Tiger Woods Wins
“Tiger Woods Wins!” That’s stating the obvious, isn’t it? Well, not really. Sure he just won his 5th straight tournament and 64th PGA win of his career. What I mean, is he has beaten me too.
To quote a friend, my favorite golfer the last ten years has been ABT. (Anybody but Tiger.) The reason being, I grew up a Jack Nicklaus fan. I didn’t want Tiger to replace my golf hero, the Golden Bear. Well, even though Tiger still needs five more majors to surpass Jack’s 18, and is way behind in 2nd place finishes for majors, he has won me over as the greatest ever.
Take a look at his last 40 starts at the Official World Golf Ranking. He’s won 17 of 40 tournaments. That is absolutely amazing. He is a once in a multiple generation type of player. It is not like all these other guys are slouches, but Tiger makes them look…well…pedestrian.
Golf is not supposed to be a win/loss type of sport. You play 25-30 tournaments a year. The very best usually get at most a few wins and a handful or two top tens. Tiger is racking up wins in 42% of his starts over the last two years.
Let me put it in a different perspective. Phil Mickelson is 37 and Vijay Singh is 45. They are two really, really, really good golfers. Combined they have been playing golf on the PGA tour for 31 years and have 64 PGA wins. Tiger has been playing for 12 years and has 64 PGA wins.