Tiger's to-do list

You already know what Tiger Woods has done in his career. Here's what he hasn't yet achieved. So consider this, perhaps, his to-do list (or what's left of it). Woods has yet to win, shoot or experience ...

Twenty major championships. Eleven down, nine to go.

Eighteen professional major championships. Eight down, 10 to go.

The Grand Slam in a calendar year. Woods already has held all four titles at once, but it wasn't in the same year. Bobby Jones completed the original Slam in 1930 (U.S. and British Opens and Amateurs).

MAILBAG I'm starting to think a more significant list than the best players never to have won a major is the best players to have won only one: Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Tom Lehman, by all signs David Duval. Sure, these guys shook their monkeys, but can they honestly say their careers aren't disappointments? Will Love really be happy to be remembered only as Davis Love III, PGA champion? And now that the claret jug has left his house, don't you think Duval probably would be happy to trade places with Majorless Mickelson? —Andrew Dalton, Los Angeles You're harsh, D, but I'm afraid you're right on the money. Maybe that should be a future column: the 10 biggest disappointments based on their ability and potential. Couples and Love would probably be on the list. So would Ben Crenshaw and some others. I don't know if Duval would swap spots with Mickelson. One in hand is better than two in the bush, especially when Tiger Woods is lurking in the same shrubbery. What in the world is happening to David Duval? He has plunged from British Open winner to not being able to make a cut. Is he injured, or is it mental? I know he can bring it back, but will he? Does he really want it? —Peter Fleming, Atlanta Welcome to the David Duval Show, everyone. You're right, Flem, Duval can bring it back, but never underestimate the insidiousness of an injury, especially a back problem, to an athlete. Once you start favoring an aching body part and make a perceptible alteration to your swing and/or your stance, the next thing you know, you can't get back to the way you were swinging when you were healthy. Duval's plunge is like the stock market's: It's understandable. He was due for a letdown. He won the big prize, he has already been the No. 1 player in the world (and realizes he's not going to be again unless Tiger retires), and he's got more money than he needs for the rest of his life. He broke up with his long-time girlfriend. It's difficult to be motivated to work hard enough to bring your game back from adversity. I think you'll see him start winning again either late this fall or, after a refreshing offseason, next year. Best without a major is easy. Who are the worst players to have won a major? —Peter N. Duval, New Brunswick That's a poor choice of words, Duval, because no bad player has ever won a major. Orville Moody won a U.S. Open -- and nothing else until he played on the Senior tour, because he was such a poor putter. Jack Fleck was a good ballstriker, too, who struggled on the greens. Even the worst player on tour can do fantastic things with a ball. Check out GolfTestUSA.com. There are a bunch of equipment review sites, but this is the only one which compares equipment. GolfClubReview.com and Rankmark.com are also good sources. —Moe Green, Washington, D.C. Thanks for mentioning those sites, Moe. Equipment hounds should click on over.

The Buick Slam. Thanks to last week's victory near Flint, Mich., Woods is halfway there. He has won the Buick Open and Buick Invitational (the one at Torrey Pines) but hasn't yet won the Buick Challenge (formerly the Southern Open at Callaway Gardens) or the Buick Classic (at Westchester Country Club in Rye, N.Y.)

A Ben Hogan moment. Woods has already won tournaments tied to other legends -- the Memorial Tournament, founded by Jack Nicklaus; Bay Hill, hosted by Arnold Palmer; and the Byron Nelson Classic. But he has never won at Colonial Country Club, where Hogan was king.

A Riviera moment. Riviera Country Club is the most famous course in the Los Angeles area, where Woods grew up, and it's where as an amateur he played his first PGA Tour event, but he hasn't won the Nissan Open (formerly Los Angeles Open) in seven tries (one of which came at Valencia Country Club instead of Riviera).

Eighty-one victories. Sam Snead's PGA Tour record for wins (which was cut from 84 to 81 in the late '80s when the PGA Tour rewrote its history) once seemed way, way out of reach for a modern player, for whom 20 victories was considered Hall of Fame stuff. Woods already has 33 victories at age 26. Five wins a year for the next 10 years and ... it's over.

Eighty-eight victories. Kathy Whitworth's record career-win total is optional, since it's comparing apples and oranges. Plus, there was a minimal depth of talent on the LPGA Tour in Whitworth's era, the dark days of pre-feminism. But once Woods passes Snead's mark, he might as well aim for this one, too.

Double Slam. Woods needs just one more British Open title to have won each of the four Grand Slam events twice. Nicklaus managed a Triple Slam, having won six Masters, four U.S. Opens, three British Opens and five PGAs.

The Buy.com Tour. All right, so this is one milestone Woods isn't looking for. He never played an event on this tour.

The Quad. Walter Hagen is the only player to win a major in four consecutive years, the PGA from 1924-1927. Woods currently has a streak of two Masters wins. He also successfully defended his PGA Championship title in 2000.

Match game. The World Match Play Championship is the only one of the World Golf Championships that Woods hasn't won. His best finish was second, when he lost to Darren Clarke in the final at La Costa in 2000.

Four in a row. Woods didn't win his fourth straight Memorial Tournament this year but he has a chance at four in a row in the NEC Invitational. That could be tricky, since it has moved from its usual site at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, to tree-lined Sahalee near Seattle. Woods finished 10th when the PGA was played at Sahalee in '98. Hagen holds the record with his four PGAs, sharing the mark with Gene Sarazen, who won four consecutive Miami Opens.

Mr. 59. Woods once shot 59 in a practice round at Isleworth with Mark O'Meara but he hasn't yet shot it in competition, although he's flirted with it.

Eleven consecutive victories. Nelson's record, set in 1945, has long been thought untouchable, but Woods brought it into play in early 2000 when he won six in a row, a streak that stopped when Phil Mickelson outdueled him over the final nine at Torrey Pines.

Same eight. Snead holds the record for winning a single event, having taken the Greater Greensboro Open eight times. Snead also is tied for second in that category, with six Miami Opens. Woods has three Memorials, Masters and NEC Invitationals.

The 18. One record that seems safe is Nelson's mark of 18 victories in a single season. Woods had a phenomenal year in 2000 but only got halfway there, winning nine times. Since he hasn't played more than 21 PGA Tour events in a year, it's unlikely this record will fall.

The 30s. Woods has already blasted past Nicklaus' record for most wins by a player in his 20s. Woods has 33, Nicklaus had 29. Palmer and Hogan share the mark for wins by a player in his 30s, with 40. Snead holds the mark for wins by a player over 40, with 17.

Date a Swedish bikini model. Oh, never mind.

I'm sure there's more on Tiger's list. (If I was him, I'd upgrade my endorsement deal from Buick to, say, Mercedes, Ferrari or Hummer.) Consider this a start.

The Short Game

Two things you may have missed in the wake of Tiger's latest win last week:

Hank Kuehne, who won the 1998 U.S. Amateur, is back on his game. Kuehne captured a Canadian tour event in a playoff. It's his second victory on that tour this year and he is its leading money winner going into the season's final event, the Greater Toronto Open. Kuehne is best known for his long drives. At the recent Sprint International, he hit a 440-yarder in Denver's thin air on the opening hole, a 644-yard par-5 that he reached in two shots with a 9-iron.

Another player fighting his way out of a slump is Casey Martin. Despite a first-round 75, he rallied to tie for third in last week's Buy.com Tour event outside Chicago. (Marco Dawson won.) Martin shot a closing 68 and pocketed $21,600. It was just the second cut he'd made in eight tries this year. It was a nice comeback after a first-round triple bogey, although he bogeyed the 72nd hole after hitting his approach into the grandstand.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Gary Van Sickle writes for the magazine's Golf Plus section and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.

 

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