Here's a reliable forecast: Open already looking closed

Good enough for me. Given his pedigree at Torrey, how do we know he won't run away and hide? It's starting to feel like a rhetorical question.

"Right," said Rees Jones, the famed designer who revamped Torrey in late 2001. "He's done it before at the majors, hasn't he?"

Dastardly and diabolical as the Open courses traditionally are, the tougher setups seemingly eliminate half the field before the event begins. Then there's the advantage he has from a familiarity standpoint -- nobody knows Torrey better.

The last time a course in annual use on the PGA Tour also hosted a major in the same year, Woods disemboweled Pebble Beach at the U.S. Open in 2000, where he had won the AT&T Pro-Am a few months earlier. All he did was set a record for the biggest blowout in major-championship history, winning by 15 strokes.

Though Woods mostly dismissed his four-event win streak at Torrey and its importance going forward since the USGA setup will be so different, positive mojo means plenty, no matter what they do to the vaunted California course, which Woods grew up playing regularly.

"This course has been really kind to me," said Woods, who has also won six times at Firestone Country Club in Ohio. "Ever since junior golf, I've somehow really seemed to have played well here. It fits my eye. I feel very comfortable here.

"It's one of those things where some people just have an affinity for certain golf courses, like my buddy (Mark) O'Meara won five times at Pebble Beach, Sam (Snead's eight wins) at Greensboro and Nicklaus' (six wins) at Augusta, all guys that have won a number of times at certain venues. Somehow this golf course seems to have been pretty good for me."

All things being equal, Woods already has benefited from a small break with regard to June. The USGA has elected to play the 18th as a par-5, not a long par-4, and nobody has made more money on three-shot holes than Woods, who has averaged about 4.5 strokes over his career, usually leading the tour in scoring average in that category.

Jones wanted the hole to play as a par-4, but Davis wants to create the potential for closing drama. The way Woods is playing, it sets the stage for even more birdies.

Though Davis is certain the course will present a far more daunting challenge in the dry summer months, he had to concede that the story at Torrey will likely be Woods, just because he likes the sightlines.

"If you look at it, all of the holes are pretty much straightaway," Davis observed, quite rightly. "He can hit the driver and won't have to worry about angles or shaping the ball so much. He can hammer away."

Be it a ball-peen or a sledgehammer, the tools don't seem to matter much at the moment. He's equally comfortable with using either brute strength or finesse and the results have been the same.

Woods has won five of his last six starts dating to late 2007, including three in succession by astounding margins. After setting the tournament scoring record and winning by five strokes at the BMW Championship (the former Western Open), he won by six at the Tour Championship, establishing yet another scoring mark. His scoring average over the six-tournament, five-month span is 66.75, which includes a 63 at the PGA Championship.

While he didn't set a 72-hole scoring total Sunday -- he was never pressured to make birdies -- he obliterated the tournament mark for margin of victory. Tom Watson and Fuzzy Zoeller each won by five shots in 1977 and 1979.

Even though the result was never in doubt -- or perhaps because they wanted to measure the magnitude of the rout -- the lemmings trekked to the cliffs Sunday to watch the inevitable victory procession and prepare for June. Indeed, one of the more amazing elements of the day was that, in light of the awful weather forecasts, tens of thousands turned out to watch an athletic beat down.

Woods birdied the first hole after holing a 38-footer, while playing partner Stewart Cink made a bogey, expanding the lead to 10 strokes. It grew as big as 11 when he moved to 21 under on the back nine. He finished tied for first in putting, second in greens found in regulation and 59th in driving accuracy. Stop me if you've heard this one before.

The final result all but assumed, players began looking ahead to the Open, expecting the conditions to be unreasonably penal. Which means that Woods, mentally at least, is a couple of shots up already, five months out.

"The USGA cannot leave a good golf course alone," Charles Howell said, shrugging.

Well, when guys are shooting 20-under, somebody needs to ratchet up the difficulty, right?

"Guys are not shooting 20-under," Howell cracked, noting Woods' scoreboard tally at the moment. "Watch your verbiage."

Fair enough, the accuracy of the question was a tad exaggerated. But unlike the weather prognostications in SoCal, we stand by our Open forecast.