Courtesy: AP

The Grand Slam is safe for another year. That's just one outcome from yesterday's nail-biting final round at the Masters. And maybe the least important one.

Augusta National allowed another first-time winner to walk off the 18th green triumphant but humbled by what surely remains one of the finest and toughest layouts in the world. Year after year.

Remember the hue and cry last year - and the year before - about the changes to Augusta that were "destroying" the character of the course?

Sorry, I don't buy it. Augusta is the sternest challenge for any professional anywhere, any time, apart from a U.S. Open setup.

Tiger was right when he said after his Thursday round that playing Augusta now was like playing the U.S. Open.

That was proved again yesterday when the winds made club selection a lottery and swept the remaining molecules of moisture from the surface of the greens.

"Shiny" was how Nick Faldo referred to them.

But there isn't a player alive who would want to conquer Augusta when it was tame.

Frankly, "conquer" is the wrong word. Augusta cannot be conquered anymore. It permits winners.

Yet, Trevor Immelman did conquer - himself. As did every player out there yesterday who stared down his nerves, calmed shaking hands with resolve and sank putts that would put sweat on your brow on a January morning in Saskatoon.

Every one of them won yesterday in that regard:

• Steve Flesch who continued to smile as he dropped six shots - four of them in a row on the back nine - and still finished with a tough par on 18 for pride and a share of fifth place.

• Brandt Snedeker who had only 6 pars all day in one of the most roller-coaster rounds ever, yet like Flesch, continued to smile through it all and fight on knowing victory at the Masters was lost. In the end, something much more valuable was won.

• Tiger Woods on whose shoulders rested the hopes of millions of fans that he could win and begin the Grand Slam in earnest and who had to claw and scratch for every birdie - just 12 in the whole tournament - and see the Slam slip away bit by bit on the back nine. Yet he still finished second. He knows he didn't play his best. But he also knows he can live with that and learn from it.

• And of course, Trevor Immelman, in the line of fire all day on the toughest of days in golf. Steady-as-she-goes was his playing style from the first tee on Thursday to the 18th green on Sunday. 5 bogeys, one double bogey in four rounds with three of those bogeys and the double on Sunday alone. But he refused to buckle to Augusta - or to the voice in his head that was doubtless whispering that it wasn't going to happen, that he wasn't man enough to win. And now he has joined the most elite club in the world.

Golf is the only game that brings your character to the fore and displays it for the world to see. The Masters takes it to an even higher level.

I'm not sure that any of the other majors comes close.

As for the Grand Slam, I won't see it in my lifetime. I cannot imagine how a single golfer can align all the elements necessary to win such tournaments, have the necessary amount of luck to get the good bounces and rolls in each event and be at the peak of performance every time.

Tiger Woods is already the greatest golfer to ever play the game. He doesn't need to win the modern Grand Slam to prove that.

And we shouldn't demand it of any golfer.