In 2001, by winning the US Masters, Tiger Woods completed the remarkable run of winning four consecutive Majors, but the fact that he had done it across two different calendar years had the Golf Monthly letters page asking whether or not it counted as the Grand Slam.
Reader Steve Bott noted that in the past every Masters champion – the first Major of the year – always got the same question at the US Open, the second, namely, “You are the only person who has a chance of completing the Grand Slam, can you do it?” Similarly, ‘No one has ever asked the reigning US PGA champion if he is looking forward to completing the second leg of the Slam when he gets to Augusta, so why should Tiger have completed the fourth?’
Golf Monthly’s diplomatic answer was that this was a ‘Tiger Slam” – you can read more of their reasoning, and a special feature on Woods’ achievement, here.
