By Steve DiMeglio, USA TODAY
The guy in the red shirt.
That's what many of golf's best players say when asked why winning a major championship is so difficult. Not the jacked-up pressure and klieg-light attention; not the stressful, beefed-up golf courses; not even the ever-expanding pool of talented depth that reaches around the world.
Nope, the first response is the guy in the red shirt.
Since he came out of Stanford as a skinny kid and donned a red golf shirt covered by a red sweater in the final round of his record-shattering win in the 1997 Masters, the world's No. 1 has sported red attire during the final 18 holes of every major championship he's played.
At the conclusion of 14 of the 50 majors Woods has played as a pro, his red tops have radiated in the reflection of championship hardware or been covered up by a green jacket. Winning the sport's most demanding tests at an incredible rate of 28%, Woods has won four Masters, three U.S. Opens, three British Opens and four PGA Championships to rank second to Jack Nicklaus (18) in majors won.
Woods also has 32 top-10 finishes in golf's four biggest weeks of the year — an astounding 64% clip — including 27 top-six finishes. Since the 2005 Masters, when he defeated Chris DiMarco in a playoff, Woods has played in 18 majors — he has six wins, five seconds and 15 top-six finishes. By comparison, from Nicklaus' first major victory in the 1962 U.S. Open to his final major triumph in the 1986 Masters, the Golden Bear won 18 majors, finished runner-up in 18 and recorded 66 top-10s in 96 starts.
"It's pretty tough to win a major to start with, but when you have the guy in the red shirt, it just makes it so much tougher," DiMarco says. "Tiger is always there in the hunt, just like Jack was. You know Tiger will be there at the end. He's always a threat.
"I've given myself some decent chances in majors, but unfortunately I ran into that Tiger Woods guy a few times".
But all will not be lost this year for the golfers not named Woods when the rotation of major championships runs through some of the game's legendary settings — Augusta National, the revered course in Georgia that annually hosts The Masters in April; Pebble Beach Golf Links, the seaside California gem that will hold its fifth U.S. Open in June; and the Old Course at St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf on Scotland's east coast that will welcome the British Open in July. The fourth major will be in August in Wisconsin at Whistling Straits, a course that overlooks Lake Michigan and has the look and feel of ancient links courses in Scotland or Ireland.
For starters, Woods has lost 72% of the majors he's played.
As well, Woods will be coming back from months of inactivity following his admission of infidelity in his marriage. Woods announced on March 16 that he would return at The Masters, his first event since winning the Australian Masters in November.
Two-time major champion and NBC lead golf analyst Johnny Miller thinks Woods won't be as dominating as he has been when he does return to golf.
"Any advantage he had is pretty much gone now," Miller says. "He's so talented, but I don't know what he's thinking right now. That's beyond my comprehension. With his discipline on the course and in the gym, I wouldn't say he couldn't turn his whole life around. He has that discipline if he puts his mind to it. I hope that happens. It would be good for the game.
"He's got a lot of pressure on him; I know that. He's really got to face the music".
There's also this little bit of information that can pacify anxiety about winning one of golf's majors: Payne Stewart was 32 when he won his first of three majors in the 1989 PGA Championship; Phil Mickelson was 33 when he won the first of his three majors in the 2004 Masters; Ben Hogan was 34 when he won the first of his nine majors in the 1946 PGA Championship; and Padraig Harrington was 35 when he won the first of his three majors in the 2007 British Open.
And then there's 38-year-old Y.E. Yang.
Last year in the PGA Championship on the vast prairies of Minnesota, Yang became the first player in 15 majors to topple Woods when he took at least a share of the lead into the final round. In shattering Woods' invincibility in final rounds and becoming the first South Korean to win a men's major championship, Yang also extended to three a consecutive streak of first-time major winners, with his PGA Championship triumph following Stewart Cink's victory in the British Open and Lucas Glover's win in the U.S. Open.
"It's always what I've dreamed about," Yang said after his historic victory. "It was always what I sort of envisioned. I wasn't that nervous. It's a game of golf. It's not like you're in an octagon where you're fighting against Tiger and he's going to bite you or swing at you".
Yang, Glover and Cink each conquered obstacles to their biggest wins: weather conditions, players nipping at their spikes, golf courses that punished errors. Each also stared down monumental giants and sentimental fan favorites en route to major glory: Yang had Woods to beat; Cink had then 59-year-old Hall of Famer Tom Watson
to top; and Glover had Phil Mickelson and David Duval to deal with.
"I always said that I felt like an underachiever, for years and years," Cink said after his Open win. "I felt like I had a lot of game, that I played well, but never really had the number of wins to show for it that I felt like I had a chance to grab hold of. And now that I have won the British Open, that feeling is somewhat lessened to me. I feel like, OK, one major win takes care of a whole lot of other losses. I still feel like I have not produced quite the numbers that I would have liked to as far as wins, but when you add a major there, it does a lot to erase some of those thoughts.
"I'm really not a different player. I won a tournament that I hadn't won before, and I have more confidence now. The only thing I think that's changed is that when I get in another situation like that, I'll have something concrete to draw from".
The trio of maiden major wins might have surprised the golf world — and in Yang's case, shocked the golf world — but the collective results were not an aberration. Last year was the fourth since 2001 that at least three players won their first major in the same season.
•Retief Goosen (U.S. Open), David Duval (British Open) and David Toms (PGA Championship) won their first majors in 2001.
•All four 2003 majors were won by first-timers: Mike Weir (Masters), Jim Furyk (U.S. Open), Ben Curtis (British Open) and Shaun Micheel (PGA Championship).
•Zach Johnson (Masters), Angel Cabrera (U.S. Open) and Padraig Harrington (British Open) earned their first major wins in 2007.
All of this bodes well for the game's best players without a win in the ultimate tests of skill, talent and patience, especially for those who are in the conversation about "Best Player Never to Win a Major".
Both an honor and a curse, the label has latched on to some of the game's best players over the years, including Mickelson, Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange, Tom Kite, Fred Couples, Corey Pavin, Davis Love III, Duval,Colin Montgomerie and Sergio Garcia. It's a tag no player longs to wear for any extended period of time, for with each passing major championship without a win, the stamp grows larger and larger and invites more and more sports media scrutiny.
"When you get to a major, you know you are facing the best players from all around the world on some of the best golf courses in the world in front of the most media you will see all year," says Love, who shed his label of best player never to win a major when he won the 1997 PGA Championship at Winged Foot. "I was bothered by it mostly because I hadn't won a major. Winning the first major is unbelievably hard to get. That's why it's amazing that some players have won so many, like Tiger and Jack".
Steve Stricker, who once fell to a ranking of No. 337 in the world, says his confidence has never been better heading into the major season. With his fourth victory in less than nine months coming this year in the Northern Trust Open, he rose to No. 2 in the world — and started to wear the crown of best player never to win a major.
"I have confidence knowing that I have been up around the lead in those majors," says Stricker, who has top-10s in each of the four majors. "Everything is on a little bit bigger scale, including your nerves. It is a challenge. It is a challenging week for everybody. But it's something you've just got to try to blow off and just treat it as a normal tournament and see if you can't get yourself in position.
"There's a lot of other great players that have not won a major, and it's hard to do. You only get four cracks at it a year, and there's definitely a higher intensity at those majors. Everything about it is to another extreme.
"It's difficult to win a major".
Geoff Ogilvy learned that quickly. The talented Australian played in his first major in the British Open in 1999. In his 10th major, he won the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot with a score of 5-over-par 285.
"Majors are a different kettle of fish," Ogilvy says. "Until you've played in one, you don't realize how different the atmosphere is at a major. There's nothing like it in golf. Everything just feels different. You get a sense of that when you walk through the gates early in the week. Everything is just different — the pressure, the fans, the media, the attention. The courses are all set up to be their most challenging and difficult.
"And when you play great golf courses over a span of 75, 100 years, and you see the list of winners, all of that creates the utmost importance. That's why it's so tough to win a major".
Garcia knows all too well.
When the Spaniard came within one stroke of chasing down Tiger's tail in the 1999 PGA Championship as a teenager, Garcia flashed so much promise and left little doubt he would win a major.
But he has finished in the top 10 in 15 majors without hoisting the trophy — the most of any active player who hasn't won a major. He came within an eyelash of winning the 2007 British Open when his putt on the final hole spun out and he later lost in a playoff to Harrington. The following year, Garcia took a one-stroke lead to the 70th hole of the PGA Championship but Harrington again thwarted Garcia's bid to break into the fraternity of major champions.
"Tiger, obviously, is one reason winning a major is so tough," Garcia says. "He's always there on Sunday, and he's probably the best player to ever play the game. The majors are the toughest tests, but you just have to deal with everything and try to make the fewest amount of mistakes possible.
"Majors are nerve-racking. There's more pressure. You have to stay positive and keep on trying your hardest.
"But Tiger makes it tough".
USA Today
