As we were then.

Even a six-week winter layoff – the first four of which were entirely free of golf – and the resulting accumulation of rust weren’t enough to halt Tiger Woods, who notched up his fourth win at the Buick Invitational on Sunday. After spending much of last year rubbing his critics’ noses in the dirt with regular and sustained periods of brilliance, Woods now looks set to continue where he left off last year and close the gap between the 10 major championships he already owns and the 18 owned by Jack Nicklaus, whose record he so badly wants to break.

Even while winning two majors, four other tournaments, and $10 million in 2005, Woods often spoke of not quite knowing what to expect from the swing Hank Haney spent a year and a half teaching him. But now the tone in his voice has changed and the kick of the heels after a flushed drive is becoming increasingly common.

At last December’s PGA Grand Slam of Golf in Hawaii, Michael Campbell said he had noticed more swing changes. He was mistaken.”It probably looked different because I was swinging with such confidence,” Woods said. “It’s feeling a lot more fluid and natural now. In mid summer it felt a bit robotic, it didn’t flow. Now it’s really coming together.”

His extra-holes victory over Aussie Nathan Green and Jose Maria Olazabal on Sunday came at the end of a long and trying final round during which Woods had to dig deep into his back of tricks just to make the playoff. No one can dig nearly as deep as Woods, of course, and when the situation demands a birdie no one else can produce it quite as often as the world no. 1, especially now that his evolving swing seems set in concrete.

Two over for the day after 11 holes, a stroke back of half a dozen players and fighting his putter, Woods arrived at the tee of the absurdly difficult 12th hole desperately in need of some Tiger magic. After busting a long, straight drive into a testy breeze, he nailed a four-iron approach which came mightily close to hitting the pin and dropping in. The holed 15-footer that followed was the icing on a very sweet and very impressive looking cake. The 82 players who played the hole on Sunday managed a collective 38 over par on the 504-yarder for an average of 4.46.Woods was the only man to birdie it all day.

On 18, two good swats put him on the green putting for eagle.An uncharacteristically wayward first putt left him eight feet from a birdie and a berth in the playoff, but he calmly rolled the birdie putt in, then played error-free golf in extra time to land his 47th tour victory and record his eighth top-five finish in nine appearances at the Buick. It was the fourth time in his 10-year career that he has started the year with a win.

The week had started with an undistinguished five birdie, four bogey 71 at Torrey Pines’ North Course, by far the simpler of the venue’s two layouts even at 7,568 yards. Probably the result of early season glitches and the memories of a ski vacation in Colorado clouding his judgment, the round was characterized by Woods’s persistent failure to find the short grass off the tee. Even for a man who failed to crack the tour’s top 180 in driving accuracy in either of the last two years, finding just 7.1% of the fairways was pretty poor.

“It was terrible today,” he said afterward,and no one disagreed.

But ever-improving driving stats (he found 64.3% of Sunday’s fairways), the legendary determination he demonstrated yet again, and ultimately the intimidation from which his contemporaries obviously suffer when in his presence (even two-time Masters champion and Ryder Cup star Olazabal yanked a short putt he would normally hole with his eyes closed) saw him come out on top again.

It’s a good bet that at some point this season Woods will pass 50 tournament wins and $60 million in career earnings. He’ll certainly be looking for his 11th major championship, and who knows, maybe his 12th, 13th, and 14th as well. And he’ll definitely want to improve his Ryder Cup record which, after 2004’s debacle at Oakland Hills, currently stands at 7-11-2.

CBS announcer Peter Kostis referred to Tiger’s play on Sunday as his C-game. His driving distance was down on last year’s 316-yard average, he failed to mount a consistent or lasting charge, and his putting was, by his own admission, horrible. But he still won.

When he finds his A-game sometime, one suspects, around the first week in April (if not sooner), the competition had better be prepared.

“Last year, I had a lot of different things I needed to fix to be ready for Augusta,” Woods said on Sunday evening. “This year, the list is a lot shorter and the changes aren’t as big.”

Ominous, very ominous.