(Editor’s note: This originally ran last year, as Tiger Woods turned 40. Take a look back at Tiger’s greatest statistical achievements as compiled by Justin Ray of the Golf Channel research department.)
When it comes to the complete demolition of a respective sport’s record book, Tiger Woods has few rivals.
Babe Ruth ended his Major League Baseball career with 714 home runs. Before Ruth, baseball’s all-time home run leader was Roger Connor, with 138. In 1920, Ruth hit 54 home runs, which at the time, shattered his own single-season record by 25. Only one other TEAM besides the Yankees hit that many home runs that season.
Yet, to say that Ruth has as staggering a resume as Woods is a disservice to Tiger.
It may take decades, but someday, people will look at Tiger’s prime years as possibly the most dominant, relatively speaking, by any one athlete in the history of sports.
Narrowing down Tiger’s greatest statistical achievements to just 40 is as entertaining as it is arduous. The goal was to illuminate a few of the numbers that go beyond the standards everyone knows – 14 (major wins), 79 (PGA Tour wins) and 15 (margin of victory at the 2000 U.S. Open).
Revel in the insanity that has been Tiger’s historic greatness for the better part of 20 years:
40. Woods won 32 times on the PGA Tour from 1999 through 2003. No other player won more than eight times in that span.
39. From the 1999 PGA Championship through the 2002 U.S. Open, Woods won seven of the 11 majors contested. Woods was a cumulative 94 under par in those tournaments – 60 shots better than any other player.
38. Woods won 10 majors before his 30th birthday. Since the first Masters was held in 1934, the only player to even win five majors before turning 30 was Jack Nicklaus, who won seven.
37. On that note: today, there is currently only one player with double-digit PGA Tour wins (not majors, just regular victories) under age 30: Rory McIlroy.
36. In majors from 1997 through 2008, Tiger recorded 34 different rounds of 67 or better. No other player had more than 16 such rounds in that span.
35. Woods won 46 times in his 20s, 16 more than any other player in PGA Tour history (Nicklaus, again, is second). During the time Woods was in his 20s, the player with the second-most victories before age 30 was David Duval, with 13.
34. Woods was a combined 82 under at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational from 1999 through 2009 – 49 shots better than anyone else in that span. Tiger has racked up $11 million in official earnings in that event alone – more than six times what Arnold Palmer earned in his entire PGA Tour career.
33. Woods has a career scoring average of 70.86 in the Masters. That is the best career scoring average in that event for any player with at least 50 rounds played. Woods’ 11 top-five finishes in the Masters is second all-time to Nicklaus.
32. During the 2000 PGA Tour season, Woods recorded one round higher than 73. It came in the first round of the Masters. He shot 75, on a day when the field averaged 75.59.
31. Tiger has won the Vardon Trophy (lowest scoring average on Tour) nine times, four more than any other player (Billy Casper, Lee Trevino). The trophy has been awarded since 1937.
30. Woods has earned more than $110 million in official earnings in his PGA Tour career. The year before he turned pro, the Tour’s all-time career earnings leader was Greg Norman – at $9.59 million.
29. Tiger was a combined 53 under in the majors in 2000. That was 35 shots better than anyone else that year. Though Jordan Spieth broke Woods’ season scoring mark in 2015 (he was a combined 54 under in the majors), he was just 19 shots better than his closest competitor, Jason Day (-35).
28. There are five instances in PGA Tour history where a player won a single PGA Tour event seven or more times. Woods owns four of them. Sam Snead, who won in Greensboro eight times, is the only other player to do it once.
27. Woods has spent 683 weeks as world No. 1 – 352 weeks (more than six years) more than any other player in OWGR history (Greg Norman is second).
26. A player has won a major championship with a score of 18 under or better eight times. Tiger owns five of those eight instances.
25. Woods is, of course, the only man in the modern era to win four consecutive majors – a feat known as the Tiger Slam. The last of Tiger’s four straight major wins came at age 25. The only other players in the modern era to even win four career majors (not consecutive) at age 25 or younger are Jack Nicklaus and Rory McIlroy.
24. Woods is the only player in history to win the U.S. Junior Amateur, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open in his career. He won three of each.
23. Woods has won nine USGA Championships in his career, tied with Bobby Jones for most all-time. Woods won the 2000 U.S. Open by 15 shots. No other player in the last 100 years has won a U.S. Open by more than nine shots.
22. From 2002-05, Woods had 1,540 putts from 3 feet and in on the PGA Tour. He only missed three of them.
21. Woods completed the career Grand Slam at age 24. Not only is he the youngest player to win the slam, only five other players in the last 50 years have won a major at age 24 or younger.
20. There have only been two instances since 1900 where a player won a major championship by 10 strokes or more. Woods owns both of those instances (1997 Masters, 2000 U.S. Open).
19. Woods is the only player in the PGA Championship’s stroke-play era to win the tournament in consecutive years. He’s done it twice.
18. Tiger is 16-1 in his career in playoffs on the PGA and European tours. His only defeat came to Billy Mayfair at the 1998 Nissan Open.
17. Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year has been awarded since 1954. Woods is the only athlete to win the award more than once (1996, 2000).
16. Tiger has held the outright 54-hole lead 45 times in his PGA Tour career. He went on to win 43 of them, good for a 95.6 percent clip. For context - over the last three PGA Tour seasons, players with an outright 54-hole lead have gone on to win 39.7 percent of the time.
15. Tiger has held the outright 36-hole lead 33 times in his Tour career. He went on to win 28 of them (84.8 percent). In comparison, Jack Nicklaus’ 36-hole outright conversion rate was 63 percent.
14. Tiger’s 46 PGA Tour wins before he turned 30 would be eighth on the overall all-time wins list – one ahead of Walter Hagen.
13. Woods has missed 15 cuts on the PGA Tour as a professional. Spieth has missed 13. Spieth was three years old when Tiger turned pro.
12. Adjusted scoring averages have been calculated on the PGA Tour since 1988. There are six instances where a player’s season adjusted scoring average was better than 68.6. They all belong to Woods.
11. Woods has won 14 major championships. No other player currently age 40 or younger has more than 12 career regular PGA Tour wins (Zach Johnson, who turns 40 in February, has 12).
10. Speaking of Zach - Tiger’s 79 Tour wins are 67 more than any other player currently 40 or younger. There are seven other players age 40 or younger with at least eight career PGA Tour wins. Those players – Johnson, Adam Scott, McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Sergio Garcia, Geoff Ogilvy and Bubba Watson – have 67 wins combined.
9. Woods is credited with 40 career wins on the European Tour, third-most all-time. Woods has never played a full season on the European Tour.
8. Tiger is the only player since World War II to win a PGA Tour event four straight years. He did it two different times.
7. Tiger is the only player in PGA Tour history to win eight or more times on a single course. He has done it on three different courses.
6. Tiger has won five straight PGA Tour starts three different times. Over the last 60 years, he is the only player to do it once.
5. From 1997 through 2008, Woods led or co-led following any round in a major 42 different times. Second on the list in that span was Phil Mickelson – with 13. Woods won 14 majors in that span.
4. Tiger has 18 career World Golf Championship victories. Second on the all-time list? Ogilvy. He has three.
3. Woods had 142 consecutive PGA Tour events without missing a cut, from 1998-2005. That is 29 more than the second-longest streak in the Tour’s history (Byron Nelson, 113 in a row). There are only four other such streaks even half as long as Woods’.
2. In a stretch from the middle of the 1999 season through the middle of the 2001 season, Woods won 20 of the 38 stroke-play events he played on the Tour (a .526 win percentage). In those events, Woods was a combined 472 under, a cumulative score 307 shots better than anyone else. Vijay Singh was second.
1. From 1997 through 2008, Woods was a combined 126 under par in majors. There are 138 other players who played at least 40 rounds in major championships in that span. Among that group, Woods was a staggering 189 shots better than anyone else. Second on the list: Joe Ogilvie, at 63 over.
