82 REASONS WHY TIGER’S IN A LEAGUE OF HIS OWN
UNTIL Tiger Woods came along, there were two pillars of achievement in golf that stood so forbiddingly high it seemed inconceivable anyone would get anywhere near them.
One was Jack nicklaus’s total of 18 majors, and that will always be the holy grail. But it’s only right the game paused for a moment yesterday to reflect on the fact that tiger now stands alongside Sam Snead when it comes to the other, and the scarcely believable total of 82 victories on the PGA tour.
Bear in mind this is a game where 10 wins and a major represents a career beyond all but the wildest dreamers. Cast a glance down the list of the top 10 serial winners and all but two were plying their trade in the 1970s or earlier.
Eighty flippin’ two, achieved at a time when standards in the game are rising all the time, when players come from all over the world to compete on the most lucrative, demanding circuit of all? ‘it’s incredible,’ said tiger, and for once that adjective was being correctly used. ‘it’s simply a crazy number.’
Adding to the wonderment is the fact his career seemed dead and buried 18 months ago. He’s had four back surgeries and five left-knee ops — and he’s still notched up as many victories over the past year and a bit as any other player.
trust the Golden Bear to come up with the right words to sum up the feelings of a sport.
‘When tiger had his back operation two years ago, we were all just hoping and praying he would be able to enjoy a quality of life that enabled him to walk again and play with his kids,’ said nicklaus. ‘Playing golf again was far from our thoughts. But he’s moved on and is able to play golf of the highest quality once more. it’s wonderful to witness.’
Ah, the marvels of modern medicine. We were reflecting as such on that unforgettable day in April when tiger won his first major for 11 years at the Masters. But it appeared to exact a high price. He was not moving right and it showed in a string of poor performances, when the Masters looked more like a mirage than a miracle. At the first PGA tour event to be staged in Japan last week, Woods came clean about a knee problem that had been bothering him. He wanted to build on his Masters momentum and delayed surgery over the summer, but admitted he made the wrong decision.
From the start in tokyo, it was obvious the operation had given him another lease of life. Playing for the first time in nine weeks, he was moving well once more and able to crouch properly to study the lines of putts. His swing was a thing of beauty, where he wasn’t having to compensate for areas of his body that weren’t functioning properly.
Owing to a typhoon on Friday, Woods was forced to play 29 holes in one day, but still came back at 6.30am on Monday with the energy to complete the job and claim the milestone win.
it’s fair to say his peers were impressed. ‘the ball- striking exhibition i’ve just witnessed over the last two days is a joke, and i don’t see him stopping winning any time soon,’ said his playing partner, US Open champion Gary Woodland.
‘it’s amazing what he keeps doing with the comebacks,’ said third-placed Rory Mcilroy. ‘ He does things that people really can’t comprehend. He thinks and dreams of things that other people just consider impossible.’
American Charles Howell chimed in too, with a witty remark. ‘i always thought 82 top-10s would be a heck of a career,’ he said.
Given it’s surely inevitable now that tiger will raise Snead’s standard, what about the other pillar of achievement? Woods will be 44 when he defends his Masters title next April, and is still three shy of nicklaus’s mark.
But if he can have 10 more majors moving as well as he did last week — a big if, admittedly — is it really beyond the bounds for the man who thinks the impossible?
‘the future looks a lot brighter than it has,’ said Woods, smiling. Goodness, roll on Georgia’s beloved rite of spring.