65 PGA Tour Wins, 14 Majors, 24 other wins (7 European, 1 Asian and 16 Unofficial Money Events)…Is it possible that TW could be in fact underrated? Well to start – golf is just not as easy as Woods makes it seem. Tiger tees it up at 11:25 off the tenth tee at Doral. This week is a World Golf Championship (WGC) Event. The CA Championship has been held at Doral for the last two years with Tiger winning in 2007 and Geoff Ogilvy winning in 2008. But unless you are dead or never turned on SportsCenter in the last 24 hours, you probably already know that Tiger owns the WGC Events. If I were to correct that statement for accuracy, Tiger Woods owns the stroke play events of the WGC. Woods has won three of the ten match plays but he has won 12 of the 19 total WGC stroke play events that have been contested…but he has only played in only 18. Only six times has Tiger not won a stroke play WGC event. A .667 winning percentage…Think on that for a minute. If you were betting, your options for Tiger in a WGC stroke play event would be 1. Tiger, 2. Tiger, and 3. The Field.

The WGC Events gather the World’s best players. The WGC website in fact says…“Fields for the World Golf Championships are filled primarily through the Official World Golf Ranking, which is endorsed by all the sport’s major professional organizations and governing bodies, and individual Tours’ Official Money Lists/Orders of Merit.”

Read as The Best of the Best. Tiger has won a total of 15 of the 30 WGC events that have been contested. He didn’t play in one (last years Bridgestone Invitational). How good is this? Well just attaching a number to it is ony way to quantify it, but if you look at how far ahead of everyone else he is, you gain a new perspective for just how dominant Woods is.

WGC Event Winners

1. Tiger Woods -15
2. Geoff Ogilvy – 3
3. Darren Clarke – 2
4. Jeff Maggert -1
5. Steve Stricker -1
6. Kevin Sutherland -1
7. David Toms -1
8. Henrik Stenson -1
9. Mike Wier -1
10. Ernie Els -1
11. Craig Parry -1
12. Stewart Cink -1
13. Vijay Singh -1*

* You Guessed it – No Tiger

Standings By  Event

Match Play

1. Woods -3
2. Ogilvy – 2
3. 6 Tied  -1

CA Stroke Play

1. Woods  -6
2. 3 Tied -1

Bridgestone Stroke Play

1. Woods -6
2. 4 Tied -1

Absent from WGC Wins:

1. Phil Mickleson
2. Sergio Garcia
3. Padraig Harrington
4. Jim Furyk

Anyone want to bet Tiger does not win this weekend?

Woods owns the WGC’s…Woods owns the PGA Tour. But as great as his domince in the WGCs have been, the WGC’s are not the premier events on tour. Those would be the Majors. We know Woods owns the Majors as well. Like the WGCs, the Majors Pull the best players in the game together another four times a every year. In the time that the WGCs have been around, which this is the 11th year of the tournaments, Woods has owned the majors as well. 13 of his 14 Majors have been won during the same period the WGCs have been around. So in the previous 10 years worth of majors…two of which Woods did not even play in…here are the list of winners

Masters

1. Woods -3x
2. Mickleson -2x
3. Five Tied -1x

US Open

1. Woods -3x
2. Goosen -2x
3. Five Tied -1x

British

1. Woods -3x
2. Harrington -2x
3. Five Tied -1x

PGA

1. Woods -4x
2. Six Tied -1x

A Couple of these tournaments make Tiger not look as dominant in the individual tournament like he is in the WGCs. In all but the PGA Championship he is only one tournament removed form his nearest competitor. But when you look at the entire body of work in the majors…the numbers speak again

Total Majors Since 1999

1. Woods -13
2. Mickelson – 3
3. Harrington – 3*
4. Singh -2
5. Goosen -2
6. Sixteen Tied -1

* Two without Tiger in the Field

Add in the fifth major…aka The Players….Tiger and nine other guys have all one one each. The final other big tournament on tour, The Tour Championship, well Tiger has won that twice and eight other guys have one trophy each. Add up every important tournament on the PGA Tour in the last ten years and it validates what we already know…

Worldwide PGA Premier Event Total Since 1999 (91 Events)

1. Tiger Woods – 31
2. Phil Mickelson -5
3. Geoff Ogilvy -4
4. Vijay Singh -4
5. Retief Goosen -3
6. Padraig Harrington -3
7. Mike Weir -3
8. Adam Scott -2
9. David Duval -2
10. Ernie Els -2
11. Darren Clarke -2
12. David Toms -2
13. 27 Tied -1

26 Wins ahead of his nearest competitor? You can’t simply call this margin domination. The word to describe this has not been written.Tiger is better than everyone else, and it is not even close, this we know…this we all agree on. Simply saying or thinking that what Tiger Woods has done in the last 10 years can easily be summed up by calling him “the best golfer of all time” is not good enough. Of all of these number I have used to demonstrate how far Woods is ahead of the competition, I am not sure that even the number “1″ can accurately describe Woods. When the stakes and the game are at their highest and the best and the brightest are in the field…Tiger dominates. You can’t argue with the numbers. No matter what you say, no matter what you hear, and no matter what you read about Woods, it simply isn’t good enough to describe Woods and his level of play. Tiger cannot be rated…because no matter where you set the bar he raises it…and he continues to raise it. Tiger Woods is Underrated.

We get Tiger for four days this weekend as the CA Championship does not have a cut. Tiger has been ranked #1 in the World for 144 consecutive weeks. This is almost three full years. Amazingly, its only the second longest stretch of topping the rankings. Woods owns the number one spot at 264 weeks (the next nearest player on the list is Greg Norman at 96). That’s almost eight full years atop the World ranking. Somehow, Sergio Garcia hs a “chance ” to overtake Woods – Woods needs to finish 27th or worse, and Sergio needs to win for this to happen, but I suppose it is possible. Let me get this straight…since Woods overtook the top spot in the rankings he has won 22 times to Garcias 2. (Woods played 48  events to Segios 69…Woods has been in the top 10 in all but 11 of his events entered while Sergio has been top 10 in less than half of his events entered…Woods has missed 2 cuts to Garcias 8…but it is possible that Woods won’t be #1? Even the World Golf Ranking has underrated TW.

Mikey is a Senior Editor here at Sparty and Friends….Mikey was tempted to say that maybe Tiger can best be  summed up by calling him the Tim Tebow of golf. If you have a way to explain how good TW is… feel free to email Mikey. He can be reached at mikey@spartyandfriends.com

Footnotes: Woods is third all time with 65 Tour wins….just how far ahead is he if you look at the other active PGA Tour Golfers? Mickelson is in 2nd place among actives with 35 wins, and Vijay is one behind Phil with 34. Big Drop to Davis Love III wth 20…Els 16, Fred Couples and Corey Pavin 15 each…Mark Calcavecchia, David Duval, and Jim Furyk round out the top 10 with 13 each.

I could have had more fun with this and did Tiger’s entire career, but this is a WGC  Event weekend. Also, I did not – but could have adjusted for the two years he was undergoing a swing change (03-04)…he did not win a major, a Players, or a Tour Championship those years, but he somehow managed to win three of the six WGC events. If you were to adjust for those years, Woods would have won 13 of 32 majors (41%)…as it stands he won 33% of them anyways.

College basketball Comments will rule the roost this weekend, but if Tiger is in contention, we will most likely have a “Tiger Contending Comments” Post…check in over the weekend and post a comment or two.

Rounds One and Two on The Golf Channel Coverage at 2p Eastern- Rounds Three and Four on NBC at 2p and 3p Saturday and Sunday respectively…all times Eastern.

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