The speculation was then, but the reality is altogether different now. In fact, the signs are that Woods is about to embark on yet another phase of outright dominance.

If his missed cut at the US Open rang like a house alarm in a gale, it is worth remembering that he has already won five times from 12 starts this season, and since Winged Foot, he has had a second place finish at the Western Open, as well as victories at both the British Open and the Buick Open.

In reaching the milestone of 50 PGA Tour wins, he is almost three years ahead of the pace set by Jack Nicklaus who had been the fastest to get to the half-century, and if he maintains his major championship strike-rate, Woods is on target to equal Nicklaus's total of 18 by the time he is 36.

Take out the aberration at the US Open, and in his last six majors, he has won the British Open twice, the Masters once, and he has a second, a third and a fourth place finish as well. The slippers are not exactly waiting by the hearth.

If he made relatively little capital out of his 50th victory, take it that Woods remains fixated by his goals. Nicklaus's major record is something which has motivated him since he was a kid, and now there is every reason to believe that he has one eye on the 100-win mark. His coach Hank Haney reckons he is only going to get better which set against an exceptional performance at Hoylake, amounts to bad tidings for the chasing pack.

This week, he returns to Medinah near Chicago, where he won in 1999, as the overwhelming favourite to capture the PGA Championship for a third time. Medinah has been beefed up to 7,561 yards taking it past Whistling Straits as the longest course in the history of major championship golf, but on a visit last Monday, Woods shot a 67 which according to one observer was "like a walk in the park".

While a whole series of question marks hung over how he would perform at Hoylake, the preamble this time is more straightforward.

There is no great need to linger on his 82 per cent return for greens in regulation during the Buick Open, nor on the fact that he ranks number one on the PGA Tour for putts inside six feet, to realise his game is in good order, but even if the end turns out to be the same as the British Open, Woods will have to rely on different means at Medinah.

Significantly, his driver was shelved with just the one exception over the four rounds at Hoylake, and while Woods's ball-striking with his irons was imperious, he was able to plot his way around the links without the added pressure of hitting the one club that continues to give him problems.

"Tiger has not driven the ball what you would exactly call straight, " commented Nicklaus last week. "But he understands that himself right now. That's good, smart play on his part. Everybody felt when I hit 17 drivers [at the British Open] at Muirfield in 1966, that was just absolutely total restraint. He hit one driver at Hoylake, and hit it in another fairway. So he obviously still has that problem."

After Woods had hit the driver just 20 times during his most recent win at Warwick Hills, Haney was asked how often his player would hit the driver at the PGA Championship. "Not many more than here, " he said.

There is no doubt that Woods will use both his three wood and his five wood on occasions at Medinah, but to combat the course's length and to take advantage of the four par fives, his driver will be the key club in the bag.

Medinah rewards long hitters, but not long, inaccurate hitters.

When Rees Jones was commissioned to remodel Medinah in 2002, one of the first things he did was to remove 300 trees to let more sunlight on to the lay-out. The change doesn't mean that Woods will be able to launch his drives with impunity as the course remains framed by tall trees, as Sergio Garcia famously found out during the final round in 1999.

Apart from adding length, Jones also deepened many of the bunkers and brought them tighter to the greens. At Hoylake, the fairway bunkers were to be avoided like the plague, but Woods was always able to recover from the greenside bunkers. At Medinah, the opposite will be the case.

"Don't forget, Medinah is a par 72, so you can still score, " says Jones. "I think the players will notice a different golf course from 1999, but I don't think the changes will hurt Tiger. He'll be able to reach the par fives in two shots like he did in '99. I think it's a course which suits him very well."

If Medinah generates positive memories for Woods, it was also the setting for his first major victory in tandem with his caddie Steve Williams. When Williams took over the most coveted bag in golf from Mike Cowan, Woods was about to be supplanted as world number one by David Duval, and he hadn't won a major since the Masters two and half years earlier.

During the final round in 1999, Woods had seen a fiveshot lead over Garcia dwindle to just one and after witnessing the Spaniard's extraordinary recovery shot at the 16th hole, he proceeded to miss the green with a seven iron at the par-three 17th. A weak chip finished eight feet from the hole and Woods was faced with a putt which he needed to maintain his advantage.

After studying the putt from a number of angles, Woods asked Williams for a read. Williams saw it as inside left, but Woods wanted to know if he was certain. The caddie insisted it was inside left, and the putt was duly rolled into the centre of the cup.

Last week, Williams called it a "defining moment" in his relationship with Woods, the moment when the player realised he could trust his caddie implicitly. But what if the read had been incorrect, and Woods had missed? "I'd probably be talking to you from a beach in New Zealand, " Williams said.

Not only with a 12th major in the offing, Woods has the added incentive of trying to prevent Phil Mickelson from retaining the title he won at Baltusrol last year. Despite a failure at Hoylake where he finished 13 shots behind his great rival, Mickelson hasn't abandoned his intensive preparation and he spent a total of 13 hours at Medinah last Sunday and Monday.

If a head-to-head in the final day between the world's highest ranked players is probably too much to hope for, Woods and Mickelson will be paired together for the first two rounds as this season's Masters and British Open champions, along with US Open winner Geoff Ogilvy.

The sub-plots will no doubt include a case for Ernie Els who was back to near his best at Hoylake, and one as well for Garcia who will be asked to compare and contrast his breakthrough in 1999 with life without a major victory.

Elsewhere, the final week of America's Ryder Cup qualification will occupy minds on both sides of the Atlantic, and as for the Irish contingent of Padraig Harrington, Paul McGinley and Graeme McDowell who were all bruised in different ways from their British Open experiences, they travel more in hope than expectation.

For Tiger Woods, there is no hope. Only expectation