Odds World Rankings President Cup Stand. As his conquests mount, and his Stanford mind inhales history, the Tiger Woods package is extraordinary at age 24 as golf's still-escalating dominator alights at St. Andrews with a dynamic opportunity. His sport was invented centuries ago on these lumpy, treeless, seaside Scottish acres. None of golf's grand arenas, even Augusta or Pebble Beach, equals the Old Course for deep-rooted ambiance. Again, the game's supreme contemporaries gather for the British Open, a tournament born in 1860 whose impact in 2000 is globally unsurpassed, challenging a grassy cathedral that is longer than ever at 7,115 yards.
Woods amply comprehends.
He could be Sir Tiger. Woods won a Masters by 12 strokes at Augusta National in 1997, gutted out a PGA Championship by the most trembling of margins at Chicago's Medinah in 1999, then last month made it a Three-Quarters Slam, annihilating all comers in the U.S. Open to win by 15 at Pebble Beach. After his artistry on the Monterey Peninsula, there was considerable surrender in the voices of humbled Tiger chasers. Grit will be reaffirmed, at least until Thursday when the British Open cranks. Nobody has ever been a lock in a major championship.