Columnist Dean Juipe: Tiger’s 2000 sets a new standard

Dean Juipe

Monday, Nov. 6, 2000 | 10:46 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

The title is honorary and has no shortage of contenders. It's also subjective, meaning one person's view is as good as another's.

Ask 50 people who had the single greatest year in the history of sports and you're apt to get at least 10 different answers.

At or near the top would be Wilt Chamberlain's 1961-62 season with the Philadelphia Warriors, the year he averaged a staggering 50.4 points. Physically and mentally imposing, Wilt had 50 or more points in 45 games that season.

Also contending would be Hack Wilson, who drove in an almost unbelievable 190 runs for the 1930 Chicago Cubs. He must not have left anyone stranded.

Ten-time NHL scoring leader Wayne Gretzky would have his supporters. They could successfully argue that it will take a significant rule change for anyone to threaten the Great One's record of 92 goals for the Edmonton Oilers in 1981-82.

Eric Dickerson's NFL record of 2,105 rushing yards for the 1984 Los Angeles Rams deserves a mention, as does Byron Nelson's fabulous 1945 season on the PGA Tour when he took advantage of the war-depleted fields to record 19 victories, including 11 in a row.

These and other statistical anomalies and wonderments contribute to the endless ability of sports to amuse and occupy our time. They're also the focal points of many a spirited debate.

I'd offer this one: With all due respect to Wilt in particular, Tiger Woods' 2000 season appears to have set the new standard. He dominated a sport that tends to prohibit domination.

And, importantly, he did it under a magnifying glass, with his every move and decision fair game for an increasingly aware public.

Counting his second-place finish Sunday in the Tour Championship at Atlanta, Woods entered 18 PGA Tour events this year and won nine of them. In order, here's how he finished: 1, 1, 2, 18, 1, 2, 5, 4, 1, 1, 23, 1, 11, 1, 1, 1, 3, 2.

Included in those nine wins were three majors: the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship.

He has $9 million in official, i.e. tour, earnings this year. Tack on endorsements and the "funny money" that can be made from non-tour events and Woods could retire today and live comfortably ever after.

For two whimsical reasons, maybe he should retire. For starters, even he may not be able to duplicate his 2000 achievements; "quit while you're ahead" and all that. Secondly, it would take his retirement to return the PGA Tour to its pre-Woods standing when any and every event was fair game for even the lowliest man on the money list.

These days, when Woods is entered in the field there is only one favorite.

His 2000 has been so phenomenal that even as he came to the par-3 18th hole Sunday needing a hole-in-one to tie eventual champion Phil Mickelson, the TV announcers refused to concede its improbability. It was one of those "if anyone can do it" kind of things. But not even Woods can will the ball into the cup, and when his 3-iron from 239 yards led only to a closing par he was begrudgingly forced to smile and accept second.

The greatest single season of all time? Woods, who met virtually every challenge in the most difficult sport in the world, may have just had it.