Tiger: The Ultimate Horse For A Course

Bob Harig dissects Tiger's remarkable track record at a select group of courses, including his last five victories: Bay Hill, Memorial, Congressional, Torrey Pines and Doral.

And it is true that 40 of Woods' 76 PGA Tour victories have come at seven courses: Torrey Pines (8), Firestone (7), Bay Hill (7), Muirfield Village (5), Cog Hill (5), Augusta National (4) and Doral (4).

At those venues alone, his victory total is just one fewer than that of Phil Mickelson, one more than Tom Watson, six more than Vijay Singh.

A video segment accompanies the story:

Comments

[D]

In my estimation, this analysis is incorrect. Tiger's schedule has revolved around the premier tour events. WGCs and major championships. Historically, many of these events are held at the same courses. Given this fact, and the fact that Tiger wins so many events, of course the stats will show he wins on the same courses.

The more important question is what courses or events that Tiger regularly plays has he NOT won?

If tiger regularly played the John Deere classic and it was held at the same course each year, he would have a lot of wins there too.

[Stanley Thompson]

It makes sense to me that the reason his record on these courses is that good is because he basically only plays these courses.
Other than the majors he doesn't play too many of the other courses.

[elf]

Basically Sawgrass is an anomaly, in that he plays it a lot and doesn't win a lot. Riviera, and interestingly Quail Hollow. Thinking about doing some more research on this, depends on my time/interest.

[D]

Yes, Sawgrass. Quail Holllow is a relatively new venue. He has not played Riviera with any regularity.

[digsouth]

Del, did't we discuss ths a month or so ago?

D and Stanley are correct in their assesment, though- the logic is very...err. logical.

Good job.

[DTF]

1. Vegas
2. Disney
3. Masters
4. La Costa
5. Dallas Four Seasons
6. Cog Hill
7. TPC Sugarloaf
8. Torrey Pines
9. Muirfield Village
10. Medinah
11. Firestone
12. Champions
13. Valderrama

There's 13 different courses he won on just through the end of 1999!

Be back to you with the rest shortly....working through it as I watch the ACC tourney ;0)

[DTF]

14. Kapalua
15. Pebble Beach (2 in 2000)
16. Bay Hill
17. St. Andrews
18. Valhalla
19. Glen Abbey

That's 2000 alone...8 wins on 6 different courses, the ony win he had in 2000 that was a repeat was Firestone.

[DTF]

20. TPC Sawgrass
21. Bethpage Black
22. Warwick Hills
23. Mount Juliet, Ireland
24. Capital City Crabapple
25. Doral
26. Harding Park
27. Royal Liverpool
28. TPC of Boston
29. The Grove, England

That takes us through 2006.

Question, did they ever switch up the courses at Firestone?

[RES]

Del,

I believe the unique ones since 2007 are Quail Hollow, Southern Hills, East Lake, the Gallery at Dove Mountain and Congressional. I wonder how many other pros have won on 34 different courses.

[DTF]

30. Quail Hollow
31. Southern Hills
32. East Lake
33. The Gallery, Arizona
34. Congressional CC

So that looks like it, Tiger has won on 34 different courses. The list culled only from tournaments that are majors, WGC's, or official PGA Tour events.

Apparently that's the exact same number of wins Vijay has and only 7 fewer than Phil's total career wins ;0)

Conclusion: only a moron would somehow attempt to make a case that Tiger one dimensional and can only win on a handful of different courses. That's the way I see it anyway...

[DTF]

Then there are the international wins outside of majors and WGC's...

[Sari]

Case closed, DTF!

[DTF]

digger, yes we did ;) This venue is rife with good potential stories/topics that an enterprising writer could cull and run with. Whadya bet Harig or someone who works for him checks in here now and then?

The Eddie Pearce story was a good one. I was around the Tour when he played his way back on and it was an incredible accomplishment even though just getting his card ended up being the pinnacle.

I'll tell you another story that would be a good one, kind of the opposite of Eddie, is the Dickie Pride story...some writer oughta check that out. Heck, how much does a writer get paid for a story like the Pearce story? Maybe I'll research and write the Pride story myself and try to sell it!

PS...a week in SoCal, saw one anchored putter, and what one helluva anchored putter it was. Guy had lengthened a Bullseye, I kid you not! I figure it was about 47", he had some sort of a long tie-dye design grip, and was using it with a face-on side-saddle style that looked just like Snead except longer putter and left elbow/forearm was anchored, left hand was not anchored. Very distinguished looking older Asian gentleman. That's all the news from lake wobegone...

[nguyenvuminh]

Yeah, I'm sort with DTF on this one. The fact is the other players play the same courses over the years as well and let's see what their record is like. It should be noted that Tiger decided to trim his playing schedule early in his career, BEFORE he started winning all those tournaments. I.E. he didn't win and then decided "hmmm I think I'm only going to play this course".

[Brad]

Del, how many of those wins count? :)

[RES]

Apropos of nothing, by my count, Phil has won 41 times on 21 courses, and Vijay has won 34 times on 27 courses.

[DTF]

LOL Brad...all of em as far as I'm concerned ;)

[Pepperdine]

@DTF -

Dicky Pride story seems good so far, but I think it needs a comeback Major win or a Rocco-esque performance to really get the juices flowing.

[DTF]

Dicky will never win a major but he might just win another regular tour event which will likely challenge the longest span ever in between official tour wins.

Dicky is the opposite of Eddie, late adopter, late bloomer, no acclaim whatsoever, really no spectacular facets to his game, no expectations of him whatsoever, no college scholarship....if Eddie only captured 2% of his potential, Dickie has probably captured 99.7% of his. Along the way her overcame some brutal issues and did some incredible things on course.

I think his story is one real golf fans would find amazing!

PS...shame on me for spelling his name wrong above.

[Pepperdine]

@DTF -

Touche sir.

[Annoyed]

Can't ESPN do any better than Bob Harig and Michael Collins? Is that really the best they can do for golf?

[DTF]

Is Augusta going to have the balls to give Ryo Ishikawa another undeserved invite this year?

[Arthur Nelson]

Ishikawa's invitation was announced in January.

[DTF]

Oh no! After I had already made that post it occurred to me that he might already be in....what a joke. 6 starts, 2 cuts made, $26,000 in total earnings in 2013. This guy should toddle on back to Japan where the OWGR points are easy and the competition is weak, seems to suit him better.

[M]

Vijay is the only guy you could call a more all-season guy than Tiger. Tiger and Vijay are the only guys I've ever seen really win throughout the year on different courses. Phil is strong in the spring. Lots of other guys are strong only at certain times/venues.TW can win all year and all over. Sure, put him on narrow fairways with lots of trees and slow greens, and he's just another pro golfer. But gimme a break. He's the only guy we can do these sorts of stats on. Figure out a way to get the other 150 pros to get to 70 wins and tell me they don't have a few 6-7-8 time courses.

[Al P]

DTF great research. Any way to do a similar analysis for Jack N?

[Hawkeye]

@ATP: I'm pretty sure he won on more different courses than Tiger. I'm on the case, but slowly - it's Friday night over here...

[Tom Ierubino]

Jack Nicklaus's 73 PGA Tour wins came on 41 different courses (multiple wins in parentheses):

Oakmont (Pa.)
Broadmoor (Wash. state)
Edgewater (Ore.)
Indian Wells (Calif.)
Augusta National (6)
Desert Inn (Nev.) (2)
Dallas Athletic Club (Texas)
Paradise Valley (Nev.) (4)
Phoenix CC (Ariz.)
Whitemarsh (Pa.) (3)
Portland (Ore.) (2)
Colonial (Tenn.)
Westchester (NY) (3)
PGA National (Fla.)
Muirfield (Scotland)
Pebble Beach (4)
Baltusrol (Lower) (NJ) (2)
Beverley (Ill.)
Olympia Fields (Ill.)
Firestone (South) (3)
Torrey Pines (South)
Silverado (Calif.)
Preston Trail (Texas) (2)
Laurel Valley (Pa.) (2)
Old Course (St. Andrews) (2)
La Costa (Calif.) (3)
Disney World (Magnolia) (Fla.) (3)
Doral (Fla.) (2)
CC of No. Carolina
Lakewood (La.)
Atlanta CC (2)
Canterbury (Ohio)
Jack Nicklaus Golf Center (Ohio)
Waialae (Hawaii)
Harbour Town (S.C.)
Pinehurst No. 2
Inverrary (Fla.) (2)
Muirfield Village (Ohio) (2)
Sawgrass CC (Fla.)
Oak Hill (NY)
Colonial (Texas)

[DTF]

M, great point on Vijay, I too am impressed with that.

Tom, I knew you'd have that info ;) In my opinion the results posted by Jack and Tiger both in terms of quantity of wins and diversity of venues are beyond reproach. Would you agree?

Thanks Al P, I love digging into the numbers ;)

[Tom Ierubino]

I agree.

It's worth noting there are 9 courses Tiger and Jack both won at: Augusta National, Pebble Beach, the Old Course, La Costa, Doral, Muirfield Village, Firestone, Torrey Pines, and Disney World.