Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
July 19, 2002, Washington Post

Golf's Grand Slam

The big question this week in sports is: Can Tiger do it?

Tiger Woods continues his quest for the Grand Slam of golf this weekend by playing in the British Open. But if you are not a big golfing fan, you might have some other questions about Tiger's game.

What is the Grand Slam?

The four major tournaments in men's golf are the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Championship. If a golfer wins all four of these tournaments in the same year, he has the Grand Slam.

Has any golfer ever won the Grand Slam?

Not really. The legendary Bobby Jones gets credit for a Grand Slam in 1930, but the golf world was set up differently then. Jones did win the world's four most important tournaments in 1930: the U.S. Open, the U.S. Amateur, the British Open and the British Amateur. But there was no Masters; Jones started that tournament in 1934. And he didn't win the PGA in 1930. Jones was an amateur (that means he didn't accept prize money for playing golf), so he was not eligible to play in the PGA.

Hasn't Tiger Woods won the Grand Slam already?

Tiger did win the four major championships in a row, but he didn't do it all in one calendar year. He won the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA in 2000 and then won the first major championship of 2001, the Masters. Some people have called that the "Tiger Slam." Still, no one has won all four tournaments in the same calendar year.

Has anyone else come close to winning the Grand Slam?

Three legendary golfers have come closest. Ben Hogan won three of the four major championships in 1953. Arnold Palmer in 1960 and Jack Nicklaus in 1972 won the Masters and the U.S. Open. But their chances for the Grand Slam ended when each lost the British Open by a single stroke.

What makes winning the Grand Slam so hard?

Winning any single golf tournament is very difficult. The golfer has to score better than 155 other golfers for the four-day tournament. And, remember, the best golfers in the world play in the four major tournaments. Finally, golf tournaments are usually won by the slimmest of margins. Tiger Woods won this year's U.S. Open by three strokes. That means that if Tiger had missed just one more putt (even by one inch) on each of the four days of the tournament, he would have lost the tournament.

Well, can Tiger do it?

Absolutely. He can blast his drives more than 300 yards, and then display a master's touch around the greens. And at the end of yesterday's first round, Tiger was only a few strokes behind the leaders.

Tiger is so good that he seems to have psyched out the other golfers. Great players such as Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh almost expect Woods to win. They know that he is the best.

Of course, if he can win the Grand Slam, there won't be any question about who is the greatest golfer ever.

It will be Tiger Woods.

Fred Bowen writes KidsPost's Friday sports column and is the author of sports novels for kids. His books include "Winners Take All," "Playoff Dreams" and "Off the Rim."

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