Tiger Woods poses with his trophy after winning the Target World Challenge golf tournament. Woods won the PGA Tour's final event of 2006 Sunday in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Thousand Oaks, Calif. ? Tiger Woods has two trophies he can use as bookends for a year like no other.

It started 322 days ago down the coast at Torrey Pines when he won his first tournament of the year in a playoff at the Buick Invitational. It ended Sunday at the Target World Challenge with a 6-under 66 that allowed Woods to blow past U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy and win his tournament for the third time in eight years.

In between came a massive loss with the May 3 death of his father, a missed cut for the first time in a major, then six months of golf that Woods considers his best ever.

The benchmark always has been 2000, when his nine PGA Tour victories included three straight majors. He won 53 percent of his PGA Tour events this year – eight of 15 – including the final two majors.

“I think if you compare the two years, I think this year would have to be better because of, obviously, things I’ve been dealing with off the golf course,” Woods said. “In 2000, I didn’t have to deal with that. Hey, life is full of mysteries and you’ve got to deal with things as they come. Who’s to know that if Dad didn’t struggle and end up passing that I wouldn’t have played that well in the summer.”

The question for the 16-man field he beat: How much better will he get?

Since missing the cut at the U.S. Open, Woods hasn’t finished worse than second in stroke play, winning his final six PGA Tour events of the year and closing out 2006 with a victory that doesn’t count in the record books, but means plenty to Woods.

He finished at 16-under 272, and again donated his prize money – $1.35 million – to the Tiger Woods Foundation, with the money distributed between the Tiger Woods Learning Center and his Start Something program for kids.