Mike Celizic

What’s scary about what Tiger Woods is doing to those who would be his peers is that he’s no longer simply overpowering them, he’s also outthinking them. And because of that, the best golfer of this generation who is on his way to being the best golfer of any generation may be playing the best golf of his illustrious life.

The thought is almost inconceivable. Five years ago, in the spring of 2001, Woods became the only person to hold all four major titles simultaneously in the modern era, having added the 2001 Masters to the 2000 U.S. Open, British Open and PGA. He had won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by an astonishing 15 strokes and won the British Open by eight. He had opened the year by winning his fifth and sixth consecutive tournaments. Proud owner of a remade swing, he was back then the best golfer the modern age had ever seen.

It wasn’t good enough for him, so, after winning two majors in 2002, Woods revamped his swing again and paid for it by going two years without a major. The new swing kicked in last year, when he won the Masters and the British, but he felt he would get even better.

In four days ending Sunday at the enormously long but essentially toothless Medinah course outside of Chicago, Woods showed that his feeling was dead on. Just 2 1/2 months after missing the cut at the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, he won his third straight tournament and his second straight major.

Back in June, we were talking about how Phil Mickelson had won two straight majors — the 2005 PGA and the 2006 Masters — and could equal Tiger’s string of four straight. And he could have won three straight, if, like Dorothy’s Scarecrow, he only had a brain.

Tiger’s got a brain and it’s fully engaged and focused on nothing but winning. He was relentless last month at the British. Sunday, he started the day tied for the lead and ended it winning by five strokes.

Now we get to sit back until April when he returns to Augusta and the Masters on the 10th anniversary of his historic first major title, a championship he’s won three more times since. He has seven months to further hone his swing and his strategy and will go in as the prohibitive favorite. He’s already the only one to win four straight majors in the modern era, and now he’s in position to do it again and make it five or six or almost how many he wants.

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Two years ago, serious analysts wondered if he could reassemble his swing and catch Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 career majors. Sunday, the same people were wondering whether his final toll would be 24 or 25 majors. And the speculation wasn’t out of line. Woods is playing that well.

In the process, he’s become by three years the youngest person to get 50 PGA Tour wins and the youngest by three years to win 12 majors. The previous owner of both of those records had been Nicklaus, who in many minds will remain the best golfer ever until Woods surpasses the Golden Bear’s record of career majors.

There’s two ways of looking at that. One is that you judge careers when they’re over, and, if the greatest home run hitter of all time is the person with the most home runs, then the greatest golfer is the one with the most major titles. That’s Nicklaus.

Woods set his sights on Nicklaus when Tiger was a kid, and he knows better than anyone how all-time greatness is defined.

Interactive Chart careers of golfing greats as Woods continues quest for most major victories

“It’s going to take a career. I just gotta keep plugging along and keep trying to win these things,” he said after winning the PGA. “I still got a long way to go.”

Actually, he’s two-thirds of the way there. He doesn’t have nearly as far to go as he’s already come. And because of what he’s done already you can say without fear of contradiction that the first 10 years of Woods’ career have been the greatest anyone alive or dead has ever seen, and not by a little, but a lot.

He’s not yet the best over a career, but he’s the best at 30. And from what we’ve seen since the debacle at Winged Foot, he’s getting better.

I suggested back in June that the loss in the U.S. Open and the subsequent mutual meltdowns of Phil Mickelson and Colin Montgomerie would tick Tiger off. He had taken more than two months off to be with his father, Earl, in his final days and then to mourn the passing of the person who was his father, his first coach, his confident and his best friend. He tried to compete at Winged Foot without having played a tournament to warm-up. It didn’t work.

He played once before the British and finished second. In three tournaments since, he hasn’t lost.

OK, he’s done that before, just as twice before he’s won at least two straight majors. But it’s been a different Woods we’ve been seeing since Hoylake in Liverpool and the British Open.

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