Woods has a major difficulty

Everyone who dips a hand into a golf bag to retrieve a six-iron; everyone who shakes and quivers at the knees when faced with a four-footer for par; everyone who plants a tee-peg into the ground; everyone who dreams of conquering all-comers would love to have a "slump" like that which befell Tiger Woods, the world number one, throughout the year just gone.

In a sport in which Irish players can truthfully claim to be among the best on the planet, Woods continued to play as if he was from another galaxy. Just as space has no limits, so also did Woods prove that, in professional golf, nothing is beyond him as - back in April - he became the first player to hold all of golf's four majors at the one time when winning the US Masters.

Just one major? Hey, the guy is only human. Okay, so he didn't quite match the feats of the previous year (when he won three majors) but Woods' status as undisputed king of the dimpled ball is safe. In 2001, he earned almost $6 million in official prize money, won five times on the US Tour (including the Masters, the Players' Championship and the WGC-NEC Invitational) and also made a successful transatlantic raid on the TPC of Europe in Germany.

Anyone looking for signs of frailty could make comparisons between the 2000 season - when he topped six statistical categories on the US Tour - and 2001, when he topped just one: scoring, with an average of 68.81.

The reality, though, is that Woods in the season just gone was again the benchmark for every other player with major aspirations.

If it was strange to see Woods get just one top-10 finish in a major, even if it was the one that really mattered, there were plenty of crumbs for others to feast themselves on.

Retief Goosen finally emerged from the shadow of his fellow-South African Ernie Els to stake a winning claim for the US Open title. As if to further confirm that golfers, no matter the standard, are simply human, Goosen missed a short putt on the 72nd hole at Southern Hills, in Tulsa, which meant he had to return the following day before beating Mark Brooks in a play-off to win the championship.

The US Open win by "The Goose" may have caught most people by surprise, but David Duval's success in the British Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes was a major win that, in many ways, was overdue. Duval shot a third-round 65 to come from seven strokes off the midway lead to be one of four players sharing it going into the last round. In the end, the man with the wraparound sunglasses had three shots to spare.

And, in the USPGA Championship at Atlanta, David Toms held his nerve while spectators from outside the rope muttered words like "chicken" to him as he opted to lay-up on the final hole rather than risk playing a fairway wood from rough over water. His wise play reaped dividends as he successfully got up and down from 85 yards out for a par that won him the season's final major.

Unfortunately for the leading Irish players, the year was to end without any of them managing to become a major winner.

Darren Clarke gave it the best run - finishing tied-third in the British Open - but there was the solace of becoming the first Irishman to win a PGA European Tour event on home soil for 19 years in capturing the Smurfit European Open, one of three wins he achieved worldwide.

He also had the distinction of topping the European qualifying table for the Ryder Cup, an event which was deferred 12 months because of the September 11th attacks in the United States.

Just behind him in the qualifying table came another Irishman, Padraig Harrington. The Dubliner had a hugely successful yet frustrating year as he had finished runner-up on seven occasions prior to making the trip to Montecastillo in Spain for the season-ending Volvo Masters where a 25-foot birdie on the final hole - the 54th - gave him a one stroke win over Paul McGinley.

McGinley also made the Ryder Cup team and his win in the weather-curtailed Wales Open was one of 12 top-10 finishes he enjoyed while Des Smyth, at 48, became the oldest ever winner on the European Tour when taking the Madeira Island Open.

If it was a splendid year for Ireland's professionals, the amateurs basked in the spotlight too. Michael Hoey won the British Amateur championship, and Stephen Browne took the European amateur strokeplay championship.

And, in one of the most sensational wins of all in 2001, Hoey and another Irish player, Graeme McDowell, played key roles in Britain and Ireland's victory in the Walker Cup at Sea Island, Georgia, where the sun really was so hot that it would have been possible to crack open an egg and fry it on a stone.