His Cup runneth over

ATLANTA - When the PGA Tour took its product into the world of playoffs for 2007, there were muffled warnings about their volatile nature from a sports culture raised on team sports.

The only thing is, the PGA Tour had an insurance policy against regular seasons rendered meaningless. Tiger Woods.

His brilliance and his sheer genius formed a blueprint against the '69 Orioles, the '85 Hoyas, or any team coached by Marty Schottenheimer - sad, inexplicable playoff tales, all. Woods's presence and steel-eyed focus would not allow for a '69 Jets, a Giacomo, or a "Miracle On Ice" - Cinderella playoff tear-jerkers, each one.

No, with Woods what you get in the playoffs is what you get nearly every time he enters the competitive arena - his bloody best, which in most four-day stretches is enough to suffocate any semblance of competition.

Yesterday was just such an occasion, a breathtaking, eight-shot romp in the $7 million Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club that closed out his '07 competitive season in style. By shooting 4-under-par 66, Woods produced his best 72-hole performance, a 23-under 257, and so lapped the field that PGA Tour officials were sent to their book of regulations to see if there's any sort of slaughter rule in the new FedEx Cup landscape. Only kidding.

But if ever there was a plea for one, Mark Calcavecchia would argue that the 2007 Tour Championship could be Exhibit A. Calcavecchia's assignment on a cool, overcast final round was to accompany Woods on a history-making trip, and while it started splendidly - he birdied the par-4 first to get within two shots of the legend - it changed complexion in a hurry.

"Tiger didn't get off to his normal start," said Calcavecchia of his playing competitor's par at the first and bogey at the par-3 second, "but you know it's just a matter of time with him."

Just two days after going on a six-hole run that included five birdies and an eagle for a front-side 28, Woods flashed a similar explosiveness, albeit in a low-key manner - birdies at the par-3 sixth, par-4 eighth, and par-5 ninth. He was 21 under and leading by four, as Calcavecchia had shot a front-side 34 that featured just his second bogey of the championship on the outward holes, at the second.

If there was any hope for Calcavecchia - and the 47-year-old, 26-year Tour veteran knew there wasn't - it evaporated early on the outward nine. It was a combination of Woods's priceless precision - he jammed approaches to 10 feet at the par-4 13th and 3 feet at the par-4 14th to go birdie-birdie and push to 23 under - and Calcavecchia bogeys at the 12th and 13th.

They were two of Woods's 28 birdies, a number for which he almost sounded apologetic.

"I honestly don't know how I made that many putts, when the greens are this slow," he said.

But he had made them from everywhere, from shots stuffed short and from balls left 70 feet away, like the eagle at the ninth in Friday's second round. Had he ever putted this well?

He thought for a moment and suggested the Masters in 1997 or the US Open in 2000. He won those majors by 12 and 15 shots, so he had a point, and he also had one of the all-time understatements when he offered this about this exquisite show: "I really played some good golf. I hit a bunch of good shots."

Zach Johnson wasn't going to debate either point.

"He never ceases to amaze me. I'll put it that way. He's hard to describe," said Johnson, who followed up his third-round 60 with a 33 on the front to earn an invitation to fight it out for second place.

The dubious distinction of finishing runner-up was the only drama, and one that never got decided. Calcavecchia finished at 71 -265, tied at 15 under with Johnson (68), and as he has throughout his eight-year career, Sergio Garcia (70 -266, solo fourth) was left far in Woods's wake.

Truth be told, that's business as usual on the PGA Tour, and even a new era like the FedEx Cup can't change that. Woods not only earned $1,260,000 for his seventh win of the year and 61st of his career, but he made sure there would be no sort of upset within the framework of the year-long points system that has been at the center of so much talk this year.

Clearly the best player in the game, he was unquestionably the most dominating player of the four-tournament playoff schedule - even if he did skip the first one.

"Heck, he could have skipped two and won," said Calcavecchia.

Number-crunchers would be able to support that assertion, which will lead some to question the system. But that's for another day. For now, savor Woods's performance over the three playoff tournaments he did play - the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston, the BMW Championship in Chicago, and the Tour Championship - and consider:

He finished tied for second and won twice.

In those 12 rounds, he went 59 under par.

Over 216 holes, he made just 15 bogeys.

His scoring average was 65.72.

Woods won $3,042,667 of the possible $28 million in purse money, or 11 percent.

Factor in the $10 million annuity he gets for winning the FedEx Cup and Woods accumulated $13,042,667 of the $63 million that was up for grabs ($28 million in purses, $35 million in deferred payments), or a mind-boggling 21 percent.

Ah, but that's money, of which he has enough for 11 lifetimes. What he doesn't have enough of is the everlasting thrill of victory.

"You play, and when you play, you play to win. Period. That's how my dad raised me," said Woods.

That is why, as he held onto a two-shot lead, Woods winced after flying the third green with his approach. Coming off a bogey at the second, he saw his ball sitting on pine straw, knew he had virtually no green to work with, and had to hit a big flop shot from beneath a tree. Improbable? Yes. Impossible? Never.

He blasted to 8 feet, made the putt, and when you sift through his 257 shots, he'll point to that one. "It was a big putt to make," he said of the one that kept him up by two.

Calcavecchia merely shook his head. "He's the best ever. Period," said Calcavecchia, who couldn't find anyone in the East Lake audience to argue with him. Heck, where in the world is there a dissenting voice? Not when you sprinkle in some of the other details to his performance, like the fact that he made at least one birdie on every hole except the par-4 10th and par-4 17th, or that he's now won four of his last five starts, or that when he birdied the par-4 seventh in Friday's second round, he seized a lead that he would hold for the remaining 48 holes.

When it was all over, his 257 not only eclipsed the 259 he shot at Firestone CC in 2000 - it was the third best in PGA Tour history, and he had not one, but two trophies to take home.

Texas Western over Kentucky? Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson?

Not with Woods. With him, you get the only sure thing in sports.

Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com.