Tiger Woods in 2005
July 2005: The British Open
Tiger Woods won the British Open and now has 10 majors.
Woods became the second man to have won each of golf's four big prizes twice over.
Tiger obviously felt vindicated after his victory, having taken a lot of criticism from a variety of quarters whilst he was sorting out his swing. Tiger told the BBC, when asked what he had to say to his critics:
"I can't say it on air!"
April 2005: The Masters
Tiger Woods won his fourth Masters and ninth major title with a play-off win over Chris DiMarco at Augusta.
Tiger Woods is now tied with Arnold Palmer for second in number of Masters victories, two behind the leader Jack Nicklaus.
Tiger Woods and Chris Di Marco had a see-saw contest in a Masters that saw them well ahead of their rivals. It was Woods' first major title since the 2002 US Open and with it he regained the world number one spot.
His prize money was $1,260,000 taking Woods to a total of $48,829,826 on the PGA Tour!
Although it was his first Major for a while, the signs were all there that Tiger Woods was returning to top form, and, in fact, even in his relatively dry spell, Woods has always been a model of consistency: this was his 141st consecutive cut on the PGA TOUR (extending his all-time record).
Tiger Woods dedicated his victory to his father who is being treated for cancer, saying:
"He was not healthy enough to come out today.
"The troubles he has gone through he was not looking good and he is having a hard time right now.
"But there's a big bear-hug waiting for him and I dedicate this to him."
March 2005: The Ford Championship
Well, it looks like my remarks made in January (see below) about Tiger Woods and others were spot on as Tiger Woods came from behind to win the Ford Championship, beating Phil Mickelson by one shot, thus reclaiming the world number 1 spot.
Meanwhile Ernie Els was winning the Dubai Desert Classic with an 18th hole eagle.
January 2005: The Buick Invitational
It was whilst watching Sky Sports coverage of The South African Open, that I heard one of the studio pundits say: "It's amazing how often cream rises to the top."
At first I dismissed it as a cliche. But recent golfing events only go to show that there is a lot of truth in cliches. Over in South Africa, Tim Clark fired a 66 to finish six strokes ahead of the field. But it is the American tournaments that make the point better.
In the Mercedes last week, going into the final round it looked a wide open contest, however a final round 65 enabled V.J.Singh to pinch the tourney by one shot, winning for the seventh time in his last 11 starts on the PGA TOUR.
The other big name player, Ernie Els, came from nowhere with a last round 62 including an eagle on the last hole to finish second.
And then whilst everyone else around him started to collapse Tiger Woods, who had started the Buick Invitational with three straight bogeys on the long-running Sunday, came through to win, making his 41st career victory.
"I hung in there," Tiger Woods said. "This golf course is so difficult, anything can happen."
What is it about these guys that enables them to come from behind and win with such consistency? Nearly everyone who has played sport has at some time or another 'played above their game'. People have 'good games' and 'bad games' and yet many are incapable of quality control so that they achieve their highest standards the whole time.
The likes of Federer in tennis and Schumacher in Formula 1 sometimes seem invincible. As we look ahead to 2005 we can't quite say the same for Tiger. With the likes of Singh and Els out there (and dare I add Mickelson?), it still looks likely that no one person will dominate the year. Nevertheless the signs now suggest that it could be the year of the Tiger.
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