When? What WILL it take?
Winning all four Grand Slam events on the PGA Tour? The eclipse of Byron Nelson's consecutive win record of 11 PGA tournaments that sportswriter after sportswriter listed as the most difficult record to break in sports?
Hitting the ball further than Happy Gilmore on steroids every time to the tee?
For the last two years, it seems that no one will recognize Tiger Woods as the greatest golfer in the world. 'He'll never win a U.S. Open,' snarls one naysayer; 'he can't hit the mid-iron,' complains another.
The sports world's obsession with parity has reached too far. Sportswriter after sportswriter attempt to trespass somewhere they don't belong and Tiger Woods seems ready to pounce on one after another as if they are slabs of meat tentatively passed between the bars of his cage.
Yes, by looking at the golf section in a newspaper, you will find a description of Tiger's miraculous comeback on Monday at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
But story after story is colored with insinuations that Tiger needed the collapse of colleagues to come back from a seven-stroke deficit with eight holes to play or that he is on top "for the moment."
You know what? He won. Again. It doesn't matter how he has done it, but all he has done is win six straight tournaments -- something none of the other big names with the exception of Hogan and Nelson can claim.
Hello? This man is the icon that golf has been waiting for. Not since Nicklaus and Palmer did the golf world have such a captivating, talented presence.
Some of his fiercest rivals hit the weight room and the practice range to try to catch Tiger by the tail, or at least get carried along for the ride.
But he continues to be a step ahead. He sits just $32,000 behind Davis Love III on the all-time money list. He is third in career victories for active players with 17. He trails only Ben Crenshaw with 19 and Greg Norman with 18.
Oh, yeah. He's 24 years old.
He may only need three more weeks to win the requisite three tournaments that would grant him a lifetime exemption on the tour.
Tiger seems good enough that even when he is playing 'average' Tiger golf as he did before Monday, he can win by hanging in and then draining shots from 97 yards away.
Today, Mr. Woods embarks on the Buick Invitational with the Vegas odds for him to win the next five tournaments having dropped to 80-1.
In those years B.T. (Before Tiger), the odds of Nicklaus, Palmer or anyone else winning five straight would be in the neighborhood of thousands and millions to one.
Maybe the course will not suit him this week, the irrepressible cynic asks. Well, Torrey Pines is the site of this week's Buick Invitational. Corporate recruits, want an impressive resume? Woods is the defending champion at this tournament. He shot a course-record 62 here last year and sealed the deal with a 65 on Sunday. Oh, by the way, Woods won a Junior World Title at Torrey Pines at the age of 15.
One could argue that Woods is trying to become only the second back-to-back winner of this tournament. J.C. Snead did it in 1975 and 1976.
Let's be honest. J.C. Snead and Woods are similar in that both carry 5-irons in their bags. That's about it.
Tigers have a life expectancy of about 15 years in the wild, but live up to about 20 years in the captivity. Mark it down.
By my count, Tiger could win the next 300 tournaments in a row. Okay, maybe that's excessive.
Although
