It's mind-boggling to me that Tiger Woods -- the same Tiger Woods I grew up watching as a middle schooler and elementary schooler -- has been a professional golfer for nearly two decades.
His is a career that has spanned 19 incredible seasons that have both made us awestruck (2000) and sad (2014).
But which is the best? And where does 2014 rank among them?
I've gone back and ranked them one by one from most exhilirating to most deflating, all 19 of them. Let's take a look.
1. 2000: The three-major season. The nine wins. The 17 top 10s in 20 events. All of it. Every bit of it was staggering.
2. 2006: These next three are all interchangable but 2006 gets the second slot for me because he won his last six tournaments starting with the British Open and was a combined 109 under par. In those 24 rounds, he broke 70 a total of 21 times including every Thursday and Sunday. Insanity.
3. 2005: Six wins, two majors and he finished top five in the other two. Could have legitimately won the Grand Slam this season. It also produced the most memorable shot of his career on Sunday on No. 16 at Augusta.
4. 2002: Woods only won five times in 2002 but one of those was his second-straight Masters and another was a three-shot US Open win over Phil Mickelson.
5. 1999: Won the 1999 PGA Championship against Sergio Garcia and, get this, seven of his last 10 tournaments.
6. 2007: We're in "did he win more than one major in the same season?" territory here. He didn't in 2007, though he did win seven times including four of the last five and a PGA Championship.
7. 2008: Only played seven times and won five of them including that unreal US Open. His other two tournaments were top fives including a second at Augusta. You could make the argument that this was the apex of Tiger's powers, and I'd listen.
8. 2001: Won five times including the Masters but no other top 10s at majors. This was the Tiger Slam year, and I have it ranked eighth! Eighth!
9. 1997: I'm not totally sure what to do with 1997. Woods only won four times but one of those was one of the five most historic wins in any tournament ever. I have to put it top nine, but I'm not prepared to go any higher.
10. 2009: Six wins and three top-six finishes at the majors. Nothing crazy memorable, though, until Thanksgiving.
11. 2013: Five wins and a Player of the Year nod but only the win at The Players Championship stood out as elite. Two top 10s at majors as well. And a jewel of a GIF from TPC Sawgrass.
12. 2003: No major wins -- that's how we're doing this, right? -- but still won five times. Can you imagine anyone else ranking a season in which they won four times as their 12th-best?
13. 2012: Finally got back in the swing of things from his 2009 incident with three wins but played poorly (for him) at the Masters (T40). Had top 10s at the British Open and PGA Championship but no major wins.
14. 1996: Woods won twice in eight events that season and rose from No. 517 to No. 33 in the world golf rankings. Hello, world...indeed.
15. 1998: Tough to rank a season in which he had three top 10s at the majors this low but such is the career of Woods. Only one win. A swing-change year.
16. 2004: Yet another swing-change year. Only won the Match Play Championship and had his worst finish at Augusta (T22) until 2012.
17. 2010: Top 10 at the Masters and US Open but barely cracked the $1 million mark. This was his "coming back from the fire hydrant incident" season.
18. 2011: Somehow finished fourth at the Masters -- which he seemingly could do in a coma -- but only made $660,000 in nine events and was cut from the PGA Championship.
19. 2014: Woods finished three tournaments and made less than $110,000 -- or less than some writers covering the PGA Tour. That's depressing if you're a Tiger fan.
For more golf news, rumors and analysis, follow @EyeOnGolf and @KylePorterCBS on Twitter or Google+ and like us on Facebook.
