Woods begins season on verge of history
Tiger seeking a record 83rd PGA Tour triumph Hopes high with eight victories at Torrey Pines
History never seems too far from Tiger Woods, but in the first week of his competitive year at perhaps his most favourite hunting ground, fresh immortality is within tantalising touching distance.
At the 2008 US Open, Torrey Pines’ most prolific champion famously won on one leg. A dozen years on, he returns to the San Diego layout perched on the Californian cliffs with both legs in working order and confident of marching past Sam Snead and claiming a hugely significant milestone in his career.
The pair are level on a record 82 PGA Tour wins but, as ever, Woods’s eyes extend no further than Sunday at the Farmers Insurance Open. “I’m just thinking about the things I have to do to win this golf tournament,” Woods said. “I’m more consumed in that. Let’s just get there first and then I’ll think about what 83 might mean.”
At least the queries which he seemingly finds so tiresome were not, for once, focused on when Woods, on 15, would eclipse Jack Nicklaus’s record major haul of 18.
Since he tied with Snead’s record of 82 in Japan in October, No 83 seems guaranteed to come at some time in 2020 and the only consideration is if it will arrive first time up.
“It’s being able to win consistently and win a lot,” Woods said. “In the course of my career, I think I’ve won five times in a season on 10 occasions. You need to win in bunches to get to 82.”
Woods has certainly won in bunches at Torrey Pines – eight times as a professional. Of course, everyone remembers his heroics of 12 years ago, when he ignored the advice of the medics and played through the pain of a shattered knee and two stress fractures of the tibia to beat Rocco Mediate in that 19-hole Monday play-off.
With surgery following immediately afterwards, it was Woods’s last tournament for eight months. It was also his last major win until last year’s Masters; an eventuality that no one foresaw. “I’ve always enjoyed coming down here, I played here in junior golf and have played well here as a professional,” Woods said. “My dad brought me to Torrey as a kid, so this place is near and dear to my heart.”
For the first two rounds, Woods has been drawn alongside Collin Morikawa, the 22-year-old from Los Angeles who is already a winner on the PGA Tour. This is something of a landmark in itself for Woods as it is the first time he has been in the same group as a player who was born after he turned pro in 1996.
“That just means I’ve been out here a while,” Woods said with a smile. “And that’s one of the neat things about golf. It’s not like football when you are measured over a decade. Here we are measured by decades, plural.
“Yeah, when I was younger, I had more days when I felt good rather than bad. Now I’m 44, it’s the other way around and it’s hard to put it together for all four days. But I’ve been able to win a few tournaments since my comeback and hopefully I can win a few more.”
Woods has triumphed three times in 16 months that have stunned the world.
The Masters was obviously the