9 astonishing numbers that put Tiger Woods’ record-tying win into perspective
We have run out of superlatives for Tiger Woods’ achievements. Luckily, we still have stats to lean on. Take 82. With his win on Monday at the Zozo Championship, in Japan, that’s how many PGA Tour victories Woods has now collected, tying him with Sam Snead for the all-time mark. But that’s not all. Not even close. Here are 9 other striking facts and figures from Tiger’s one-of-a-kind career.
Flying private isn’t cheap. But Tiger can afford it. His first-place check at the Zozo Championship pushed his PGA Tour career winnings to $120,459,468. Yes, that’s number-one on the all-time money list, even when you adjust for inflation. (Next closest to Tiger on the moola list is his old pal, Phil Mickelson, who’s *only* 30 million bucks behind.)
Speaking of Phil, he has 44 career wins. Forty-four! That’s an average of two wins per year for 22 straight years. Pretty tidy, right? Well, yeah, unless you’re comparing him to Tiger. Take Phil’s career total and throw in Lee Trevino’s (29) and you’re still NINE short of Tiger’s mark. Wanna get to 82? You still need to toss in Matt Kuchar’s career haul.
Though Woods is tied with Slammin’ Sammy for most career Tour wins, he got to the record way faster, notching 82 titles in 359 events. It took Snead 425 starts to do the same.
Talk about a game that travels. Woods has now collected titles in 16 different states and seven countries.
Woods has now won 22.8%, or slightly more than one-in-five, of his PGA Tour starts. We know some Major League shortstops who would kill for that success rate.
Tiger reminded us again on Sunday that when it comes to closing, no one’s in his zip code. Woods now has a stunning 45-2 record when holding the outright lead after 54 holes. Only once has he coughed up a lead of more than one-shot after 54 holes. That was at the 2009 PGA Championship, when Y.E. Yang caught Woods from two strokes back and went on to win by three.
Should Woods return to the Zozo Championship in 2020, don’t expect him to give up his crown without a fight. He has successfully defended a title 24 times on the PGA Tour, more than any player in history, and he’s come in runner-up 29 times.
Woods will likely never match Bryon Nelson’s record of 11 consecutive PGA Tour wins. But he’s come closer than anyone, having won seven straight events once and five straight events three times. On two occasions, he captured titles in a staggering nine of 12 starts. No disrespect to Nelson, but Woods has done all this in the modern era, against far deeper fields than Lord Byron ever faced.
Woods has undergone as many back surgeries (four) as Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy have each won majors. He has also had five knee surgeries, matching Phil Mickelson’s number of major crowns. Nine in all!
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