MEDINAH, Ill. — All signs point toward Tiger Woods being ready to go on another roll.

His victory in the PGA Championship was his third straight on the PGA Tour, the fourth time he has put together such a winning streak. Two of them were majors, and he has played his last three tournaments in 60 under par.

Next up is Firestone, where he already has won four times and is the defending champion.

But perhaps the scariest aspect of Woods' five-shot victory at Medinah for his 12th major is that he is nothing like the player who survived a scare from Sergio Garcia seven years earlier.

The new Tiger might be even better.

And it has more to do with the space between his ears than whatever is going on with his swing.

"If you compare it to how I was here in '99 versus how I am in 2006, it's just a better understanding of how to get more out of my round and how to handle the emotions better," Woods said Sunday evening. "That's just through seven more years of experience."

It's easy to define his dominance by numbers alone.

Still one week away from his 10-year anniversary as a professional, Woods already has won 51 times to tie Billy Casper for sixth on the all-time PGA Tour chart. He has won 12 of his 40 majors since turning pro, a staggering rate of 30 percent. That puts him two-thirds of the way toward the 18 majors Jack Nicklaus won, the modern benchmark of greatness in golf.

Nicklaus won his 18 majors by 44 shots. Woods has won his 12 majors by 56 shots.

The most meaningful number of all might be 30 — his age.

By all accounts, Woods hasn't even hit his prime.

He often is asked to compare his game to previous years, such as his record-breaking season in 2000 when he won nine times and three majors, then making it four straight majors with a Masters title in 2001.

Asked if he was playing as well now as he was then, Woods didn't hesitate.

"Yes, yes," he said. "With the experience of seven years added to that, understanding how to get myself around a golf course and how to control things and all the different shots I've learned, yeah, I feel like things are pretty darn good right now."

Earl Woods, who died in May of cancer, once said watching his son play golf was like seeing Rembrandt paint.

"We are watching a canvas," he said in an interview during Woods' 2000 season. "Every week, you see a move with the brush you have never seen, and the result is startling. And the painting comes to life every week, more and more. It will be more clearly defined 10 years from now."

That would have been 2010, and it's hard to imagine where Woods will be then.