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With his tap home par putt on the 72nd hole at the World Golf Championship-NEC Invitational on Sunday, Tiger Woods took home his fifth PGA Tour title for 2005 and with it clinched PGA Player of the Year Honors. Though the vote will not occur until the season ends, Tiger put all debate to rest with his third title of the year against the best golfers the world has to offer.

Heading into the PGA Championship, Vijay Singh still had a chance to repeat as the tour's top player with a solid finish to the year, provided of course Woods rested on his early season laurels. But when Phil Mickleson took home the title at the season's fourth major, Singh seemingly eliminated himself from consideration. Even though Singh had won four times at that point to match Woods, Singh had failed to win any of the major tournaments while Tiger took home both the Masters and the British Open.

And when Woods again won on Sunday, he eliminated any chance Singh had to recapture the honor in 2005. That may sound like a premature announcement with so much golf left in the season but in addition to the three wins against world class fields and five wins overall, consider the following comparison of Singh and Woods.

Woods has 11 Top Ten finishes in 17 tournaments and has been in the top three ten times on the season. With the win Sunday, Tiger now leads the world rankings by just a shade under six points over Singh. So dominant is Woods that Chris DiMarco, the seventh ranked player in the World has fewer points total than Woods leads Singh by, this in spite of the fact that Singh has more than double the points of the DiMarco. That is dominance.

In his last seven starts on Tour, Woods worst finish was at the PGA Championship when he came in fourth. Otherwise, he was third at the Memorial, second at the US Open, the Cialis Western Open and the Buick Open, and first at the British and the WGC-NEC Invitational. Over that seven tournament stretch, Woods has won nearly $4.8 million, or nearly $700,000 per event. Only Vijay Singh and Phil Mickleson have earned more over the entire 2005 season than Woods has earned since early June.

Though Singh no longer has a chance at Player of the Year honors, he still has a shot at his third straight money title. Singh has consistently played well over the entire season and since he plays more events than Tiger, he could still take the money title with a strong finish to the year.

Singh's year would be good enough to repeat his 2004 Player of the Year honors if not for the performance of Woods. Singh has an impressive 15 Top Ten finishes in 24 starts, a percentage that trails only Woods. Singh also rivals Woods ten top three performances, having nine such finishes himself on the season. So strong has Singh's play been, that he has finished in the top three nearly as often as the third ranked player for Top Tens has on the year, David Toms who has ten Top Tens.

Most importantly for Singh, though his World Golf ranking stature pales next to that of Woods, he trails Woods by only $1.3 million in earnings, the amount Woods won for taking home the WGC-NEC. Given Woods light competitive schedule, Singh will have many opportunities to catch Tiger in the weeks ahead.

But it will be quite some time before Singh makes up the point differential between he and Woods and once again challenges Tiger for top player supremacy. In addition, given Tiger's competitive spirit, look for him to battle Vijay over the final weeks so that he not only takes home Player of the Year honors, but the money title also.