(Even better charitable move: How quickly pro leagues, college conferences and players opened their hearts and wallets to aid relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina. The NCAA even relaxed its "extra-benefits" rules so displaced student-athletes could accept free pizzas without listing each ingredient in triplicate.)

Speaking of which, the three best drives all were made by women.

Annika Sorenstam hit a tee shot at the Skins Game past Fred Funk and then pulled a pink skirt from her bag so her male playing partner could slip it on. Sorenstam dominated women's golf again; how much longer that will last is anybody's guess, though, now that long-hitting phenom Michelle Wie finally turned pro and is old enough to drive herself to the bank.

Danica Patrick already knows that route. She overcame a stalled car in the pits and a spinout on the track before running low on gas and finishing fourth in one of the most stirring rookie runs ever at the Indianapolis 500. Winless at season's end but good enough for the IRL's rookie of the year honors, Patrick remained the circuit's only recognizable star in — and especially out — of uniform.

Attracting attention was rarely a problem for NASCAR drivers, even if former bad boy Tony Stewart usually had a good reason for ducking cameras. This year, though, he kept his cool and capped his best season with a second Nextel Cup championship.

Stewart battled eventual Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon and third-place finisher Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the season opener before fading to seventh. Neither of the sport's glamor boys knew it at the moment, but that was one of the last times either would see Stewart in the rearview mirror all season.

The best shot was provided by — who else? — Tiger Woods. He clawed his way back atop the golf world after painstakingly re-engineering his swing, winning another green jacket at Augusta with a delicate chip from behind the 16th green that went something like this:

"I was just trying to throw the ball up there . . . let it feed down . . . hopefully have a makable putt. . . . it looked pretty good ... looked, like, really good ... looked, like, how could it not go in? . . . how did it not go in? . . . all of a sudden, it went in.

"So it was," Woods summed up, "pretty sweet."

Then just for good measure, and with impeccable timing, he waited for Jack Nicklaus' retirement parade at St. Andrews to pass by and blistered the Old Course to capture his second major of the year. About to turn 30, the one-time prodigy can only hope to be remembered the way fellow British Open winner Nick Faldo suggested we commemorate Nicklaus.

"They should make him out of gold," Faldo said, "and stick a little Jack on every tee box."