Jack Nicklaus

AUGUSTA, Ga. - The more Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters tournament change every year, the more they stay the same. The more Tiger Woods alters his style and substance in growing from a teen-age phenomenon to a 20-something legend, the more things here stay the same for him. Certainly the winner of the season's first major golf championship hasn't fluctuated much over the past six years. With a four-round score of 12-under-par 276 and a three-stroke victory over U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen of South Africa, Woods won the Masters for the third time yesterday.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- The smell was unmistakable. As Tiger Woods and Retief Goosen of South Africa stepped onto the first tee yesterday at Augusta National Golf Club for the final round of the 66th Masters, there was a hearty stench from the muddy path nearby on which most of the huge gallery was standing. They were there to witness history in the mucking. Woods had a different scent altogether, the kind that the world's best golfer has experienced many times. While sharing the lead with Goosen after three rounds, Woods and nearly everyone else here understood what was going to transpire.

OPINION: Five thoughts about the Ravens and former quarterback Trent Dilfer: 1) The Ravens did the right thing in letting him go. 2) The fact that it appears Dilfer will be a backup at best in 2001 validates their judgment. 3) Dilfer's gung-ho, team-first leadership will be missed. 4) He's all class and it's a shame he hasn't found a job. 5) He won't be bitter about Baltimore, he'll be proud. Fact: To get their hands on hockey's Stanley Cup, the members of the Colorado Avalanche had to play 23 playoff games in 58 days in five arenas in two countries, survive six overtimes, win two Game 7s and, well, that's enough.

FLINTSTONE - Jack Nicklaus stood on the first tee at the Rocky Gap Lodge and Golf Resort yesterday, looking out on what he helped create from a 235-acre parcel of rough terrain in this Western Maryland town. Just by the name of the place, you know it wasn't an easy job. But there was Nicklaus, winner of a record 18 major professional championships and designer of more than 180 courses around the world, trying to explain what his intentions were on nearly every shot on a course that can play anywhere from 7,102 yards at the back tees to 5,198 yards for beginners.

AUGUSTA, Ga. - What Tiger Woods accomplishes is no longer measured simply within the parameters of his sport. There are still comparisons to other golfing legends - from Bobby Jones to Byron Nelson, from Ben Hogan to Jack Nicklaus - yet now others are being mentioned in relation to what Woods did here Sunday night. In winning the 65th Masters and becoming the first player to hold all four of golf's major championships - the Masters, the U.S. and British opens and the PGA Championship - simultaneously, Woods has gone from being a phenomenon to the sport's transcending star to quickly becoming one of its immortals.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When he was age 31 and considered the best golfer in the world, Jack Nicklaus played the first two rounds of the 1971 PGA Championship with the legendary Gene Sarazen. Nicklaus went on to win the tournament, but it was the memory of playing with Sarazen, then age 69, that remains with him to this day. Tiger Woods might have a similar recollection some day from this year's PGA Championship. And considering how he performed while playing with the 60-year-old Nicklaus in yesterday's opening round here at Valhalla Golf Club, Woods might also wind up with the same result.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The historic pairing of Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in today's opening round of the 82nd PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club will take place as scheduled, one day after Nicklaus learned that his mother had passed away in Columbus, Ohio. Helen Nicklaus, 90, died in her apartment at an assisted care facility. According to a family spokesman, she had been seriously ill for a couple of years. Nicklaus learned of his mother's death in a telephone call from his wife, Barbara, while playing a practice round.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - At a clinic of PGA champions yesterday at the Valhalla Golf Club, Tiger Woods took out his driver and put on a one-man show. It didn't matter that he wasn't even the closing act - Jack Nicklaus was - or who had gone before him on the practice range stage. On command from master of ceremonies and former PGA champion Lanny Wadkins, Woods hit the kind of low burners that helped him win last month's British Open at St. Andrews, the perfectly shaped draws that led to his 15-stroke victory at Pebble Beach in this year's U.S. Open and the high fades that could bring him another major title here in the 82nd PGA Championship.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland - Everywhere you look here, the history of golf is staring right back. From the fairways of the Old Course that opened before the American Revolution to the cemetery at the edge of town where Old and Young Tom Morris are buried, the game's roots are as firm as the grasp Tiger Woods currently holds on his rating as the world's top player. It is why there is always a special feel whenever the British Open returns to St. Andrews, as it will beginning today. And because of what Woods has done in a spectacular career that peaked with last month's 15-stroke victory in the U.S. Open, the 129th British Open might become of the most memorable.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. - Tiger Woods chased history yesterday at the Pebble Beach Golf Links. He kept it in his sights throughout the first nine holes in the final round of the 100th U.S. Open. Shortly thereafter, Woods caught it, passed it and obliterated nearly every record he was pursuing. Like the rest of the field who meekly got out of his way, history proved no match for the world's greatest player. In winning his first Open title by a whopping 15 shots for the third major championship of his remarkable four-year career, Woods tore out the pages from record books, some of which had been in there for more than a century.