With seven victories this year, Tiger Woods mathematically clinched the PGA’s Player of the Year Award for the eighth time. That’s eight times in ten years.

They should just retire the trophy. The way Tiger’s playing, no one has a reasonable expectation of putting it on their mantle until he retires.

Woods also is on the way to winning the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average. But to do so, he’s got to play in the Disney, because he has not reached the minimum 60 rounds required for the trophy.

If Woods passes, the likely winner is Jim Furyk.

Five wins in five starts. Wow.

In some ways, I think that this win was a bit more impressive than the others this year. First, it was a come from behind deal. Those are always more difficult. And second—unlike other Tiger challengers—Vijay didn’t fold. He simply was outplayed.

Tiger still has one more victory to go before he matches his own best streak, which was six from 1999 - 2000. And he has a LONG way to go before reaching Byron Nelson’s legendary eleven straight in 1945. Ben Hogan has the second place record with six in a row in 1948.

The way he’s playing right now, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him break both of those.

Right now, I’m watching something that I don’t think we’ll see much of ... Tiger Woods is disintegrating ... in the third round, he’s shot four straight bogeys, and is working on a fifth.

Hey, where’s a rules official when you need one.

It had to happen some time. But now the question is whether leader Davis Love will drive in the stake while he has the chance.

It’s one of the craziest things I’ve seen: Tiger’s ball hit the pavement in front of the clubhouse and bounded onto the roof. Now he’s standing there and the entire tournament has come to a halt as people search the roof for his golf ball. It seems as though he’s actually contemplating hitting it from there if they find it—the roof, he has determined, is NOT out of bounds. (The ball is in the yellow circle above. The arrow indicates the direction that it travelled. After it leaves that bluish area, it passes over the white part of the roof, where it disappears from the camera)

More as the story unfolds.

He should just take a drop and get on with it. It’s not like this is a major. Of course, the question then will be WHERE to take the drop.

UPDATE

Now, from what I can gather, it turns out that the ball ended up in the parking lot, where it was picked up by a spectator. Because the ball was moved by an outside agency, he gets a free drop.

Napoleon once said that it’s better to be lucky than good. It may be true in golf, too.

A few random thoughts:

* I’ve seen this movie before. Tiger gets a lead, and then the rest of the field wilts, while he marches on into history. It’s getting a little boring. There’s practically no reason to watch on Sunday since if Tiger is ahead we know who will win.

*While audiences now flock to watch TV when Tiger is in contention, I’ve got to believe that at some point teh reverse will be true. While he has been responsible for the boom in the PGA Tour, I think he also could be responsible for the loss of interest in it.

* The gap between Tiger and the rest of the field is enormous. They’re all playing for second place.

* Silly me. I actually thought Luke Donald had a chance. Or that someone in that group of guys within one or two shots of the lead would step up.

* Here’s an interesting Tiger stat: On par 70 courses, Tiger has one win in 16 starts; on par 71 courses, he has 1 win in six starts; on par 72 courses, 10 wins in 18 starts. I think what this tells me is that attempting to Tiger proof a course by making it longer just plays into the Striped One’s hands. I think this is further reinforced by fact that Tiger is so far ahead of the field in scoring on par 5s.

* All the talk is of how fast Tiger will pass Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors. I think the more interesting question is how long will he continue to play. I am reminded of Alexander the Great, who wept because he had no more lands to conquer. He then drank himself to death at the age of 27. Tiger’s not going to drink himself to death, but after he wins twenty five majors, I wonder about his desire to keep going.

* After he wins all the professional majors a dozen times, what’s next? Can he quit playing tournaments for six or seven years, live off his billions and then apply for reinstatement as an amateur? Then he could pass all of Jones’ titles, too.

* Shaun Micheel sure has an affiinity for PGA Championships.

* Where the heck was Vijay? Is he done?

* When I see Tiger play, I am amazed at the job that his father did in creating this golf genius. But then I wonder about what would have happened if it didn’t work out. What if he had consumed Tiger’s youth in golf training, only to have the boy turn out to be a five foot four inch shrimp. Or if Tiger had—as so many teenagers do—defied his parents and decided not to play. Some of you may remember a football player named Todd Marinovich. His father raised him from childhood to be an NFL quarterback.  He made it for a couple of years, but has since been convicted on drug and assault charges. As a father, I am not going to take a chance with my kids by steering them to something that I want them to do. I’m going to let them explore every angle and decide for themselves.

* At the end of the tournament, there was no change in Ryder Cup standings.