Tiger Woods just tied Arnold Palmer with his 62nd PGA Tour victory, fourth on the all-time list. Ben Hogan’s 64 titles he’ll likely pass before summer. By the time he helps America regain some credibility with a Ryder Cup victory over Europe, Woods could be ready to tie Jack Nicklaus for second place.

Nicklaus owns 73 PGA Tour titles.

If you think 12 victories in a season, which is what he must have to catch the Golden Bear, seems like a bridge too far for Woods, consider that El Tigre already has registered years in which he’s won nine times (2000), eight times (1999, ’06) and seven times (’07). With his game reaching ever more impressive heights and his prime winning years now upon him, Woods could easily ratchet up the trophy machine.

OK, sure, he probably won’t play more than 16 or 17 times this year. So what? He was 8-for-15 in ’06 and the following two seasons his first- and second-place finishes totaled 19 in 31 starts. His percentages suggest a season of 11, 12 or even 13 victories is not out of the realm of possibility.

Instead of looking at where he’ll win, consider what he would probably lose, a much shorter and more manageable list:

• The World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship, because match play is always unpredictable even if Woods isn’t;
• The Players Championship, because the relatively short TPC Sawgrass has proven to be the ultimate equalizer;
• The BMW Championship, which moves this year to St. Louis and Bellerive Country Club, a great unknown to most of the field with greens so big that someone is going to out-lag putt him. Plus, he’s going to be in a sour mood having to move from Cog Hill.

Notice that I didn’t mention any of the four majors. That’s because not only do I think he can win each of the four majors, there is a thought that he should. All four venues seem to suit him well (as if there’s any place that doesn’t).

And there is no one standing in the way except one player. If you think it’s Woods himself, you’re wrong.

It’s Phil Mickelson, who can go tee-to-tee and toe-to-toe with Woods at the first two majors, the Masters and the U.S. Open, the latter which is being staged at Torrey Pines’ South Course in La Jolla, Calif., where Woods just polished off his sixth Buick Invitational and fourth in a row.

Only Mickelson knows the place as well, and Mickelson, having worked a full year with former Woods teacher Butch Harmon, might just have the goods to thwart Woods’ Grand Slam aspirations.

Along the way to ever-higher standards of play, Woods won’t stop at just victories. He’ll probably set a number of tournament scoring records — including bettering a few in majors; he already owns all four. And then there’s this thought: he’ll break the all-time 18-hole scoring record of 59 held by Al Geiberger, Chip Beck and David Duval.

A 58? Nah. Try 57. I’ve said for a number of years that Woods put on one of the greatest scoring displays in history during a 2004 season that produced just one victory as he sorted out the swing changes he made with the help of Hank Haney. He was everywhere, and most players would have gone nowhere. Woods ranked 182nd in driving accuracy and yet he was third in scoring average at 69.04. He had seven top-three finishes, 14 top-10s and didn’t miss a cut in 19 starts while swinging like a man wielding a telephone pole.

Now that Haney has helped him get dialed in, you think a sub-60 round isn’t inevitable? But who says he stops at 59? Or 58? Crazy, yes, but Woods has the talent to do it, and more importantly, he has the mindset. Low numbers have never made him uncomfortable.

While this is a big to-do list — a dozen or so wins, the Grand Slam, a Mr. 57 moniker — we’re talking about a player with big-time skill and aspirations, a player so focused and finely tuned that, really, anything is possible in a game that forever has been impossibly difficult.

He might fall short of these projections. He might fall far short. But remember this: Tiger Woods is only 32 years old.

There’s always next year.