Don't forget that Tiger used a steel shafted driver longer than anyone. Here's a picture of his driver in 1997.
We can talk all day about how Tiger over powered courses and won because of that but on fast Bermuda greens Tiger has a strokes gained advantage with chipping and putting that could carry him if he played with hickories.
He has sustained relevance because of his short game. It was interesting to see him flubbing chips last year. I thought he was so good chipping and putting that he could never "lose" that.
I always thought it would be interesting to see what would happen if you played with Tiger and switched after your approach (after tee shot on a 3, after a second on a 4, and after a third on a 5). As long as you aren't one that flails into the trees or hazards, you'd find he'd break 70 playing yours in and most would be about 72-75 playing in his shots. It would prove that the distance argument is not valid for most courses and you could break par if you had a better short game.
Although to be fair he is number 1 in stokes gained on approach shots into the greens this year. Couple that with a great short game like you mention and it's not surprising that he's had an amazing year considering where he was a year ago.