Advertisement

Tiger Woods

"Who am I to tell Tiger Woods how to play golf?" said Haney following Woods' triumph in yet another electrifying Masters at Augusta at the weekend.

"I don't even consider myself his coach. I consider myself a teacher and I wouldn't overstate my contribution.

"I help with his swing, but there's so much more to Tiger Woods.

"This guy is just unbelievable."

Woods came in for some fierce criticism during the gap between his eighth major title at the 2002 US Open and his ninth victory on Sunday, some of it from former coach, Butch Harmon, who was dropped from his team three years ago.

But now, after nailingh a 15-foot birdie putt for victory at the first hole of a play-off against unlucky Ryder Cup team-mate Chris DiMarco, Woods has a fourth Masters, is back as world number one and is halfway towards his ultimate target - Jack Nicklaus's 18 majors.

At his current strike rate Woods will get there in 2013. He would be only 37, with huge power to add. Nicklaus, after all, won his 18th at Augusta when he was 46.

First, though, there is the rest of this season. And for the fourth time in his career Woods will go into June's United States Open with his Grand Slam dream still alive.

Pebble Beach would be his venue of choice for that, but Pinehurst in North Carolina comes close behind. He was third there in 1999. And then, of course, comes the Open at St Andrews in July.

That is Woods' favourite course, the one on which he triumphed by eight five years ago.

Until those tournament come around the 29-year-old is simply going to savour ending his barren run, especially with his father Earl battling prostate cancer.

"Maybe it'll give him a little hope, a little more fire to keep fighting. I can't wait to see him to give him a bear-hug," said Woods, breaking down at the presentation ceremony.

"This is for dad. He's struggling - his health has been pretty bad all year and it's one of the reasons why Doral (the tournament he won in Florida a month ago) was so big when I shot 63 on his birthday.

"He's hanging in there, but he wasn't able to make it to the course this week and unlike my other wins here, I wasn't able to hug him coming off the 18th. That's why it meant so much for me to be able to win this tournament."

Woods then turned to Haney's role and their work in progress on his swing. His third swing and, almost certainly, not his final swing.

"I don't think you're ever there," he said about finding the ultimare swing.

"If you ever arrive you might as well quit because you can't get any better. and in this game you're always trying to get better.

"More than anything this is validation of all the hard work. Hank and I have put some serious hours into this.

"I read some of the articles of him getting ripped and I'm getting ripped for all the changes I'm making and to play as beautifully as I did this entire week is pretty cool."

The "entire week" is stretching it a bit.

Tiger, did after all, putt into Rae's Creek in a bizarre first round that left his supporters wondering if he would ever make it back as a major winner.

This especially after he hooked a hackers 100-yard drive into some bushes and then, of the 50 players who made the halfway cut, was ranked only 49th in driving accuracy.

As always, though, Woods had powers of recovery like nobody else, and as always nobody really expected him to lose once he got himself in to the thick of things and took the lead heading into the final round

He has now taken the lead or a share of the lead into the final round of nine major championships and won them all, never scoring higher than 72.

In addition, he has won his last seven tournament play-offs which pretty much says something about why he is the champion he is.

"Tiger has the greatest mind out here," said America's Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman.

DiMarco was four clear going into Sunday, but he and Woods still had nine holes of their third round to play and that stretch proved to be one-way traffic.

The 36-year-old came home in 41, while Woods equalled the Masters record with seven successive birdies (the first three came on Saturday) and, despite following with two bogeys when the first-ever 62 in majors beckoned, he established a three-stroke lead.

DiMarco had closed with a 76 last year after sharing the lead with Phil Mickelson, but having lost the initiative to Woods, he changed his clothes and shoes and mounted a spirited fightback and when he birdied the long par 5 15th - after a lay-up shot which television commentator Lanny Wadkins criticised - he was,  for brief second,  back on level terms and had Tiger looking very serious as he prepared to putt.

Woods made his birdie, though, and went two ahead in unbelievable fashion on the next with a chip-in which he deliberately sent up a slope and then back down again, the ball hanging on the lip before "somehow an earthquake happened and it fell in."

All over? Far from it. Woods, in spite of everything else, remains essentially human and subjecvt to its frailties, although to a much lesser extent than most of his rivals.

And he is making more mistakes than he used as the brashness of youth wears off and he did again, bogeying the last two holes after first hitting a drive 50 yards off line down the 17th and then firing an iron almost as wild into sand on the 18th.

DiMarco's chip to win at the 18 was a little strong, hit the hole but ran on and put him into his second  play-off for a major title in less than a year - he lost the last one to iron-man Retief Goosen at the 2004 US Open.

At the first Masters play-off on the 18th at Augusta, Woods conjured up some more of that magic when it's really neeeded,  got his act back together and hit two near-perfect shots and a perfect putt.

It came as no surprise to the only player who was able to give him a fight this year.

British young gun Luke Donald and US Open champion Retief Goosen, the next best in the contest, could only finish distant seven strokes back in joint third.

"Twelve under is usually good enough to win," said DiMarco. There have indeed been only eight lower winning scores in 69 Masters.

"I just was playing against Tiger Woods. I was expecting him to make that chip. You expect the unexpected and, unfortunately, it's not unexpected when he's doing it."

Get great value Official Tiger Woods merchandise here