Tiger's Winning Percentage

Golfobserver.com's Sal Johnson cooked up this stat on Tiger:

Highest winning percentage's on the PGA Tour:
Player     Percentage (wins / starts)
Tiger Woods     27.36% (55 out of 201)
Ben Hogan     20.7% (61 of 294)
Byron Nelson     17.8% (50 of 281)
Sam Snead     14.9% (81 of 549
Jack Nicklaus     12.2% (73 of 594)
Billy Casper     9.2% (51 of 556)
Arnold Palmer     8.4% (62 of 734)

Comments

[keith86]

If tiger plays 734 events the numbers will be much higher

[NRH]

Now that is impressive - and quite compelling when comparing greats from different eras (save Bobby Jones). I'm sure those guys played a few more events per year, but that's a big gap between Hogan and Tiger.

Wow...Arnie, 140 more events than Jack. Billy Casper, forever overlooked. Anybody have Vijay or Phil's winning percentage?

I wonder if things could have turned out better for Charles Howell if he would've just chugged that Michelob?

[Hawkeye]

NRH - in the 70's, Jack averaged 16,9 starts per season, and from what I've heard and read, Hogan never played more than 10 after the crash. No matter how you look at it, to win more than one quarter of your starts in this day and age is ridiculously good. And get this - his winning average in the majors as a professional is HIGHER - 12 of 40 (30%).

[Pete the Luddite]

Keep in mind, folks, that the winning percentages of the winning players are substantially diluted by the number of tournaments they played in their advancing years. Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer played well past their prime, and they weren't winning at the same rate as in their youth.

I wonder what the statistics look like for the same number of events played as Tiger?

[Tim Robinson]

As Tiger gets older, he'll keep cutting down on numbers of events; he cherishes this stat a LOT. I wouldn't be surprised to see him playing just major and about 6 other events per year after age 35.

[Jay]

Sabermetrics (quantitative/objective analysis of baseball) comes to golf. Cool.

By the way, is anybody actually doing that, a blog perhaps?

[Jeff]

Arnies king allright, does flair count?

[Martin Del Vecchio]

Here are Jack's numbers, from his web site. I tallied his first 12 years, because his 11th and 12th (1972 and 1973) were his best:

1962: 26 events, 3 wins
1963: 25 events, 5 wins
1964: 26 events, 4 wins
1965: 24 events, 5 wins
1966: 19 events, 3 wins
1967: 23 events, 5 wins
1968: 22 events, 2 wins
1969: 23 events, 3 wins
1970: 19 events, 3 wins
1971: 18 events, 5 wins
1972: 19 events, 7 wins
1973: 18 events, 7 wins

Totals: 262 events, 52 wins, 19.8%

It's interesting that he played so many events through 1969.



You can check it out at http://www.nicklaus.com/nicklaus_facts/pgatour.php

[C. Freeman]

I shouldn't even be going down this rabbit hole, but why on earth would Tiger cut his schedule to 10 tournaments per year after he turns 35 (in 4 years)?

[Martin Del Vecchio]

Here are the numbers for Jack in the 1970s:

1970: 19 events, 3 wins
1971: 18 events, 5 wins
1972: 19 events, 7 wins
1973: 18 events, 7 wins
1974: 18 events, 2 wins
1975: 16 events, 5 wins
1976: 16 events, 2 wins
1977: 18 events, 3 wins
1978: 15 events, 4 wins
1979: 12 events, 0 wins

Totals: 169 events, 38 wins, 22.5%

[Martin Del Vecchio]

And cherry-picking his best 5-year stretch:

1971: 18 events, 5 wins
1972: 19 events, 7 wins
1973: 18 events, 7 wins
1974: 18 events, 2 wins
1975: 16 events, 5 wins

Totals: 89 events, 26 wins, 29.2%

The numbers are pretty clear: Jack had a remarkable career, and was a consistent winner from 1962 through 1978. But he was not as dominant as Tiger has been...

[Martin Del Vecchio]

And since I'm apparently not going to get any work done today, here are Tiger's numbers:

1996: 8 events, 2 wins
1997: 21 events, 4 wins
1998: 20 events, 1 win
1999: 21 events, 8 wins
2000: 20 events, 9 wins
2001: 19 events, 5 wins
2002: 18 events, 5 wins
2003: 18 events, 5 wins
2004: 19 events, 1 win
2005: 21 events, 6 wins
2006: 15 events, 8 wins
2007: 1 event, 1 win

Totals: 201 events, 55 wins, 27.4%.

But here's a more interesting stat; the rolling 5-year winning percentages:

1996 - 2000: 26.7%
1997 - 2001: 26.7%
1998 - 2002: 28.6%
1999 - 2003: 33.3%
2000 - 2004: 26.6%
2001 - 2005: 23.2%
2002 - 2006: 27.5%

So there is only one 5-year stretch (2001 through 2005) in which he failed to win at least 25% of his starts. And in that stretch, he won 23.2%

[keith86]

C Freeman when the the birth of his first child happens we will only see tiger if he has to i.e sponsors or if it suits he and his family

[Hawkeye]

keith86, I assume you don't have any children of your own. The first year of a child's life is the lonliest of a father's lifetime - mother and baby are in symbiosis, you're the fifth wheel and have not much else to do than bringing home the bacon. My guess is we'll be seeing as much of Tiger as we ever have (although that's not really a lot) in the upcoming years.

[keith86]

Oh Hawkeye either your life or your wife is a bitch, unfortunatly my wife had an emergancy ceaser 2 weeks early after 3 trips to the hospital in 6 days we had a beautiful baby boy, he only breastfeed for 8 weeks and although I do work 50 hours a week to bring home the bacon I would not trade a hole in, one a sub par round off the stick or a life like Tigers for being woken up at any time of night to comfort my son, any dirty nappy,the smile or laugh fatherhood is the best thing that has ever happened to me you just have to make time to enjoy it I may only play golf once every 2 weeks but the way my son swings a club or a cricket bat I will have plenty of time to enjoy and love him then worry about myself.Geoff O won't win the open this year Why? he will have bigger and better things to worry about ,a child tiger,s bond with his Dad will carry through to his children this bond will not stop tiger being the best golfer we have ever seen but will curtail his over all record

[Hawkeye]

keith86, my apologies. But you really play once every two weeks? Hell, the last time I played 18 holes was October 2005. And no, neither my life nor my wife is a bitch - it's great, she's great and so is my daughter. But I stick to my view that the first year was a blur as far as home life is concerned. And if you look at major champions, you'd be surprised to see how many players have won majors with an infant at home. Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo, Steve Elkington and Nick Price are just some of the guys whose careers really started to take off once they had produced an offspring. Keep the faith in Geoff Ogilvy, and you bet Tiger will not back down one bit with a cub at home. My regards to the little one.

[Martin Del Vecchio]

Once every two weeks? I'm working on once a year with two little critters at home. And I live across the street from my club!

[Hawkeye]

Martin, I'm detecting a pattern here... I guess this blog fills a void for us toddler-dads who don't have the time to play anymore. Thanks, Geoff!

[keith86]

Norman should have had 10 kid,s then his percentages would be worth a look.I haven't played the ps2 in 2 years it gets plenty of wiggles dvd's played on it.

[Martin Del Vecchio]

My 17-month-old calls them the Squiggles.

[jacl]

tiger has sold his soul to the devil. his opponents alwsys choke on the final day while he always sinks 60 footers like its nothing. The devil will be calling in his contract soon tigger.