After Woods began to work with Hank Haney, Tiger didn't stop winning at the same pace he had when working with Butch Harmon.  He won 32 titles with Butch between 1999 and 2003.  With Haney, he has won 31 times with one event remaining on the Tour schedule to tie the five year tally with Harmon. 

For all of the talk about Woods' performance in the majors this year - which was awfully good by almost any measure except Woods' own standard - he has won just one less major in the five years since the Haney changes kicked in versus at his best with Butch.  Since, Harmon has been rejected by Adam Scott and Ernie Els, and left Phil Mickelson in as much of a state of flux as could be possible for the third best golfer in the world.  Woods has had the last laugh in that battle.

Harmon would retort that Woods wins differently today than he did when they were the best of pals.  That's true.  Woods doesn't play golf tournaments like the godless killing machine that vanquished foes with little remorse and on a grand scale. 

The lack of remorse has been replaced with a sense of empathy, as evidenced by how he felt after his duel with Paddy Harrington in Akron. 

The grandiose wins have been replaced by ho-hum victories by one to four shots.  The wins pile up, but they don't have quite the same feel to them.  Woods rarely has an absolute victory these days.  Winning going away is a rarity.  Perhaps that is because Woods has no statements left to make in these run-of-the-mill Tour events.  For God's sake, he has won 71 of these things in 252 starts.  It is a formality that he will overtake Sam Snead's record for Tour wins.

While people like me lament that Woods 3.0 isn't nearly as dominante, this Tiger is more sophisticated.  He has more shots in the bag.  They were on full display at Cog Hill, and he has compiled a highlight reel of great escapes this season.  Perhaps that bag of tricks was borne out of his wild driver - the one club he seems incapable of taming.  In some sense, it is more impressive that Tiger wins at approximately the same pace despite not putting the pedal to the medal in every tournament. 

To some extent, Tiger 3.0 is more exciting than the Terminator.  This Tiger keeps it close.  He makes it exciting.  There are more opportunities for a Rocco, or a Yang, or a Slocum.  What happened at Hazeltine never would have happened to 2000 Tiger Woods.  And, you know what, I'm glad that those guys had their shot at Tiger.  Since the supposed Big Three or Five or anybody else that's purportedly really great can't do it, someone had to step up and mar the record of the greatest golfer ever.  In the midst of golf's Lost Generation, Woods has no equal except some middling pro on an idle Sunday for Tiger. 

Were it not for this version of Tiger, we never would have seen Woods slam his hat in a black out celebration at Bay Hill.  Nor would we have seen him repeat the feat in the darkness one year later.  The old Tiger would have won by five or ten.  Yeah, those days were awesome and all, but I kind of like this Tiger better.

The guy is a freakin' billionaire and has made hundreds of other less talented players into instant millionaires because of his play.  He deserves to ride on cruise control every now and then, especially coming off of knee surgery and a rapid rehab.  Ernie Els is still trying to recover from knee surgery - at least in Tiger's view.  It has been three years.  In one comeback season, Woods has double the number of PGA Tour wins that Ernie Els has around the world in the entire duration of his comeback.

Let's not forget that this is only the third season in Tiger's professional career in which he has not won a major title.  But do remember that Woods way vying to win a major in five consecutive years.  No one had ever done that, much less doing so in the fifth year coming off of a knee surgery and accompanying swing changes.  For as hard as we are on the guy to say that he may have lost a step, we have to recall that he literally could not walk this time last year and he still almost won the PGA Championship.  That would be like if Barbaro had come back from his ankle injury to win the Kentucky Derby the next year.  And Barbaro isn't racing anymore - in case you haven't heard.

Despite my love for the modern Tiger, it was nice to see a throwback.  It is heartening to know that the old Tiger is lurking somewhere inside and, when he needs it, he can bring it back.  Now after a span of two weeks in flux - a time frame that seemed like eons ago - Woods will be re-elevated to the highest of his career peaks.  With his closest competition in the form of the steady Jim Furyk and determined Steve Stricker, Woods will get a good final test in what he calls one of his best seasons.