The coverage of Tiger Woods on this site and its parent network is often the subject of criticism, and sometimes it's completely warranted. The past year has seen every facet of media -- sports, news, tabloid, entertainment, everything -- cover Woods with relentless abandon.

But allow us at Numbers Game to present a few numerical reasons why Woods is the target of scrutiny, the subject of adulation and almost always the chief topic of this sport today.

14: Major championships won, all before turning 33 years old. Jack Nicklaus, who lays claim to the most acclaimed number in golf (18), won his 14th major when he was 35 years old.

28.1: This was Tiger's win percentage on the PGA Tour entering 2010. Woods is the only player in the history of the sport to even warrant a statistic like this. It's like presenting the statistic "home run percentage" for Babe Ruth in an era when he hit more home runs than entire teams; its presence is ludicrous until Tiger's arrival. For perspective, Nicklaus won 11.7 percent of the events he played. Arnold Palmer won 8.4.

623: The number of weeks Woods has been ranked No. 1 in his career. That's one week shy of 12 full years of being ranked No. 1.

Tiger means more to his sport than any individual does to their sport today. And this is why his fall from grace, on the course and off, is such captivating stuff.

We all know that Woods went winless and never finished higher than fourth in 2010. But did he do anything well statistically this year? Although Woods didn't play enough PGA Tour rounds to officially qualify in the major statistical categories (think a player without enough at-bats to win a batting title), his numbers wouldn't have impressed had they extrapolated for a full schedule.

The key points:

• Tiger led the tour in birdie average in 2009, 2007, 2006 and 2005, and would have in 2008 had he played enough rounds. Tiger had a birdie average better than 4.00 every year from 1999-2009. In 2010, the number was 3.78, good enough for T-29.

• For all but one year in which he played enough rounds to qualify from 2000-09, Tiger was first in scoring average on tour. The one year he wasn't first, he was third. In 2010, Woods failed to have a scoring average better than 70.0 for the first time as a professional. His mark of 70.32 was good enough for T-28.

• In terms of putting average, Tiger actually outperformed his tour rank from 2009. His 1.751 mark in 2010 was better relative to the rest of the tour this year compared to last but was his highest raw average since 2006, when it was 1.756. The significance of a putting average above 1.75 can be disputed, though; Tiger won eight times in '06, his second-highest total for a single year on tour.

• Woods is often harpooned (especially when he's struggling to score well) for his lack of driving accuracy, and his number of 57.21 percent of fairways hit this year was no new revelation. Woods failed to crack 60 percent of fairways hit in 2008, 2007, 2005 and 2004.

• While he's found success without putting the ball in the fairway before, he found his most success when he was most accurate. In 1999 and 2000, Woods hit 71.31 and 71.22 percent of fairways over the entire year in tour events. Tiger won 17 tournaments in that span, 41.4 percent of the time he teed it up. He finished in the top 3 in 25 of the 41 events, a 60.9 percent clip. That also came when he was in the midst of winning four straight majors.

It goes without saying that the previous 12 months have encompassed an unprecedented year off the course for Woods. A winless calendar year ensured the same between the ropes.

But history dictates that any presumption that Tiger's career is over, or that he'll never be the same player who dominated the sport, is premature. Many of the greatest players in the history of the sport endured a full season on the PGA Tour without a victory before turning 40 years old. And though clearly the circumstances surrounding their respective droughts are different, the comparison between Woods and his peers in the record book should be considered.

We addressed this topic in the Aug. 31 edition of Numbers Game, but the historical comparison is worth repeating. Among the leaders in victories on the PGA Tour, almost all went a full season before turning 40 (10 or more official events played) without a victory.

Sam Snead did it once. So did Nicklaus. Cary Middlecoff and Gene Sarazen did it twice.

Notables who never went a full year in their "prime" (undoubtedly a subjective term -- but here meaning in a full season before turning 40 in which the player started 10 or more PGA Tour events) include Arnold Palmer (5th on the all-time list in wins), Byron Nelson (6th) and Walter Hagen (8th).

Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh are the only two players in the Tiger era who have had careers even close to comparable to Woods. Lefty went full years without a win in 1999 and 2003, while Singh did it three times before turning 40.

Let's look forward to the 2011 major championships. Woods will always be one of the favorites at Augusta, where he's won four times and finished in the top 10 in 11 of 14 starts as a professional.

The U.S. Open will be held at Congressional, where Tiger has hosted the AT&T National. Tiger won his own tournament in 2009, after finishing tied for sixth in 2007. At the 1997 U.S. Open, also held at Congressional, he finished tied for 19th.

The Open Championship is at Royal St. George's for the first time since 2003. That year, Tiger finished tied for fourth in an event won by Ben Curtis. Woods was two shots back. The PGA Championship will be held at Atlanta Athletic Club, home of the 2001 PGA. Woods tied for 29th that year.

So what does all this mean for Woods in 2011? Long before last Thanksgiving, golf forecasters tagged 2010 as Tiger's year to win multiple majors, with return trips to Pebble Beach and St. Andrews on the docket. We all know how that went. The reality is that Woods has a track record of relative success almost everywhere professional golf has been played over the past 15 years, so prognosticating based on what he's done at courses is largely a useless exercise.

Tiger turns 35 on Dec. 30, meaning there's still time for him to pass Nicklaus, and to a less-acclaimed point, Snead's 82 career PGA Tour wins. Woods' age seems more significant when placed in the context of history and more pressing when placed in the context to the young crop of stars from around the world garnering more attention.

Yet, even after the worst year of his professional career, and probably his life, he's still the biggest name in the sport. A track record of winning like his dictates nothing less.

Justin Ray has been a studio researcher for ESPN since June 2008 and is the lead researcher for "The Scott Van Pelt Show." He is a 2007 graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, where he studied convergence media. Send comments and suggestions to Justin.Ray@espn.com.