After a brief hiatus from golf when his father died, Woods� achievements were those of a true champion, writes Art Spander

Butch Harmon, who used to work on Tiger Woods' swing, asked the question. As did Tiger Woods himself, if rhetorically. After this remarkable year, this year of torment and triumph, who knows what might have been.

What might have been if Tiger's father, his first teacher, his guiding star, hadn't died in May after a long fight against cancer? What might have been if Tiger, in mourning and retrospection, hadn't stepped away from golf for some two months before returning with a vengeance?

"When you think of what Tiger did in 2006 with the loss of his father,'' said Harmon, whom Woods replaced with Hank Haney, "it's truly amazing. Who knows what he could have done if that hadn't happened?'' Virtually echoing the thought, Woods, after his final round of the year when winning the Target Invitational in southern California, his own charity event, mused: "Who's to know if dad didn't struggle and end up passing, that I wouldn't have played so well in the summer. Who knows?'' What we do know is Mr Woods, who turned 31 yesterday, is about the only person who can stop himself. Which he briefly has decided to do, choosing not to start in the 2007 PGA Tour season opener, the winners-only Mercedes-Benz Championship which gets underway on Thursday on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

"I just haven't been able to prepare,'' said Woods, who had been skiing in Colorado. "I usually spend at least one week working on my game before a tournament and have been unable to do that this year.'' That's about the only thing he couldn't do in a year when he won 11 times worldwide; took two more major championships, The Open and US PGA; played his last 47 rounds in par or better; averaged 68.17 strokes to break Byron Nelson's 55-year-old scoring average; was voted Player of the Year for an eighth time by his fellow pros; was chosen Male Athlete of the Year for a fourth time by the Associated Press.

How strange sport can be. How quickly fortunes change, although Woods is the closest thing to a constant. Still, early on, Phil Mickelson seemed to have slipped ahead of Tiger. In April, Mickelson won the Masters a second time. And when Tiger, returning after a nine-week hiatus, missed the cut in the US Open - his first missed major cut as a pro - and Mickelson was in front during the final round, it appeared the order of the game had been rearranged.

Only for a moment. Mickelson came unglued on the 72nd hole, saying later almost in disbelief: "I am such an idiot.'' Australian Geoff Ogilvy, also almost in disbelief, ended up the winner. Woods went back to work with Haney, and that was that.

Or was it? Not if you include Tiger bungee jumping from a bridge in New Zealand or he and his wife Elin at the US Open tennis final watching Roger Federer, who dominates his sport the way Woods does his. Not if you include Woods hitting a ball onto the roof of the pro shop at Firestone Country Club and then receiving a free drop for his next shot.

In Woods' last 10 stroke-play events from the Western Open in early July he never finished worse than second and, of course, six of those he won in succession, starting with The Open at Royal Liverpool. Chris DiMarco finished second in that oneas he finished second to Tiger in the 2005 Masters. And a few days ago, asked whether there was anything holding him backfrom a first major victory, DiMarcoreplied. "Yeah, there's one thing holding me back. There's a guy named Tiger Woods, who's pretty good.'' A guy named Tiger Woods, who now has 12 majors- six behind Jack Nicklaus. A guy named Tiger Woods who is halfway toward his second "Tiger Slam winning those four majors in succession, something he did in 2000-2001. He would need the Masters in Augusta and the US Open at Oakmont in Pennsylvania.

Rather than look ahead, Woods returned to the final round of this year's Masters, where he finished three shots behind Mickelson. "That's something I shall continue to think about, even to this day,'' he said. "It was my last round my dad ever watched me play. Knowing that going into it, if I could have given him one last shot, some positive memories before he went, it would have been huge.'' Our memory of Tiger Woods is of a young man who cried after the win at Royal Liverpool. We understood. Those were the tears of a champion.