Tiger Woods wrapped up his 11th Major win by capturing his 3rd (repeating his victory from 2005) Open Championship. Here he is, 30 years old, now sitting tied for 2nd on the all-time list of victories in the Majors. The number to beat is 18, held by the Golden Bear, Jack Nicklaus. I am a big Tiger fan and enjoy watching him dominate the game. I have no love for Hefty, Els, or Vijay. I want to see Tiger, in his sunday red, give us yet another classic performance. We are used to the Tiger who pulls out driver and kills the ball for 300+ yards, often finding the rough. He's got a great all-around game that he is able to recover these shots. This weekend was different as he kept the driver in the bag and chose to tee-off with an iron most of the time. He sacrificed distance, but damn was he accurate. Every hole he was hitting it right down the fairway. This is a mature Tiger who played a smart game this weekend. Hefty could take some advice (see: Winged Foot, 2006 US Open)...but don't because I like seeing you suffer.
Anyway, #11 got me thinking. He's got 7 to tie Jack, 8 to surpass him. It seems pretty inevitable that he is going to do this. It is rare that in a lifetime you get to see someone achieve a major historical sports achievement. Baseball is a sport that is filled with hallowed records -- Babe Ruth's 714 and Henry Aaron's 756 immediately come to mind. Pete Rose's 4256 hits, Nolan Ryan's 7 No-nos, and Hack Wilson's 191 RBIs are some others. Football and basketball are less number-oriented. When someone throws for 30000+ yds or scores 30000+ points, it gets hard to relate to. Records with smaller numbers are perceived as bigger and we understand them.
I wasn't there for Aaron to pass Ruth...I can only listen to what the historians and folks from the Worldwide Leader tell me. I do know that Aaron, being a black man who was going to surpass the most significant sports record established by Babe Ruth, had to deal with racist comments and hate mail. There was also some media pressure on him...but the media circa 1974 was a different being then it is today. Now we have a black man (in a white man's sport) chasing the most hallowed record of the game. I would like to say that in the 21st century that Tiger will not be subjected to such racist commentary that Aaron was...but the cynic in me realizes that there are probably some folks out there who will not like the fact that Tiger take's Jack's record. Jack Nicklaus is the Babe Ruth of golf. Sure there was Arnie Palmer before him, and there were others before Ruth...but Babe Ruth is the name that defines baseball and Jack Nicklaus is the name that defines golf. It will be interesting to see how Tiger deals with the pressure, once he gets to 17. One thing that he excels at is playing under pressure. There is no one else who is cooler and more collected when the pressure is on him.
Tiger will surpass Jack, this much I know. Whether he ends up with 19, 21, or 24 majors, we don't know. But for this generation, Tiger passing Jack is our version of Aaron passing Ruth. Let us enjoy the ride, as these things happen only on a few occasions.
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