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Tiger Woods: stands alone in the world of golf

They are insisting that not only can this unstoppable golfing force majeure complete another 'Tiger Slam' of the three Majors that he doesn't currently hold, he could do the totally unthinkable - and win EVERY tournament he enters this year.

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View from America: US-based British sports-writer Simon Veness offers his thoughts from Over There on the amazing form of Tiger Woods

You could call it The Joy of Six. Or The Terror of Tiger. Or even The Bid To Beat Ben.

But all of those titles would not even begin to describe the preview scenario for this week's World Golf Championship outing at the Doral Woods course in Miami (which is live on Sky Sports 2 from 6pm on Thursday and Friday, 6pm on Sky Sports 3 on Saturday and from 7pm on Sky Sports 2 on Sunday).

The WGC-CA Championship on the 'Blue Monster' has quickly become an accepted member of golf's elite events but that is not what most people are focusing on this week as the great Tiger Watch clicks up an extra gear.

Fervour

The media scrutiny of World No. 1 Woods was already in 'intense' mode at the start of the year as he carried forward a remarkable finish from 2007 (four wins in five events, including the US PGA Championship). It moved into 'overdrive' when he made it four straight wins in a row as he pocketed the WGC Accenture Match Play event last month; and it is now officially in 'frenzy' status after his sensational final-hole victory at last weekend's Arnold Palmer Invitational event.

And the first official Major of the year, the Masters at Augusta, is still several weeks away. If his current form carries forward, we will have to invent a whole new range of hyperbole to describe the coverage this extraordinary sportsman engenders!

It was certainly in danger of going off the scale last Sunday, when he holed an outrageous birdie on the last to deny Bart Bryant the chance of a play-off. For several days afterwards, the TV channels were full of that slow-motion 25-footer which curled into the cup, to be immediately followed by a rare explosion of Woodsian delight.

As far as this week is concerned, the focus is now firmly on whether he can make it six PGA Tour wins in a row; whether he can pass the 64-tournament win mark of Ben Hogan; and if there is any hope at all for the other 69 professionals in the CA Championship.

Tiger is currently on an all-conquering Florida road tour. After bagging the Arnold Palmer in Orlando on Sunday (and getting back out on his local practice range on Monday), he was driving down the Florida Turnpike for his date at the Doral, where he has won the last three times he has played there.

Greatness

And it has all served to get the talking heads at their most incredulous, speculating whether Woods can match Jack Nicklaus's total of wins (73) this year (he would need to win nine of the 15 tournaments currently on his schedule for the rest of 2008), and how far he will be off the all-time record of Sam Snead (82 victories).

But that idea is not enough for some - they are insisting that not only can this unstoppable golfing force majeure complete another 'Tiger Slam' of the three Majors that he doesn't currently hold, he could do the totally unthinkable - and win EVERY tournament he enters this year.

The astonishing thing is, they may not be far off the mark.

ESPN golf pundit Bob Harig points out that Woods has pocketed an incredible 18 titles since the beginning of 2006, a run that includes one Open Championship and two PGA crowns.

Looking purely at the Majors, Tiger is certainly overdue to add to his tally of four Masters victories (in 1997, 2001, '02 and '05), while this year's US Open is at one of his favourite hunting grounds, Torrey Pines in California (where he has won four Buick titles).

Then, at Royal Birkdale, where this year's British Open is being held, the World N.o 1 was third, just one shot off the lead, when it was last played there in 1998 (back when this Tiger was merely a cub). He would then be on for a hat-trick of US PGA titles, and few would back against him pocketing a true Grand Slam.

But, before any of that can happen, he has to tackle the Blue Monster - so named for the enormous amounts of water that sparkle throughout this beautiful resort course along the Florida coast (a better advert for the Sunshine State is hard to imagine).

An amazing 49 of the world's top 50 will be in Miami for the WGC-CA Championship (only Open champ Padraig Harrington will be missing) but there can be little doubt numbers 2-50 will all be looking anxiously at the scoreboard for anyone whose name starts with a 'W'.

Competition

The young Bart Bryant, who was the only player to break par on all four rounds last week (and still finish only second!), insisted: "What he's doing right now, you can't even fathom."

In US PGA Tour history, there have been just five winning streaks of five tournaments or more, and Woods owns three of them. The others belong to Hogan (6) and Byron Nelson, whose 11 in a row in 1945 stands as a peak of Everestian proportions in the sports pantheon.

And the TV presenters at NBC, who will be showing the final two rounds from Miami over here this weekend, are already licking their lips (and scouring their dictionaries for variations of 'amazing' and 'unprecedented') at the prospect of that streak hitting six.

Eleven in a row may seem like an impossible height in the modern game. But, if he turns up for the start of the WGC-CA Championship with a Himalayan sherpa as his caddy, you can be pretty sure he thinks it is well within his capability.