Woods Wins British Open, Grand Slam

S T.  A N D R E W S, Scotland, July 23 -- Tiger Woods continued his utter domination of the PGA Tour with a stunning 19-under par 269 win of the British Open today, completing golf’s Grand Slam.

With the victory, Woods broke Nick Faldo’s 1990 tournament record 18-under par and became the first player since Jack Nicklaus in 1966 to win all four majors: the British Open, U.S. Open, the Masters and the PGA Championship.

At age 24, Woods also became the fifth player in history — and the youngest ever — to win the Grand Slam. Nicklaus was 26 when he won the exclusive quartet of championships.

Calling it his greatest dream come true, Woods said he was honored to have achieved the historical feat at St. Andrews.

“This is the home of golf and is where you always want to win,” Woods told ABC after the tournament. “As I said before the U.S. Open, I wanted to win two championships on the ultimate venues: at Pebble Beach and at St. Andrews.”

Largest Victory Margin at Tourney

Woods won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach last month by an unprecedented 15 strokes. He followed up that performance with an equally impressive outing at St. Andrews in this year’s British Open.

“The guy is simply [in a] different league,” said Faldo. “He’s thrown all those old myths out of the window, that you can’t physically train for golf, you can’t be strong or you are goingto lose your touch.”

Woods shot a 3-under par 69 today to finish at 19-under and win the famed Claret Jug. He beat closest challengers Ernie Els and Thomas Bjorn by eight shots. It was the largest margin of victory in the British Open since1913, when J.H. Taylor won by eight strokes over Ted Ray.

David Toms and Tom Lehman, the 1996 British Open champion, tied for fourth place at 10-under.

Duval Applied Pressure

Playing partner David Duval had reduced Woods’ overnightlead from six to three at the halfway mark, but Woods stormedback.