Tiger slams the door on Muirfield

When Tiger Woods departed Muirfield at lunchtime on the final day of The Open Championship, quite a few hours before he would have liked to have left, it was put to him that winning three Majors in a year would still represent a strong season's work. "I thought two Majors was already a great year," came the deadpan reply.

The Grand Slam, or rather specifically the calendar-year version of it, was blown away in the third round at The Open with that horrendous 81. Would that be that? Would the Tiger go away to lick his wounds and amble his way through the rest of the season, rather like he did last year after winning the Masters to become the first player ever to hold all four Major titles at one time? Apparently not.

Woods will once again be the player to beat in the US PGA Championship which starts at Hazeltine on Thursday. "From what I've heard, some people expect me to have a letdown at the PGA, which I find amusing," Woods said on his website. "I look at it this way: 'How can you have a letdown? It's a major championship and the last one of the year'." Woods did not hold back in his latest diary entry. "So what if I didn't win the Grand Slam?" he said. "It's not like I'm not going to have another chance at it. I already have one slam, it just wasn't in the same calendar year."

This is fighting talk, but what did you expect? The Tiger era is not at an end just because he has had a rare glimpse of mortality. The harder Woods thrashed in the wind at Muirfield, the more smoothly Ernie Els eased his way round the links (before making it difficult for himself in the final round). Els, the deserved champion, had talked prior to The Open of someone or something needing to dent Tiger's confidence.

Whether Muirfield produces a permanent dent is unlikely. Woods will smooth out the technical deficiencies and then put the rest down to the elements. "You've got to put it out of your head and move on," he said. "It's a sport. It's not life or death. I grinded it all the way around that day. I didn't have it and the conditions added to it. It was just a tough day and it added up to 81. That's the best I could have shot that day. Unfortunately, it was a lot."

As for ending the season with three Major titles, as he did in 2000, Woods is keener on the idea than in the immediate aftermath of Muirfield. Ben Hogan, in 1953, is the only other player to have won three in one year. "Three of the four, right now myself and Hogan are the only ones who have ever done that in the same year," Woods said. "So that would be nice to win three out of four again."

The only weather intervention in Minneapolis will come from possible thunderstorms, but play is immediately suspended in such situations. Woods, along with his friend Mark O'Meara, visited the course last Tuesday. O'Meara played in the 1991 US Open at Hazeltine, which was won by the late Payne Stewart, but it was Woods' first look at a layout that has matured considerably since the days of the 1970 US Open when Dave Hill famously claimed they had spoilt a good farm.

"It was a lot more open than Muirfield," O'Meara said. "I imagine the kid will be there, Tiger that is. Hazeltine reminded him of Medinah. I think he liked it." It was at Medinah in 1999 that Woods won the first of his two US PGA titles. Like Augusta and Bethpage, but in contrast to Muirfield, Hazeltine has been lengthened appreciably, more than 200 yards being added to take the total yardage to 7,360.

It will not play quite that long, although the par fives are all monsters, especially the 636-yard third. It may not be quite as penal as Bethpage was in June, but as at the US Open then, the course's length will presumably play into Woods' hands.

"Hazeltine is a driving golf course," Woods said. "You have to get the ball in play. With the rough being up and the greens probably firming up, you've got to get the ball in play in order to attack and make some birdies."

Much like Muirfield, few of the current players have played at Hazeltine, though it will take less figuring out than a links. The players with the most recent experience of the layout include Charles Howell and Adam Scott, who finished fifth and 11th respectively in the 1999 NCAA Championship. The event was won by England's Luke Donald, but the US Tour rookie has not qualified to play in the US PGA.

Another Englishman, Tony Jacklin, won the 1970 US Open at Hazeltine, the only time a European has won that Major in modern times. No European has won the US PGA in modern times but if it is to happen this time Sergio Garcia may be the beneficiary. The 22-year-old played well at Muirfield without getting into contention on Sunday afternoon, which has become a trend. The important thing is that he continues to get himself into a position to threaten. If the Medinah connection proves valid, it was Garcia, of course, who pushed Woods down the stretch in the 1999 US PGA.

Interest in the British challenge may centre on Justin Rose, who showed enough at Muirfield to suggest he will not be overawed on his debut in an American Major. It is still possible for Els to start his own slam going, assuming he has got over the celebrations for his Muirfield triumph. More than any other Major, the US PGA introduces new winners, so Phil Mickelson, as well as Garcia, may finally get on top of the rostrum. That is if he can avoid losing to someone coming out of the pack, as David Toms did at the Atlanta Athletic Club last year.

Minnesota is reputed to have 10,000 lakes, and seven of them come into play, including Hazeltine Lake at the 16th. The lake is on the right while a stream runs up the left-hand side. Once the tee shot at the 402-yard hole has been negotiated safely, danger still awaits in playing to the peninsula green. Scott Simpson bogeyed the hole four out of five times in 1991, including in the play-off against Stewart, who picked up his only birdie on the extra day at the hole.