Title for Tiger: 'The man is a freak of nature'

Woods was asked whether the existing points system should be tweaked to allow more guys into the mix, smirked broadly and, with his chrome FedEx Cup trophy parked a few feet away said, "Well, I'm personally OK with it (the way it is)."

So what did we learn in the new FedEx scheme? It reaffirmed what everybody already knew: Woods is the runaway best player on the planet. His adjusted scoring average dropped to 67.79, matching the record-low number he posted in his stellar 2000 season, when he won three majors. His average is exactly 1.5 shots better per round than the next-best number -- or six shots over a four-day event. This might be the most jarring note of all with regard to framing his recent play: In his past 22 starts on the PGA Tour dating to his victory at the British Open in July 2006, Woods has won 13 times, a stunning 59-percent success rate. He twice finished second at majors in that span, too. Among experts, it has conjured up memories of the 1999-2000 stretch, when he won 17 times. Frighteningly enough, he seems to be more well-rounded now.

"I think that I have a better understanding of how to play the game now by far than I did back then, and I certainly have a lot more shots to get me around golf courses than I did then," he said. "That's just seven to nine years of more experience, just understanding all the mistakes I've made and how to improve and how to get myself around the golf course."

Mistakes? What mistakes?

A few of Woods' highlights from summer 2007: He won the PGA Championship, shot 63 to match the lowest round ever recorded at a major, won four of his last five starts, shot a career-low 28 on the front nine at East Lake, trashed two tournament scoring records and moved a lot closer to being the first athlete to earn $1 billion in his career.

Woods finished 22 under last week at the BMW Championship to obliterate the event's aggregate scoring record by five strokes. This week, he beat Bart Bryant's 17-under mark in this event by six, recording his seventh win of the year. With his 61 career victories, he's one shy of moving into a tie with Orlando neighbor Arnold Palmer for fifth on the tour career wins list and three shy of Ben Hogan for a share of third. All of a sudden, those 82 victories by Sam Snead, the top dog on the chart, seem downright shaky.

Woods also won for the first time at East Lake in six tries, a stretch that included a pair of blown 54-hole leads. For a while there, Bobby Jones' former home club seemed like his personal kryptonite -- but then he strung together four rounds of 66 or better to make a mockery of the zillion-dollar points race. Not that money is the motivating force.

"For me, I don't look at what the purse or prize money is," he said. "You play, and when you play, you play to win. That's how my dad raised me. If you win, everything will take care of itself."

According to the biological clock of most players, Woods at age 31 might not have reached his peak. He doesn't feel like he has, anyway, for whatever that's worth.

"I don't know when it's going to be," he said, laughing. "What do you want me to tell you, it's like Jan. 5 of such and such a year? I mean, you don't know. The whole idea is to try and keep improving.

"When all is said and done, when you rack the cue and go home and retire, you can honestly say these were my best years, when I was at my peak. But when you're in it, you're always trying to improve that a little bit to get to the next level."

Judging by the gushing testimonials, Woods has ratcheted up his game a notch or two yet again. The so-called playoff finale had all the drama of a lopsided four-game sweep in baseball, hockey or basketball.

Steve Stricker, who entered the Tour Championship in second place on the FedEx list but finished tied for 17th, never put any pressure on Woods this week. Same for Phil Mickelson, Rory Sabbatini and K.J. Choi, the others who had a slight chance of denting his bank account.

"I wish Phil or I could have been up there and challenged Tiger a little more, but he's playing really good," said Stricker, who pocketed $3 million for finishing second in points. "I've never seen anybody putt as good as he does, and when he does hit a foul ball, he's so strong out of the rough that he can muscle it onto the green. Just when you think he's going to make a bogey or something, he ends up holing out of the bunker or making a 30 footer.

"You know, hats off to him. He's a great player."

And quite possibly getting greater.