Sorry, Sam! Why Tiger Was Already The Pga Tour’s Greatest Ever Player
Tiger Woods recently matched Sam Snead’s record of 82 PGA Tour wins – but in truth he smashed it years ago…
Tiger Woods recently matched Sam Snead's record of 82 PGA Tour wins – but in truth he smashed it years ago…
When Tiger Woods won the ZOZO Championship in Japan, much was made of the fact it was his 82nd PGA Tour victory, tying Sam Snead as the tour’s most successful player of all-time.
“The majors speak for themselves, but 82 is just a crazy number,” said Gary Woodland, who played with Woods for the final two rounds in Japan. “You look at the guys who have won 10 times and that’s pretty special, let alone to come out here and win 82 times.”
Make no mistake, this is an incredible achievement. Combine the PGA Tour victories of Dustin Johnson (20), Rory Mcilroy (18), Justin Thomas (11), Jordan Spieth (11) and Brooks Koepka (seven) – five players who have all been number one in the world – and you would still be 15 short of the total Woods has amassed on his own.
For some time, the PGA Tour had focused on the narrative of Tiger chasing down Sam Snead’s record, even creating a ‘Chasing 82’ campaign to ramp up the excitement. He has now hit that mark and, given that Woods has shown himself well capable of winning again – and at 43 is nine years younger than Snead when he won his final event – it seems inevitable he will surpass Snead’s total.
But the reality is that Woods has been the PGA Tour’s most successful golfer of all time for quite some time – it’s only some questionable accounting that means he is still awaiting the official title.
Question marks over Snead’s total
For a start, there are question marks over Snead’s total. It’s no fault of Snead’s, but records were lost when the PGA Tour and the PGA of America split in 1968. Deane Beman, PGA Tour commissioner from 1974 to 1994, conducted a study in the 1980s to reconcile records and end the uncertainty over who had won what and what counted as an official PGA Tour win and what didn’t.
Beman and a panel of golf historians deemed that Snead’s victory at the 1949 North and South Open shouldn’t count as an official PGA Tour win because the purse was too small. But they allowed three Snead victories contested over just 36 holes, plus one that was a single round, to count towards his total. PGA Tour policy now states that for a tournament to be official it must be at least 54 holes.
The size of the field for some of Snead’s victories also raises questions over their validity. Five of his 82 wins came at the Palm Beach Round Robin. Four of those were a field of 16 players, the other a field of 15. One of Snead’s 36-hole victories came at the World Championship of Golf, which had all of four players in it.
Then there’s the 1950 Bing Crosby Pro-am, cancelled due to darkness with four players tied for the lead. Instead of returning for a playoff, all four were awarded the win. Five team events were also included in Snead’s total.
This isn’t to belittle Snead’s fantastic career and achievements. It’s merely to point out that if his victories were judged by the same standards as Tiger’s, he’d have 74 instead of 82, a mark that Woods passed in 2013.
Tiger could actually have nearly 100 wins
Alternatively, if Woods’ career to date was measured by the more generous standards applied to Snead’s, he would have passed the 82 mark many years ago.
He has won the Hero World Challenge five times, but the PGA Tour don’t recognise it as an official event, largely due to the field size. Woods only has to beat 15 players to win the event he hosts, although it should
“If the playing field was evened, Tiger would have 96 or 97 wins.“
be noted that those 15 are pretty much the best players in the world. Last year, 16 of the world’s top 23 players competed. And, as we’ve established, six of Snead’s wins came in a field that size or smaller, yet they counted as official PGA Tour titles.
Tiger has also won the Grand Slam of Golf seven times. It seems fair to say these shouldn’t count as official PGA Tour wins, as only four players compete for the title, but a four-man event was good enough to become a counting event for Snead at the 1946 World Championship of Golf.
As for team titles, Woods won the World Cup of Golf in 1999 with Mark O’meara and in 2000 with David Duval. He also won the individual title in 1999. These wins have not been counted in Tiger’s total, but team events counted towards Snead’s.
Can Tiger break 100?
Whether you think these events should count as official PGA Tour victories or not, you can’t have it both ways. To form a truly accurate comparison of these great players’ careers, they should count for both or not count.
If the playing field was evened, Woods would be sitting on 96 (or maybe even 97) PGA Tour wins now and we’d all be getting excited about him breaking the 100 barrier.