Tiger Woods, without a doubt, is the best golfer of all time. And today, August 29, is the day when Tiger first played in a professional round 25 years ago. He made his PGA Tour debut at the 1996 Greater Milwaukee Open and finished T60 with a score of -7. And since then, he has been dominating the sport with some exceptional performances.
The 15-time major championship winner has created plenty of records in his career so far. Moreover, he is the pioneer who made golf a popular sport around the world. Tiger, with his talent and style of play, attracted plenty of eyeballs towards him. So, on this special day, let us have a look at a few Tiger stats which you probably won’t be reading every day.
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Tiger Woods’ stats to celebrate his 25 years in professional golf
Today is the day when Tiger Woods played his first professional round 25 years ago. And to celebrate this moment, Justin Ray, a golf statistician, shared a few lesser-known stats of Tiger Woods.
Tiger Woods had a phenomenal record in majors from 1997 to 2008. Woods had a combined 126 under-par (-126) in majors through this period. Moreover, of the 117 players in that same span, with 50 or more rounds in majors, Phil Mickelson had the 2nd best score with 98 over par (+98) which is 224 shots behind Woods.
Moreover, he has won in each of Jack Nicklaus’ last major career appearances. Jack’s last U.S. Open (2000), PGA Championship (2000), The Open (2005), and Masters (2005). Tiger Woods interestingly won each of these major events.
In Jack Nicklaus' last career appearance in each of the four majors, Woods won.
Jack's last:
Masters – 2005 (Tiger wins)
U.S. Open – 2000 (Tiger wins)
Open – 2005 (Tiger wins)
PGA – 2000 (Tiger wins)— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) August 29, 2021
Furthermore, Woods had 1,463 putts on the PGA Tour from 3 feet and inside from 2004 to 2006. And astonishingly, he has only missed three out of all these 1,463 putts.
Additionally, Tiger Woods has an outright 54-hole lead for 46 times in his career so far. Moreover, he has converted 44 out of these 46 leads into victory on the PGA Tour.
Tiger is 44-for-46 converting outright 54-hole leads on the PGA Tour in his career (95.7%).
The PGA Tour average rate of winning with a 54-hole lead since 2006 is 43.3%. Entering today, none of the last 14 PGA Tour events have been won by players who led after 54 holes.
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) August 29, 2021
Woods has won his 100th, 200th, and 300th official career starts on the PGA Tour. His 100th start was in 2000 WGC at Firestone, 200th at 2006 Torrey Pines, and 300th at 2013 Players Championship.
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Finally, in the last 120 years, there have been only two instances where a player has won a major championship by 10-strokes or more. And unsurprisingly, both the times it was Tiger Woods. Firstly, the 1997 Masters by 12 shots and then the 2000 U.S. Open by 15 shots. Moreover, he won both these events before the age of 25.
And finally, stroke differential vs the field average measures how a player performs against his fellow competitors. Here are the best single-season averages in that stat the last 30 PGA Tour seasons: pic.twitter.com/PSJLWSfrAR
— Justin Ray (@JustinRayGolf) August 29, 2021
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Meanwhile, Tiger Woods is currently recovering from a solo car crash and hopefully will make a comeback to the PGA Tour soon.
Read More – Tiger Woods Day: Looking Back at His First Press Conference as a Professional Golfer 25 Years Ago