GOLF'S last two major championships have left nobody in any doubt about the gulf that still exists between Tiger Woods and everyone else.
While Winged Foot and Hoylake were very different tests of the same sport, one saw two superstars self-destruct and the other saw a master at work.
Just as you cannot imagine Woods doing what Phil Mickelson or Colin Montgomerie did at the US Open in New York, you cannot imagine them or anybody else staying in such control as he did to retain his Open title at Royal Liverpool.
Mickelson and Montgomerie had double bogeys on the final hole to lose by one. Woods did not have one all week and whatever questions were asked of him he had the answers.
Chris DiMarco, who has finished runner-up to the world number one in two of the last seven majors, talked of Woods' almost uncanny ability to produce the right shots at the right time.
"I don't do it on purpose," said Woods after becoming the first man to make a successful defence of the Claret Jug since Tom Watson in 1983.
"I believe the way I play golf is that you turn on the switch on the first hole and you have it on the entire time.
"You don't try harder on any shot. You have the same effort level and give it everything you have on every shot. "For some reason in the past I've seemed to pull things off at the end and I feel that's just due to feeling comfortable being there."
And so he should. Woods has now led 11 majors going into the final round and has won all 11.
In the Open he has triumphed by eight, five and two strokes and if you think that indicates the gap is closing then think again.
Nobody comes anywhere near him in terms of handling pressure. And even with all the emotion stored up inside him following the loss of his beloved father in May, it affected him only when the last tap-in putt disappeared into the hole.
