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Looking back, looking forward: Bill Elliott

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Three cheers for big-swinging Boo, says our golf chief golf contributor and Observer columnist Bill Elliott...

It's that time of year when sportswriters try to look forward and back at the same time. This, of course, means that sportswriters end up doing what many feel they are best at ... falling over in a heap.

Mind you it could be worse - I could be a pro golfer. Imagine how the poor souls feel at present following Tiger Woods' winter bonanza the Target Challenge. Staged in his back garden in California, this is an invitation only event. The invitation comes from Woods, the lure is bags of money for everyone in the 16-man field and the purpose is to raise money for the lad's foundation centres.

Except that it isn't really. Instead this otherwise inconsequential tournament is tied up with a pretty ribbon and presented to Tiger as his special present, his chance to place his foot even harder on the necks of his challengers. While everyone else has been schlepping around the globe filling up wheelbarrows with appearance money, the Great One has done nothing except coo over his new daughter for two-and-a-half months.

Yet after only a few hours practice he emerged at The Target to win by a country mile and emphasise yet again that when it comes to challengers there isn't really anyone. This is both a tribute to the depth of Woods' talent and a condemnation of the shallowness of everyone else's by comparison. Expect more of the same next year.

He may only have won one major in '07 but Woods could have won all four with a bit of luck. Eventually he will do this. He already has the Tiger Slam, now he is ready for the Grand Slam proper. At [30.0] to lay I wouldn't bet with your money against him pulling off this feat next season. If ever there was a time to have a punt on this unlikeliest of achievements in the perverse world of golf then I believe 2008 is the year, for Woods is now better than ever.

As, reassuringly for the European Tour, are Justin Rose and Padraig Harrington. Rose's re-emergence as a class global act was perhaps the nicest thing to emerge from 2007. Certainly he is one of the nicest players. But nice no longer is enough. Justin did a lot of things over the last 12 months but what he didn't do was to win enough. This has to be his objective in 2008. Otherwise we will have to put him in the same file as the likes of Paul Casey, Luke Donald and Ian Poulter. This file is marked 'Good, but...'

Harrington, on the other hand, may now be good enough. For a class golfer the Irishman always has fretted too much about this, that and the other but as Open champion he has no need to query his own ability any longer. The next two years will confirm whether or not Padraig is as good as I suspect he can be. Not as good as Woods obviously but good enough to be the next best. If he really wants to he can win another major and, remember, he loves the Masters and Augusta seems to like him as well. We'll see.

Just as we will now see just how good young Rory McIlroy is. The teenage Ulster marvel shows every sign of being very, very good indeed but his pro career - he only exited the amateur game in September - so far has been surfed on a tidal wave of excitement and adrenalin. Next season will see reality kick in along with the relentless boredom of travel and anonymous hotel rooms. How he copes with all the stuff off the course will define McIlroy as a player. Put simply, it will either make him or break him. Hopefully it is the former.

Finally, and this is obligatory, I come to my personal Moment Of The Year. Come with me back to Carnoustie and The Open Championship. Walk with me to the corner of the Tented Village where a nice bloke could be found creating Arbroath Smokies from a hole in the ground and a few hessian sacks. Watch with me as an American golfer, on his first trip outside the USA, stands there and eats this delicacy while grinning with pleasure.

No other golfer made it to the Smokie place during the Open but Boo Weekley did and I liked him all the more for it. More hick than a hillbilly, dafter than the average brush, Boo has something about him and this is not just his name. Fact is he is imaginative enough, sweetly naïve enough, to build on a stellar 2007 and pull off something really significant in 2008. Tiger? He's okay but Boo's the man for me. Have a happy punting new year.