As the first of golf’s major championships gets under way at Augusta National on Thursday, speculation about whether Tiger Woods can do the Grand Slam will reach fever pitch. He alone is capable of winning the Masters, the US and British Open championships and the US PGA in a single calendar year. The closest anyone has come to achieving this feat so far is Ben Hogan, who won the first three in 1953 and didn’t compete in the fourth. However, only five golfers have won all four majors in their entire careers. This means the chances of anyone, even Woods, doing so in the same season are remote.

Four of these five are Americans – Hogan, Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Gene Sarazen. The fifth is Gary Player, who this week will break Arnold Palmer’s record of 50 starts in the Masters. When I chatted to the great South African last week, he recalled how in 1957 his father wrote to Augusta’s all-powerful chairman Clifford Roberts to suggest that his son should be invited to Augusta because of his victories elsewhere in the world. Player senior offered to pass the hat round at his local club to raise funds for the trip. Back came the reply, “Pass the hat.”