Jim McCabe

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Ten years later, it is the margin of victory that resonates.

Twelve shots.

In 70 editions of the Masters, the green jacket has been decided by a playoff or 1- or 2-shot differences a whopping 49 times. Only 12 have been won by four shots or more.

Yet Tiger Woods won in 1997 by 12.

Utterly dominating? Indeed, and for comparison, consider that in the six Masters after that Woods performance, the combined margin of victory was 12 shots.

Tiger Woods did that in one win — and let’s not forget it was his first Masters as a professional.

Arnold Palmer won a Masters in 1964 by six shots and people probably said we’d never see the likes of that again. The next year, Jack Nicklaus won by nine shots. Again, it was said we’d never see the likes of that again — only Raymond Floyd won by eight shots 11 Aprils later, so we saw something similar. Still, Nicklaus’ margin of victory stood as a record for 32 years, until that warm April week when Woods turned Augusta National into his own little pitch ‘n putt.

In the aftermath of a performance that established Masters records for lowest score (270), most strokes under par on the backside (16), most strokes under par around Amen Corner for the tournament (7), and widest 54-hole lead (9), Woods left us speechless, though you could faintly hear folks saying, “We’ll never see the likes of that again.”

Silly people, haven’t we learned? We could see the likes of that again. After all, Woods is but 31.

Now I’m not predicting that he’s going to stroll to a double-digit victory this year. It might be next year, or the year after that. Maybe three years from now — but it’s going to happen. Some April, the swing is going to be flawless, the putter is going to be in synch, the conditions are going to be conducive to low scoring, and everything will be in harmony with a competitive engine that burns hotter than the desert sun. When that happens, Woods will put forth a dominating Masters that will draw comparisons to 1997.

“He always has a chance to win,” said Arron Oberholser last Sunday as Woods was busy building a six-shot lead with six holes to play in the WGC CA Championship in Miami. “He knows it. We know it. And he knows that we know it. That’s how you dominate.”

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There it is, the one-two punch that provides sport’s most overwhelming success story: Woods’ supreme confidence and the opposition’s sheepish resignation to their fate.

“He’s just better than us, really,” said Geoff Ogilvy.

“The reality is, even if I play at the top of my game for the rest of my career and achieve my goals, I still won’t get to where Tiger is right now,” wrote Phil Mickelson in this month’s issue of ESPN the Magazine.

Mind you, these are guys who won major championships in 2006. So if they’re saying stuff like that, what must the rank-and-file gents be thinking? Get the white flag out and start waving it is most likely what they’re thinking.

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We already know that Sergio Garcia shakes in his spikes at the mere thought of going head-to-head with Woods. (Hey, he was so nervous at Royal Hoylake last summer, he tried to disguise himself as a banana, but his Sunday score gave him away.) We suspect that Ernie Els is tired of the Woods pursuit (we know he’s tired of the Woods questions). Vijay Singh might have the stamina to stay on a practice range for hours, but there’s not enough depth to his all-around short game to hang with Woods for 72 holes at a place like Augusta National. Retief Goosen? He seems in disarray of late. Adam Scott? Trevor Immelman? Paul Casey? Luke Donald? Immense talents, all of them, but combined they’ve yet to break through in a major.

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So who is there to put a scare into Woods? No one, unless, of course, Jack Nicklaus falls out of a 1964 time capsule.

It is Woods vs. Woods — his single-minded push to win everything there is to win, to constantly get better, to always improve. You think he uses Nicklaus as a yardstick? Sometimes, yes. But sometimes Woods merely has to look at what he’s accomplished and try to better that.

He built that six-shot lead late in Round 4 of the WGC CA Championship in spite of a opening 71 that was, in his view, a “pathetic” display of putting, and in spite of a sloppy three-putt for par at the eighth hole Sunday. He played brilliantly in spots, but was scratchy at other times, but with him, that’s enough to run away and hide (and don’t be fooled by the two-shot win; it was more comfortable than that). If anyone else on the PGA Tour isn’t on his game for all 72 holes, he finishes maybe Top 10, but doesn’t win.

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