from his pilot father.

"He can shift to grind gear any time he wants," Earl said. "Like today, he was on cruise control. He was not on fire. Not on his A-game, going out there aggressive and trying to make birdie, birdie, birdie, birdie. If he had been threatened, he would have switched gears and gone into his attack mode. He can do that any time he wants. It's called talent."

It's untouchable, whatever it is Woods possesses. In a game that champions its rivals, Woods is peerless. The rankings are just numbers. Blink your eyes and the gap looks just the same.

"He doesn't need a challenge," Earl said. "I think that is the worst misconception going. That the number-one golfer needs a number-two golfer to push him. Tiger is pushed by history and by records and by his own goals. He doesn't need anybody pushing him."

Good thing. Because Sunday proved one startling truth - nobody is.

 

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