PGA TOU won 8 times
Tiger Woods was obviously invincible in his peak, but he was so happy to testify not only golf fans but also his incredible performance over the years.
Jeff Ogilvi was one of the world’s best players in the tiger section in the early 2010s in the mid-2000s. The Australian won seven times on the PGA Tour between February 2005 and January 2010, including the 2006 US Open, and was once ranked No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking (he added an eighth victory in 2014). But even he felt inferior to Woods. In an interview on the Feb. 20 episode of Golf.com’s podcast “Subpar,” Ogilvy told hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz the same thing, emphasizing the trait that separates Tiger from the rest of the field: tenacity.
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“You weren’t going to beat him.” No one was going to beat him. He was special. “Tiger, every time the expectations were high, he performed well,” Ogilvy said. “And then he goes out and wins the tournament. This worked best for me.
There is certainly more than enough evidence to support Ogilvy’s argument. First, note that Tiger’s 82 PGA Tour wins tie him with Sam Snead for the most PGA Tour wins of all time, and his 15 major championship wins are second only to Jack Nicklaus’ 18.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. During the podcast, Ogilvy described how he watched Tiger during the tournament and how his behavior changed as he progressed.
“He was a genius, he finished 72 holes faster than anyone,” Ogilvy said. “So Thursday, Friday was pretty casual and we were able to chat. It was like a normal Thursday, Friday with someone. On Saturday he got a little more serious, but on Sunday I wasn’t able to talk to him. He just didn’t look anyone in the eye.
And it was during those Saturday and Sunday rounds that Woods’ unmatched clutch gene kicked in.
Tiger held at least some of the lead after 36 holes and has won 39 of 50 events. He finished with a 55-4 record while still holding at least a portion of the lead after 54 holes, and then a 44-2 record while still holding the overall lead after 54 holes. Twé has more than one shot on the 54 Moon brand, the Tiger lost only once when he was the 2009 PGA championship when Y.E. Jan overcome the shortage with two shots to win three.
This is the embodiment of the passage in the clutch. Again, Tiger wasn’t invincible, though he did look that way at times. During his record-breaking 2000 season, in which he won three major championships, Woods won an astounding 45% of his starts, won the title in nine of his 20 starts, and recorded 17 top-10 finishes. And although his prize money has decreased in the past few years, Woods has already increased 21.9 % to the highest rating in history.
