Even Tiger Woods was frustrated.

Four-time Masters champion Tiger Woods comes to Augusta National having won nine of the past 11 tournaments he has played. Woods says he is a much better golfer now than he was when he had another awe-inspiring streak -- winning all four major championships over the course of the 2000 and 2001 seasons. (Associated Press)

The British Open had been a relative bust. His command of the ball wasn't where he demanded it. He'd already failed to win two other majors despite leading on Sundays in the final pairing. One peer even referred to the world's No. 1 player as "more beatable than ever."

Woods twice put that peer in his place to secure two of his four victories through early August, but the success or failure of his season was hinging on the last chance to win a major and move another rung up his career ladder.

Everybody was counting Woods out because the PGA Championship was being played on a tight and twisting Southern Hills course that most assumed didn't suit his game.

"Every time there's ever been a golf course or a style of golf that someone thought Tiger couldn't do, he ended up proving everyone wrong," said friend and fellow tour pro Charles Howell.

"I tend to get that at courses where I played there once and didn't win," Woods said. "Kind of the way it goes. It is what it is."

Woods defied his critics with his second consecutive PGA victory in the intense Tulsa heat, even coming within one 18th-hole lip-out of breaking the all-time single-round scoring record in any major on Friday. He's been almost unbeatable since, with a string of nine worldwide victories in 11 events. Woods finished fifth at the CA Championship last month at Doral in his final event before the Masters Tournament, breaking a string of seven consecutive wins.

Woods offers no qualifications in his assessment of his current form in comparison to the standard he set in sweeping all four majors from 2000 to 2001.

"I'm better," he said. "I'm better in all facets of the game."

Until his PGA win turned a frustrating year into a great one, Woods might not have been so emphatic. He was even yelling at himself during the late stages of the final round in Tulsa, when bogeys on Nos. 13 and 14 opened the door for Woody Austin to seize the lead.

"I got myself into this mess; I need to get myself out of it," Woods told himself after his three-putt on No. 14. "I did some serious yelling at myself going up to the 15th tee, just to get back into what I do."

Woods made birdie on 15 and avoided blowing another chance as he did in the Masters and the U.S. Open. He didn't have to lecture himself again as he did after never getting into the serious mix at the British Open, where he tied for 12th.

"That's frustrating when you don't put it together in a major championship like that," he said after Carnoustie. "I can't have that happen again."

Woods was particularly frustrated with not capitalizing at Augusta and Oakmont. He bogeyed both the 17th and 18th holes on consecutive days in the Masters and lost by two shots to Zach Johnson.

"You can't do that and expect to win a major championship," he said.

Then he got as little as he could out of one of the finest ball-striking rounds of his career on Saturday at the U.S. Open, shooting 69 despite hitting every green but the last in regulation and two-putting all but once. He lost by a shot to Angel Cabrera.

"That was a day I could have taken the lead and separated myself a little bit, and I didn't do that," he said.

So, considering those near misses and the fact that he closed the season with a dominant flourish in the PGA and the inaugural FedEx Cup series, Woods ranks his 2007 season ahead of any previous one, including his landmark 2000 campaign.

"I think it was a better year this year," he said. "I had a great chance to win three of the four majors this year. I finished second in two of them. I was just a few shots away from basically doing what I did in 2000. ... If I get those done, get those squared away, people would probably be comparing it to 2000, if not better. ... It wasn't that far away. I mean, just probably, what, four shots?"

It is the majors that Woods uses to define his seasons.

"You can win every tournament for the entire year, but if you go 0-for-4 on the year in the major championships, it's just ..." he said. "You don't really get remembered for number of wins in a career. It's the number of wins in major championships. Those are the biggest events. If you win one major a year, it turns a good year into a great year. That's one of the reasons why I think we as players put so much emphasis on those major championships. They mean so much, and not only to us but in the historical sense."

With 13 major titles already, he has set his sights even higher in 2008. He has not been shy talking about the single-season Grand Slam as "easily within reason."

"I think it's the development of my game over the years," he said of his confidence in majors. "For most of my career I've won more than four tournaments per year, and all I have to do is win the right four, and I've done those a few times. I think if you put it all together, have luck on your side, all the stars will line up, and it certainly is possible."

Woods is saying he has never been better. Since the second round of the British Open, he has posted only one round over par -- a 72 on the par-71 TPC of Boston, where he finished second by two strokes to Phil Mickelson.

"When I go on these runs where I won some tournaments in a row, it's those bad rounds that I've turned from 73 or 74 into 70 or 69 or 71," he said. "I don't shoot myself out of the event."

So he returns to Augusta a better player than the one who already owns four green jackets.

"My understanding of my game is leaps and bounds better than it ever has been," he said. "I hate to keep coming back to this, but it's just experience. I've been out here for 12 years, and seeing all the things that have happened over the years, and you learn from them. I guarantee you, 10 years from now that I'll be a hell of a lot better with my course management than I am now, just from that many more years of experience."

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 or scott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.