With his 13th major championship victory this morning – achieved despite a late scare when his lead was cut to one stroke – Tiger Woods not only moved within sight of Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors, he re-established his psychological dominance over professional golf.

There had been murmurings that Tiger, 0 for 3 in majors this year and apparently spending a lot of time at home cooing over his two-month-old daughter Sam, had lost his edge, and maybe his appetite. In the privacy of the locker-room, some of his fellow-pros were saying (behind their hands, admittedly) that Woods was becoming beatable. The field was gaining ground on the undisputed world No.1.

Yet the events of the past 12 hours at Southern Hills Country Club, a long and fairly dreary course in Tulsa, Oklahoma, proved their hopes were ill-founded, premature and desperately optimistic.

Woods began the final round of the 89th US PGA Championship three shots clear of his nearest challengers. Given that he’d won all 12 times that he’d led a major into the final round, the last day was expected to be a cakewalk. And when he stretched his lead to five after birdies at the seventh and eighth holes, it did indeed have all the hallmarks of a procession.

But Ernie Els and journeyman American Woody Austin ensured that Woods was made to fight for his win by launching final-day charges. Woods’ lead was trimmed to just one when Austin got to six under par and he bogeyed the 14th to fall to seven under. The championship at that point was wide open, with Els was just two shots back. But, in time-honored fashion, Woods was able to steel himself, regain his composure and hole a five-metre birdie putt at the 15th, after which he was never seriously threatened.

On the same afternoon, just north of the Canadian border, another fascinating development was taking place in world sport. For Roger Federer, whose dominance of tennis has often been compared to Woods’ pre-eminence in golf, was playing in the final of the Montreal Masters, his first tournament since winning Wimbledon in July.

(By way of history lesson, Woods has 13 wins in 50 major championship appearances, to be in second place behind Nicklaus on the all-time tally. Federer, meanwhile, has 11 Grand Slam singles titles from 33 appearances, to lie in third place behind Pete Sampras (14) and Roy Emerson, 12.)

Yet, while Woods’ position at the top of golf’s pile is unchallenged, the gap between Federer and the rest of the tennis world is now surely closing. He can’t win on the red clay of Roland Garros, and his French Open nemesis, Rafael Nadal, even ran him to five sets in last month’s Wimbledon final.

Now, another challenge looms to Federer’s supremacy and it comes in the lanky form of 20-year-old Serbian boy wonder, Novak Djoković, who with minimal fanfare has rocketed up to No.4 in the world rankings.

In the Montreal final today, Djokovic’s precocious talent was again on show as he beat the Swiss master in three sets, 7-6, 2-6, 7-6, achieving the remarkable feat of defeating the world Nos. 1, 2 and 3 – Federer, Nadal and Andy Roddick – on three consecutive days.

So Federer’s mantle as king of the world’s courts is under challenge like never before; meanwhile, over on the green baize fairways of the US Tour, it’s very much as you were. Normal service has been resumed. Tiger Woods is the new PGA champion and it seems only a matter of when, not if, he breaks Nicklaus’ mark, a record once thought untouchable.