Tiger Woods possesses something no one else in professional golf has today. Not just the 2002 Masters Tournament championship, but also an intangible that has allowed him to win seven majors in five years and back-to-back Masters titles.

"Something's going on with him that's not going on with us," said Davis Love III, the first-round leader of the Masters who finished tied for 14th.

It might be a tunnel-vision focus not seen since the days of Jack Nicklaus, combined with an undying faith in himself, that has allowed Woods to be the world's No. 1-ranked golfer.

When Craig Perks played with Woods in the final round of the Genuity Championship in March, he said it was like Woods was playing inside a dome and didn't even know there was a gallery cheering his every move.

"He has to have an incredible inner confidence and belief in himself," Brad Faxon said after his round Sunday. "He doesn't let anything take him out of his place."

Woods made few mistakes this week - only seven bogeys in 72 holes - in shooting 70-69-65-71-276 for his three-shot victory.

It allowed him to stay at the top of the leaderboard Sunday while other players charged and then fell back. It also helped that Woods birdied two of the first three holes Sunday and had 19 for the tournament, which ranked second in the field.

"I try not to make mistakes, trust me," Woods said after the victory. "Under these conditions, you're going to make mistakes somewhere. This golf course was playing too difficult Sunday not to make mistakes. I made three bogeys but I offset them with four birdies, which was good."

"Tiger's the best player in the world, and he doesn't give you any room to maneuver," Jose Maria Olazabal said. "You just have to play your best."

The lengthening of Augusta National Golf Club by 285 yards, to a total of 7,270 yards, only helped separate the long-hitting Woods from the field.

"The golf course is perfect for him," Nick Price said. "It's like Jack Nicklaus in his day. Jack loved this course. When you hit it high and long, it's a huge difference."

Love said: "It would be a surprise if he wasn't on the leaderboard on a layout like this," Love said.

That advantage over the rest of the field only grew as rain fell on Augusta National on Thursday night and Friday morning. Instead of rolling on what had been firm and fast fairways earlier in the week, the medium-length hitters' shots were stopping quickly on the wet fairways. Woods, meanwhile, could fly the ball farther than anyone else.

"He had a two-club advantage over almost everybody," Price said.

Woods called his latest Masters victory more of a physical test than the one in 2001, when he was seeking his fourth straight major championship victory.

On Saturday, Woods had to play eight holes to complete his rain-suspended second round, in addition to his 18-hole third round.

"This was a physical grind," Woods said. "I was here by 7 a.m. on Saturday and didn't leave until after 7:30 p.m. That's a long time to be on your feet and playing golf under this type of pressure. Playing under soft conditions takes a lot out of you. The ground is sucking at your feet all day."

He faced a different challenge in the final round. It was an Augusta National unlike Woods had ever seen in 29 previous career tournament rounds.

"Because of the rain, some fairways were cut, and some weren't; every green seemed like it was a different speed, and some fringes were cut, and some weren't," Woods said. "It was tough to get a gauge on what was going on. They were conditions we weren't used to playing."

Woods said one of the reasons why he's been successful at Augusta National is because the course requires creative shotmaking. Never was that more the case than Sunday.

"You had to hit a lot of different shots," Woods said. "You had to control your arm speed and angle of descent into the ball. You hit a lot of weird clubs. Then you had mud balls. I had two or three shots where mud was on my ball. It's part of playing on a wet golf course."

All that makes Woods' final-round 71 look even more impressive. It also explains why Shigeki Maruyama was the only golfer to break 70 in the final round. He shot 67.

The long-range career goal for Woods is passing Jack Nicklaus on the career major championship victory list. Nicklaus has 18.

"It would be nice to win as many majors as Jack did," said Woods, who is already halfway to matching the number of Masters titles Nicklaus won. "If it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen.

"The thing I keep saying to myself is: I want to become a better player at the end of the year than I was at the beginning of the year," Woods said. "If I can do that the rest of my career, I'll have a pretty good career."

"Arnold Palmer did something impressive in the 1960s, and Jack Nicklaus followed it over a longer span," Faxon said. "At Tiger's age, what he's done is incredible."