1998 -

By Mark Garrod, PA Sport Golf Correspondent

The Home of Golf hailed Tiger Woods on Sunday night as he joined golf's most exclusive club - and did it, fittingly, in record-breaking fashion.

The phenomenal 24-year-old confirmed his true greatness - in the whole history of sport, not just golf - with all the ease and majesty of someone who knows how special they are.

A month after winning the US Open by the biggest-ever margin in major championship history - 15 shots - Woods added the Open at St Andrews by eight and with the greatest scoring ever seen in a major.

And by doing so the amazing American completed the Grand Slam set of all four majors in a career, a feat which has eluded so many of the game's legends.

Players like Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Walter Hagen and Tom Watson could never do what Woods has now achieved - incredibly, in only his 15th major as a professional.

Watched by the largest crowds in Open history (47,000 on the last day), the world number one gained admittance to an exclusive club whose only previous members were Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus with a mind-blowing 19-under-par total of 269.

That score was two short of the lowest-ever major aggregate of Steve Elkington and Colin Montgomerie at the 1995 US PGA and Greg Norman at the 1993 Open at Sandwich. But they represented 17 under and 13 under par respectively.

Woods, 16 under after three glorious days (of play as well as weather), achieved a 69 to beat the record 18 under mark set by Nick Faldo on the same course in 1990 and equalled by himself in winning the 1997 Masters - his first major as a professional - by 12 shots.

His first concern, of course, was making sure he won, but once that was done at the start of the back nine after David Duval had narrowed the gap from six to three, he simply cruised home.

It makes him the first player since Nicklaus in 1972 to hold three of the four major trophies at the same time - he defends the US PGA in Louisville next month - and the first since Watson in 1982 to do the Open-US Open double.

And the way he is going it will not be long before he is doing it all again and maybe going where no golfer has gone before. Winning all four majors in one season; that is the ultimate dream.

For a while, it has to be said, there was a slight doubt on the final afternoon about Woods claiming his place in history.

Duval, for the first time in over a year looking like the world number two he is, could have narrowed the gap to two on the 10th green after going out in 32 to Woods' undramatic 35.

But he missed from 15 feet, Woods holed from 12 and suddenly the difference was restored to four. And when Duval made a mess of the 12th and Woods birdied it for the fourth day running there was six between them.

It was all over then unless Woods did something he had not done over the first 66 holes. Like go in a bunker - but he never did. And nobody, Duval included, expected him to.

Instead, Duval found sand at the 13th and bogeyed, Woods two-putted the long 14th for his fourth birdie of the week there and Duval bogeyed the 16th.

Worse was to come. Duval had four shots in the Road bunker at the 17th - one of them back-handed to another spot in the sand - and ran up a quadruple bogey eight. He came home in 43.

It sent him crashing from second to 11th place. Instead the runners-up were Dane Thomas Bjorn - his best-ever performance in a major - and South African Ernie Els, who has now been second in all three majors this year.

But this week, like so many in recent weeks and months, was all about Woods, a winner now 27 times in his 102 starts since leaving the amateur ranks.

He did bogey the 17th, coming up short of the Road bunker with one of his rare loose irons, and carefully putting around it without any heroics.

Once his drive was safely away down the last the crowd stormed onto the fairway. There were rowdy scenes, with one marshal even pushing fans into the Swilken Burn, and then yet another streaker.

But it did not put Woods off his stride. Nothing seems to any more.

With the record first prize of £500,000, Woods is also a winner now of over 20 US million dollars - on the course alone. Off it, he has contracts worth several times that.

Sarazen was 33 when he accomplished the career Grand Slam feat at the 1935 Masters. Hogan was 40 when he made his one and only appearance at the Open at Carnoustie in 1953 and completed his set with a four-stroke win.

Player was next. His 1965 US Open victory came at the age of 29 and made him the only non-American so far to have a career Grand Slam.

And then, of course, there was Nicklaus. He needed a mere 19 majors as a professional to join the club, which he did at 26 by winning at Muirfield in 1966.

Nicklaus' 18 majors are the yardstick by which Woods will ultimately be judged.

But in terms of ability he is surely already the best there has ever been - Nicklaus never blew away opponents in the way Woods has now done in three of his four major victories.

After the worst weather of the week during the morning - wind and even a little rain - the skies cleared and the sun returned for the leaders.

The first sustained indication that more low scores would be the order of the day came from Paul Azinger, who birdied six of the first seven holes to charge from three to nine under and joint fourth place.

He still had to birdie the eighth and ninth to equal Denis Durnian's 17-year-old major championship record 28 for nine holes set at Birkdale - but he could only par them and lost the magic on the homeward run.

Els, the first-round leader with a 66, returned to that form after two slack days with birdies at four of the first five and with that climbed back to second place on 12 under, four behind.

There was no need for Woods at this stage to do anything other than be concerned with his own business, however, and he smiled and laughed when he missed an eight-footer for birdie at the first.

It got a little more serious when Duval pitched to one foot on the second and six feet on the third and holed both to join Els.

Woods responded with a 20-footer on the next to be five clear again but was let off the hook when Duval - on in two unlike Woods - three-putted the long fifth, missing from under three feet.

Even though he did not make the same mistake from seven feet on the next to be four back again, he knew he simply had to take every single opportunity.

All the newspaper column yards which had been prepared for a Woods victory could not yet be guaranteed to appear when Duval drilled in another eight-footer at the seventh to trim the gap to three.

Els left himself too much to do once he bogeyed the short 11th and then hit into gorse at the driveable 12th - he did well to escape with par with a 15-foot putt. But his 69, once Duval crashed at the 17th, proved good enough for second again with Bjorn, who was round in 71.

Joint fourth were two more Americans, 1996 winner Tom Lehman and David Toms, while Fred Couples was sixth and Darren Clarke joint seventh along with Azinger and Swede Pierre Fulke.

The rest trailed in. In fact, for the second major running, everybody except one man trailed in. The same man. The same superman. Tiger Woods.

Frighteningly for the rest, Woods said later that there was more to come.

"I can definitely play better," he said.

"I'm playing well right now but there are some loose shots I hit out there, and some of the things I'm working on are starting to become more natural."

Woods said he was delighted that, following his US Open triumph last month, he was able to complete the Grand Slam of the four major titles at St Andrews.

"I was fortunate enough to win the US Open at Pebble Beach and to have a chance to complete the Slam here was very special," Woods added.

"I putted well and some of the shots I was hitting today coming down the stretch I felt very good hitting them. I putted well and I was able to bring it home."