Tiger Woods vs. Jack Nicklaus: who is the greatest player of all time? There has never been a better time to compare

Still, Woods engenders even more awe from his contemporaries. "I knew Jack was better, but that I could beat him sometimes," says Green. "These guys don't think they can beat Tiger."

Jeff Sluman provides one clue from earlier this year: "We were all watching in the locker room during the restart of the second round at Hazeltine when he hit that shot stiff with the 4-iron from a downhill, sidehill lie in the fairway bunker over the trees into a 30-mile-an-hour wind. There's no man ever in the world who could hit that shot. Everybody just started laughing."

Adds Dave Stockton: "He has shocked us like nobody ever has shocked a group of athletes."

Rodriguez says, "I was a better sand player than Jack or Arnold, a better long-iron player than Trevino, I hit the ball longer than Gary Player. But I can't think of a single thing that I could beat Tiger Woods at, and that's scary."

Sense of destiny: For all his natural gifts and happy turns his life has taken, Nicklaus has always portrayed himself as down to earth, uncomplicated and exceedingly normal. "I'm a lucky guy" is about as far as he goes to explain how it all happened.

"It never ever entered my mind that there was any such thing as destiny," Nicklaus says. "The only thing that was in my mind was that I had a major championship to prepare for, and if I wanted to win it, I better prepare."

Woods, in contrast, has always carried his specialness as a given. He was raised to believe that the forces in his life are, in his father's words, "a directed scenario."

Such a life view has given Woods both an inner calm and a perhaps necessary arrogance. Although some of his personality traits might be considered flaws--he freely admits that he can be cheap, stubborn and cold--he seems to accept them as necessary tools for the life he is destined to lead.

"In a strange way," says Bob Murphy, "I feel that Tiger is more confident than Jack was."

Race: The most obvious difference between Woods and Nicklaus is that Woods is an ethnic minority. It's also the most difficult difference to measure.

Tiger's mother, Kultida, tells of early days at junior tournaments when he usually was the only nonwhite competitor. "He felt all the people's eyes on him because he was different, and it made him uncomfortable," she says. "I told him, `Tiger, you can't tell them how to feel about you. But you can beat them. Win the tournament. Use your clubs, not your mouth. Use that rule, babe.' "

As Woods has become more famous, the subject of race has become more complicated for him to address. When asked how much his racial background has remained a source of motivation, his words lack an edge.

"I think it did as a kid," he says. "I've always known I could play, but some people wouldn't allow me to play or didn't want me to play. That certainly provided extra incentive."

Adds fellow tour player Grant Waite: "I've wondered where Tiger gets his intensity, that real feeling he gives off that he is on a mission, that he's playing for something more than the rest of us. When I watch the Williams sisters play tennis, I wonder the same thing. I have to think it has a great deal to do with race."