Woods victories tinged with sadness

The Majors: Philip Reid on how Tiger Woods's win at the British Open was to start a remarkable run

If a missed cut in the US Open at least proved his human fallibility, it was a rare - and, in the circumstances, understandable - blip on yet another season when Tiger Woods, the world number one, again confirmed, when it comes to getting the ball into the hole in the fewest amount of shots, there is simply no one better at achieving such an objective.

His year's work almost done, Woods, whose father, Earl, died in May, can reflect on 2006 with sadness on the death of the man who was his guiding light but also with a belief his game is better than ever and, with 12 major titles in the bag with the addition of the British Open and the US PGA this season, he has closed the gap on Jack Nicklaus's all-time record of 18.

When Woods won the WGC-American Express championship at The Grove, north of London, in October, it constituted his ninth win worldwide of the year and his sixth strokeplay title in successive tournaments. Yet, he confided, "if you look at it overall, nine wins is a good year, especially including two majors in there as well and two WGCs. The things I've been working on have all come together. But, in the grand scheme of things, golf doesn't even compare to losing a parent."

An indication of Woods's superiority over everyone was that his AmEx win brought his worldwide earnings in the year to $10.4 million. It brought his PGA Tour earnings for the season to $9.9 million. It brought his career money earnings on the PGA Tour to $65.7 million. It left him first in scoring average on tour, first in birdies average, first in greens in regulation, first in approach shots (to the flag) from more than 200 yards. The list goes on and on.

Yet, for Woods, the first two majors of the season brought sadness, for different reasons. Back in April, when his father was on his deathbed, Woods had sought to win the US Masters at Augusta National knowing Earl Woods would never again see his son play a major championship. Instead, Phil Mickelson, thinking "outside the box", as Paul McGinley had put it, by putting two drivers into his bag for the season's first major, emerged as champion, continuing where he had left off the previous year when he had taken the final major, the US PGA.

Mickelson had steadfastly stuck to an orchestrated game plan at Augusta that left him with a two-shot winning margin over South Africa's Tim Clark. The win emphasised the changing face of Mickelson, who had failed to win a major in his first 42 appearances in majors but whose success in the Masters brought him his third major in nine starts. "Three-for-nine sounds better, huh?" he quipped, when reminded of the 0-for-42 statistic.

In the US Open at Winged Foot, Mickelson had a gilt-edged chance to extend that run of major wins, but didn't take it. In a final round that produced unscripted drama of a tragicomic nature, Mickelson let the chance of glory slip from his grasp in the most unbelievable fashion. The American had stood on the 72nd hole knowing a par would win him the title and a bogey would get him into a play-off. He managed, however, to construct a double-bogey six after playing his way from trouble to more troubled down the left of the 18th fairway.

Woods had missed the cut in a major for the first time in his professional career at Winged Foot, and his absence over the weekend had opened the door for others. If Mickelson assumed the favourite's position, others - among them Colin Montgomerie, Jim Furyk, Padraig Harrington and the eventual champion, Geoff Ogilvy - had a glorious chance of winning the title.

From the middle of the fairway and with a bread-and-butter approach shot, Monty contrived to run up a double bogey on the 18th, while Furyk also bogeyed the finishing hole to finish in a share of second place alongside Mickelson. Harrington, too, had his chance. But the Irishman bogeyed the final three holes, to finish a shot further back, in fifth. When the dust had settled, Ogilvy's ability to make an up-and-down par on the last gave him his maiden major title.

Woods's return to major duty, at the British Open at Hoylake, was to start one of the most remarkable runs in modern golf. On a parched links, Woods only once used a driver in 72 holes of golf and finished with a round of 67 that left him two shots clear of his nearest challenger, Chris DiMarco, whose mother had died suddenly just three weeks before the championship.

This win by Woods was for his dad. When he rolled in that final putt, for par, it led to an emotional outpouring from the world's number one. The tears wouldn't stop and Woods threw his arms around his friend and bagman Steve Williams and used the giant New Zealander as a comforter.

"I've never done that (before). With all the things we've gone through of late . . . I guess I'm the kind of one who bottles things up a little bit and moves on, tries to deal with things in my own way. But, at that moment, it just came pouring out - of all the things my father has meant to me and the game of golf," said Woods.

Woods, who stuck with a strategy that saw him use the driver just once in 72 holes, said his father would have been "very, very proud" of the way he stuck to his game plan.

"He was always on my case about thinking my way around the golf course and not letting emotions get the better of you, because it is very easy to do in this sport . . . and just to use your mind to plot your way around the golf course and, if you had to deviate from the game plan, to make sure it is the right decision to do that.

"He was very adamant I play like that my entire playing career."

Although the lush terrain at Medinah in August for the US PGA was markedly different from the seaside links at Hoylake, Woods - unbeatable at this stage - was again irresistible in winning with five strokes to spare over his nearest challenger, Shaun Micheel. It had been a predictable final Sunday from a man without peer in closing out the deal. In the 39 previous times he led or shared the 54-hole lead in a tournament, he had won 36 times. In major championships, it was 11 for 11. Afterwards, we could make that 12 for 12.