This Week at TravelGolf.com: April 12, 2005

Tiger Woods joins Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer as the only golfers who've ever been through at least four green jacket ceremonies, does it with a chip shot for the ages and now people want to question how he won? It's a joke really. All the doubters sound like they've taken a nine-iron to the head.

For if you have your faculties about you, it's hard to question anything Tiger did at Augusta in a magnificent Masters.

He putted into a pond and still won. He erased Chris DiMarco's four-shot lead in about a half hour early Sunday morning. He hit that chip-in from the back edge of the fringe on No. 16, a shot so utterly unbelievable it seemed like it was something digitalized into a Nike commercial (did you notice how the Nike Swoosh was all you saw on Tiger's ball as it hung on the edge of the cup before it finally dropped? If you didn't, you will soon in a ad blitz coming near you). Then after his aim went haywire on 17 and 18, he hit two ruthlessly cold-blooded shots to win it on the first hole of sudden death with daylight disappearing.

Can you imagine if Phil Mickelson won a tournament like that? He'd write a whole book about it. Oh wait, Phil did write a book about his first and, no matter what TravelGolf's Doug Carey thinks, likely only majors win ever.

Only because it's Tiger winning this way, it's accompanied by questions, insinuations that he's not as dominant as he once was. Please. Every other golfer on the PGA Tour wishes he was this fragile. For all the talk about the plucky, gutty DiMarco, the truth is he collapsed longer and much more dramatically than Tiger did on 17 and 18 Sunday evening. Just because it happened early in the morning and wasn't shown on CBS, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Tiger pulled off one of the great comebacks ever. The fact he wobbled on his 71st and 72nd holes, only to play lights out again on his 73rd, just makes it that much more impressive.

I'll be waiting for National Golf Editor Tim McDonald to throw a flag on himself in his next Media Column for prematurely calling Tiger done in the Masters. Not that McDonald stood alone.

It's apparent doubting Tiger is still all the rage. Victory margin? We're talking victory margin! Is this college football's BCS or golf?

Here's your future victory margin: Tiger Woods beats Nicklaus' majors record by at least four.

As always your comments are welcome on any topic, including the possibility of 22 major wins for Tiger.

Tee Time Girl ready
to help with your length

There's nothing like hitting the long ball and having the other guys in your foursome say, "You are so huge!" - though it's better when the cart girl is there to tell you instead. So says our newest correspondent, professional cart girl Nicole Kallis. Looking for candid commentary from the cart path? Check out Kallis' no-holds-barred debut column, which tackles the delicate topic of length off the tee.

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Caledonia: Myrtle Beach
gem also has some teeth

Caledonia is the Latin word for Scotland, but it should be the Latin word for gorgeous. "Sublimely integrated with the landscape, the course is a sensuous yet subtle delight," writes blogger Jay Flemma. A warm, inviting, comforting design in a hectic location, Caledonia is the flagship spearheading the region's economic reinvention as a destination for connoisseurs and players, not just bargain seekers.

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