The weather was poor but the play was terrific during a PGA TOUR season that saw the re-emergence of Tiger Woods as the game’s dominant performer and the exit of Jack Nicklaus, golf’s all-time dominant performer, as a competitive golfer.

When the TOUR Insider looks back on the 2005 campaign, he sees promise all around, whether it’s the young Sean O'Hair, who became just the 12th PGA TOUR winner under the age of 23 since 1970 when he won the John Deere Classic, or Bart Bryant, who won twice, including an impressive performance at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola, and qualified for his first Masters appearance at the age of 42.

Woods, 29, should undoubtedly win Player of the Year -- again. He spent 2004 retooling his swing and then came out swinging in 2005 with six victories and a career-high $10,628,024 in earnings. He captured the Masters for a fourth time with a riveting playoff victory over Chris DiMarco, and his second British Open title at St. Andrews, Scotland, completed the career Grand Slam a second time. His 68.66 scoring average was good enough for his sixth Vardon Trophy in the last seven seasons.

Woods posted at least one victory for the 10th straight year, seven shy of the record held by Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. His four runner-up finishes on the season matched his personal best from 2000.

“(It was) a great season,” said Woods, whose swing changes congealed this year under the tutelage of Hank Haney. “To make all the changes that we've made, all the past couple years now, and to have this type of contention in major championships again, that's ultimately where I want to be. I want to be there on the back nine in every major with a chance to win it. This year I was there on all four. That to me is exciting.”

The majors Woods didn’t win were taken by deserving players. New Zealand’s Michael Campbell held off Woods to take the U.S. Open at Pinehurst’s No. 2 Course. Phil Mickelson weathered a tough Lower Course at Baltusrol and a Monday finish to capture his second major title at the PGA Championship.

Speaking of major players, Nicklaus played in his final Masters in April, then ended his competitive career at the Old Course at St. Andrews. But in September he put an exclamation point on his year by captaining the U.S. Presidents Cup team to an emotional 18 ½ to 15 ½ victory over the International squad at Robert Trent Jones Golf Club. He receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Wednesday, too.

DiMarco, who won a career-high $3.56 million this season without a victory, was the spiritual leader of the U.S. team and sank the winning putt for America in his 1-up defeat of Stuart Appleby in the final singles match. The Internationals put on a game performance despite the absence of No. 3 Ernie Els, who missed the second half of the season with a knee injury.

While DiMarco was Man of the Match in the Presidents Cup, Jason Gore was arguably Performer of the Year, Feel Good Division.

Gore, 818th in the world at the time, came to the U.S. Open as a qualifier and saw his week start by losing his clothes when someone broke into his car. By Sunday he was tied for second and playing in the final pairing with defending champion Retief Goosen. An 84 dropped him to 49th, but it didn’t drop his spirits. He won three straight Nationwide Tour events, shooting a 59 along the way, and then he used his performance promotion to enter and win the 84 LUMBER Classic.

Other observations on an enthralling season:

• Vijay Singh suffered a tremendous falloff from his standout 2004 campaign. Didn’t he? Heck, no. Singh may not have won nine times again, but he did take four titles, finished second in stroke average behind Woods at 69.04, and had 18 top-10 finishes for the second straight year, best on TOUR. Most of his stats from the past two seasons are identical. His only significant statistical drops were in birdie average (3.96 in 2005 compared to 4.40 in ’04) and greens in regulation (he hit 62 fewer total despite playing one fewer round than ’04).

• There were 33 winners, but only 32 qualified for the Mercedes Championships. Adam Scott’s playoff victory over Chad Campbell at the Nissan Open was unofficial because the event was shortened to 36 holes because of inclement weather.

• There were 12 first-time winners in 2005, including Carl Pettersson, who won the Fall Finish Presented by PricewaterhouseCoopers thanks to a victory at the Chrysler Championship and second the following week at the Southern Farm Bureau Classic. The others: Geoff Ogilvy ( Chrysler Classic of Tucson), Padraig Harrington ( Honda Classic), Peter Lonard ( MCI Heritage), Tim Petrovic ( Zurich Classic of New Orleans ), Ted Purdy (EDS Byron Nelson Championship ), Michael Campbell (U.S. Open), Sean O’Hair (John Deere Classic), Jason Bohn ( B.C. Open), Gore (84 LUMBER Classic) Wes Short, Jr. ( Michelin Championship at Las Vegas) and Lucas Glover ( FUNAI Classic at The WALT DISNEY WORLD Resort).

• Seventy-eight players surpassed $1 million in season earnings, including rookies O’Hair, Greg Owen and Joey Snyder III. O’Hair became the third rookie to earn $2 million. Last year, 77 players made $1 million.

• Jim Furyk, who won the Cialis Western Open, and Justin Leonard, who captured two titles, the FedEx St. Jude Classic and Bob Hope Classic, joined exclusive company as 10-win active members. There are only seven in all.

Tiger Woods won six TOUR events in 2005. (Martin/WireImage)

• Purdy led the PGA TOUR in birdies in 2005 with 437 after finishing second to Singh in ’04. Singh was second, just as he was in 2003 to Robert Gamez. Purdy and Singh are the only players since the turn of the century to lead the category in the year they won a tournament.

• Kenny Perry won the Bank of America Colonial by seven strokes, the largest on TOUR. Padraig Harrington overcame a seven-stroke deficit to win the Honda Classic.

• For the 10th consecutive year, the leader in wins had at least four titles (Woods' six). Only four times in the previous 10 years did a player lead with as many as four and only twice (Woods and Nick Price, with six wins in ’93) did the top player have more than four. By the way, since the Jack Nicklaus Award for Player of the Year started in 1990, the man who won the most titles in a season has been Player of the Year all but once -- that was Phil Mickelson in 1996.

• Here’s an oddity -- greens in regulation is believed to be a key catalyst to PGA TOUR success, but only four of the top 10 in the stat finished among the top 60 in earnings and only three men -- Singh, Sergio Garcia and Mickelson -- won a tournament.

• Oddity, part deux -- It’s not always what you shoot, but when you shoot your best scores that count. Woods led the TOUR in final-round scoring average, but then seven of the next nine players in that stat went winless in ’05. Then there were Loren Roberts and Bob Estes, 14th and 15th, respectively, in stroke average, but 93rd and 92nd, respectively, in earnings.

• Patrick Sheehan and Todd Fischer led the TOUR in starts, each putting in 35 weeks of work. Interestingly, they finished less than $11,000 apart in earnings with Sheehan making $675,038 and Fischer $664,098, which placed them 118th and 119th on the money list, respectively.