The world's best shortstop, quarterback, boxer, shooting guard, attacking midfielder, chess player and decathlete won another major golf tournament today.

By dominating and demoralizing the best golfers on the planet in the PGA Championship, Tiger Woods didn't show us anything particularly new. Moreso, he just drove home even further the already obvious.

The 1984 super welterweight battle between Thomas Hearns and Roberto Duran is brought to mind. Regardless of any of his foibles, Duran will always be regarded by boxing historians as one of the great fighters in the annals of pugilism. But that night, he was faced with a man so superior in every aspect, the pummeling Duran received was inconceivable, up to the moment a freight-train right hand by the "Hit Man" dropped the great "Hands of Stone" on his face in round two.

What Tiger Woods has done to the PGA is like that, with the only difference being that Duran didn't get propped up to get knocked out by Hearns again several times a year for a decade. The rest of the PGA is simply overmatched by a superior athlete.

Woods obviously doesn't and won't win every tournament he plays, but only the foolhardy judge a golfer by his or her last round. It's akin to changing your mind about global warming due to a heat wave.

What is important is the body of work. And with 12 majors and 51 victories in a hair less than 10 years on the PGA Tour, and with a game that evolves and improves as he wills it, Tiger Woods has cemented his historical standing, as well as his position amongst his sporting peers. He is physically, mentally and emotionally better than any human alive who makes sport a career.

So while some will debate whether golf is a sport and golfers athletes, for Tiger Woods this discussion is moot. He is, without question, the best athlete of his generation and one of the greatest of all time.

--WKW

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