Only the names of the vanquished have changed.
From Trip and Hank Kuehne to Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson. From Buddy Alexander and Steve Scott to Bob May and David Duval. From all the former junior stars, some of whom are still chasing their dreams in golf's minor leagues, to those PGA Tour millionaires whose trophy cases are missing some coveted hardware.
They have played the same role in the ascent of the world's best player, watching as Tiger Woods stunted their careers and altered their lives. They have, almost to a man, come to the same realization: No matter what they did or how well they played, Woods found a way to beat them.
When the 101st U.S. Open begins later this week at venerable Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla., the talk will be focused on Woods going after his fifth straight major championship. Yet there will also be some retelling of what Woods did to the field last year at Pebble Beach. He obliterated it, winning the Open by a record-shattering 15 shots to start his historic run.
But what Woods accomplished there was merely a prelude to what happened later in the summer. At St. Andrews, his eight-stroke victory matched the largest at a British Open in 87 years; at steamy Valhalla in Louisville, he beat May in a thrilling playoff for the PGA Championship.
Even a subsequent six-month stretch in which he failed to win a tournament did nothing to slow his pursuit of becoming the first player to win four straight majors. His victory in this year's Masters at Augusta National, where he beat Duval by two strokes and Mickelson by three in a Sunday shootout, was reminiscent of what he's done throughout his career.
Woods, 25, thoroughly demoralized the competition.
It left Duval and Mickelson saying many of the same things that other Woods opponents have uttered over the past 15 years, dating to his days as a prodigy on Southern California's junior golf circuit.
"He seems to do just what is required [to win]," said Mickelson, who had beaten Woods in two head-to-head matchups in the previous 15 months.
Especially in the major championships. As he did during his teen-age years in winning six straight USGA national titles -- three juniors and three Amateurs, another record -- Woods has been both a hard-to-beat front-runner and a player famous for spectacular comebacks.
At last year's Open, Woods took a one-stroke lead after the opening round and increased it to six by the end of a second round that was delayed by fog and suspended by darkness.
By the time he was done, he had lapped a field by more strokes in a major than anyone since Old Tom Morris himself at the 1862 British Open.
His victory in the British Open on the course the legendary Morris built had a little more suspense: Woods trailed Els by a shot after the first day but pulled away from Duval on Sunday. In the PGA Championship, Woods led each of the first three rounds, but needed one of his miraculous comebacks to beat May by one stroke in a three-hole aggregate playoff.
"I think if you shoot three straight 66s in a major championship you should win," May said at Valhalla. "But you're playing against the best player in the world, and he proved that's not good enough."
And in April, at Augusta, Woods gave another journeyman a piece of the spotlight. Chris DiMarco had the lead after each of the first two days before Woods grabbed a share of it during the third round and, after moving ahead by one stroke going into the final round, never lost it down the stretch.
While technically not considered a Grand Slam because the last of the major championships was won in a different calendar year, the achievement was considered among the greatest in any sport.
To those who faced Woods even before he turned pro, in 1996, it didn't come as a surprise.
Looking back
Trip Kuehne doesn't think as much about that August day in 1994 as he used to, but he knows how his life would be different had he beaten Woods in the 36-hole final of the U.S. Amateur at the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
"If I had won that day," Kuehne said, "I probably would have felt an obligation as U.S. Amateur champion to turn pro."
After making birdies on seven of the first 13 holes and playing what he now described as "the best golf I've ever played," Kuehne had as much as a six-hole lead before losing to Woods, 2-up. (In match play, each hole counts separately. Two-up means that the players finished all 18 holes with the winner holding a two-hole lead after they were done.)
Not that Kuehne was shocked by what Woods, then 18, did. Along with his brother, Hank, Kuehne had been friends with Woods since their days in junior golf.
"He was just better. He just found some extra gear and went there," Kuehne said.
