A month after having to answer questions about a so-called slump, Tiger Woods is on the highest of highs.

If at first his victory at Augusta didn't quite sink in, it surely did in Orlando yesterday.

By placing the Masters trophy alongside the US Open, Open and US PGA silverware on the coffee table at his home, Woods was able to take a photograph no golfer has taken before.

Ownership of all four of the sport's majors at the same time is a feat beyond belief.

His 18-foot birdie putt for a two-stroke win was a moment in history like Bob Beamon hanging in the air forever, Muhammad Ali knocking out George Foreman and Steve Redgrave winning a fifth Olympic gold.

Yet the way Woods achieved his dream, there seems no reason for thinking he cannot do it again. Several times over.

Hal Sutton reckoned he saw frustration in Woods' eyes only four weeks ago. Perhaps he needs his own examining now.

''Tiger raised the bar so high last season that not even he could reach it again,'' he said. ''The challenge of him trying to do it and meet everybody else's expectations will be insurmountable.''

Woods, as if to answer such a suggestion, has promptly gone out and won his last three tournaments.

Even when it was the world No 2 (Phil Mickelson) and Tiger's predecessor as No 1 (David Duval) bearing down on him on the final afternoon of his bid for immortality, he dealt with them as though they were mere beginners.

In a sense, of course, they are. Neither third-placed Mickelson nor runner-up Duval, whose missed six-foot birdie putt on the last green was the decisive moment, have won a major yet - and as long as Woods is around they might never do so.

Woods is younger than both, but in a professional career still not five years old he has already won 35 times. Six of them majors, of course.

Since Paul Lawrie won the Open at Carnoustie two summers ago only Vijay Singh, other than Woods, has tasted major glory.

Everyone in the sport is a winner to an extent because Woods has sent prize-money through the roof. This year's Masters was the first major championship to offer a seven-figure winner's cheque.

But while there is gratitude among his peers for what he has done for the sport and enormous appreciation of his talent, desperation must be setting in too.

It was felt this season when he did not win his first six events that some of the fear factor had been removed. That others had narrowed the gap.

That might still be true, but narrowing the gap and closing it are two different things. And Woods continues to have a stranglehold.

''He just seems to do what is required,'' said Mickelson, who has finished in the top seven of the Masters five times in the last seven years without capturing one of them.

''If I'm going to win with Tiger in the field I cannot make the mistakes that I have been making.

''I don't feel I'm that far off. I just think that mentally I'm not there for all 72 holes.

''It's disappointing because I felt this was a great opportunity for me and I felt like I was ready for it.''

Duval was among the first to offer congratulations to Woods - along with President Bush - then echoed Mickelson by saying: ''I had a few opportunities I wish I could have capitalised on.

''I'm still very proud of how I played, but I just came up short."

Woods was enjoying every minute of his accomplishment, something he said he never even dreamed of as a youngster.

''I don't think we as kids ever think of doing things like that,'' he commented.

''We think of winning major championships and competing against the best players in the world, but I don't think I've ever thought about four consecutive majors.

''I'm amazed at the fact that I was able to play as well as I did when I needed to.

''It is special. It really is. When I won here in 1997 (his first major as a professional) I hadn't been a pro for a full year.

''I guess I was a little young (just 21), a little naive and didn't understand what I accomplished for at least a year or two.

''This year I understand. I've been around the block and I've witnessed a lot of things since that year.

''I have better appreciation for winning a major championship and to win four in succession is hard to believe."

Sixteen rounds, 291 holes and 1,083 strokes were involved in the making of history and after the last of those strokes dropped into the cup an eerie calm descended on Woods.

''It was weird. When you are focused so hard on every shot you kind of forget everything else."

To end all arguments about whether what he had done constituted a grand slam because it did not happen in the same season there is one simple solution.

Woods must now successfully defend the US Open, Open and US PGA.

Asked how long his streak could go on he replied: ''We'll find out in June. Hopefully this is the start. But it might be the end.''

The only end many expect, though, is when he overtakes Jack Nicklaus' 18-major record.