But it wasn’t meant to be. Without his trademark steely focus, he made one bad putt after another Sunday afternoon. He three-putted twice in the final eight holes, and missed two other eagle putts. He finished three shots behind Phil Mickelson.

“It was the only time I saw him try too hard,” caddie Steve Williams later said.

Woods took the next nine weeks off, first to be with, then to bury his father. He ended the longest break of his career at the U.S. Open, but it was quickly evident he still wasn’t himself.

For the first time in 10 years as a professional, he missed a cut at a major, shooting 76-76. It was only the fourth time he’d missed the cut at any tournament.

“It took me longer than I thought to cope with it,” Woods said of his father’s death. “I’ve never gone through anything like that.”

His next outing was the Western Open, one of his favorite tournaments at a course perfectly suited for his game. But an opening-round 72 left him flirting with the cut line again.

He trudged down to the practice range as he always does. And somewhere during those three hours of hitting balls, the grief lifted and Woods reclaimed the gift his father had given him so long ago.

“I had about an hour where I really hit it that was fun,” he said. “I had every shape shot, height, spin, whatever you wanted, I had it for about an hour. That’s what you’re always looking for. Then I just built upon that for the rest of the year.”

He shot a 67 the next day, the first of 17 straight rounds under par. He wound up second at the Western, then won his next six starts.

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There are hundreds of players — good ones, too — who don’t win six tournaments in an entire career, let alone one season. To go 6-for-6, well, only Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan know what that’s like.

But it wasn’t simply the victories that piled up, it was how Woods got them. He used his driver once at the British, and rode his putter to the title at the PGA Championship. He gutted out a playoff victory at Firestone, and shot a 30 on the front nine of the final round at the Deutsche Bank Championship.

When the year ended, he led the tour in scoring average (68.11) and birdie average (4.65), and his greens in regulation average (74.15) was a full two percentage points ahead of second-place Jeff Grove. He was sixth in driving distance.

Since that first round at the Western, he’s shot above par only four times in tour events. He’s been no worse than second in stroke play since missing the cut at the U.S. Open.

It’s the most dominant stretch golf has seen since 2000, when Woods won nine times — including three straight majors to round out his career Grand Slam at the ripe old age 24.

“It’s mind boggling, it really is,” Billy Andrade said. “Is he at that point he was in 2000? Yes. Is everybody playing for second? Well, we’re not going to concede it, but he sure finishes the deal better than we do.”

After Woods won at Hoylake, the emotions of the year finally spilled out. He threw both arms in the air on the 18th green and screamed, “Yes!” then buried his head in his caddie’s shoulder and sobbed.

When he hugged his wife, it was with the desperation of a man searching for something — or someone — he knows he’ll never find.

“If you take into account what happened off the golf course, it’s my worst year,” Woods said this fall. “People asked me ... ’How do you consider the year?’ I consider it as a loss.

“In the grand scheme of things, golf doesn’t even compare to losing a parent.”