Dial 1 for Tiger

Tiger Woods, by winning the AT&T National tournament recently, dialed in some amazing numbers which, if there had been any doubt, confirmed his status as the outright favourite to win the British Open at Turnberry.

Woods’ domination of golf, even after having taken nine months off to recover from leg injuries that were far more serious than most thought, is so complete that one tends to forget just how phenomenal have been his achievements in the 13 years he has been a professional.

Roger Federer’s record 15th major at Wimbledon has drawn attention to the fact that Woods is also chasing that number although it is my contention that what he has done in golf is harder than the Swiss champion’s accomplishments in tennis – for the simple reason that the terrains over which golf competitions are contested are so diverse and because the list of those who might challenge him is so much deeper.

I have followed Woods’ career closely since first becoming aware of him and seeing him play at the Scottish (Carnoustie) and British (St Andrews) Opens in 1995 but must confess to being astounded by a list of stats put together after his latest victory by Mark Williams on the PGA Tour’s website.

• Woods won for the 68th time in 245 starts on the PGA Tour -- that's a 27.75 percent success rate. He is now five behind Jack Nicklaus (73) in career victories. Sam Snead leads the list with 82 career wins.

• Woods has now won 46 of 49 tournaments (94%) when leading/co-leading after 54-holes. The three he didn't win were the 1996 Quad City Open/T5 and 2000/2004 THE TOUR Championship/2nd both times.

• Woods has won 32 of 38 tournaments after holding the 36-hole lead/co-lead -- that's 84 percent.

Another interesting sidelight, which I suspect had an intended edge to it, was that this marked the 17th time Anthony Kim and Woods competed in the same stroke play event on the Tour and that it was the 17th time Woods has finished ahead of Kim. Point made.

Woods record in the majors is even more remarkable – 14 in 13 years, after his first awesome statement when he took the 1997 Masters by 12 strokes. He also won the 2000 U.S.Open (at Pebble Beach) by 15 strokes, the 2000 Open (at St Andrews) by eight strokes and both the 2005 Open (St Andrews) and 2006 PGA (Medinah) by five strokes.

In all of his Major victories, he has had the outright lead or a share of the lead at the end of the third round. He has had the outright lead or a share of the lead 8 times at the end of the second round and has won every time.

Woods holds at least a share of the record for lowest 72-hole score in relation to par in all four majors, and holds the low-72 holes record outright in two of them. Note that the "to par" and "low 72-holes" records are not always the same because, while most championship golf courses have a par of 72, or 288 for four rounds, some have a par of 71 or 70.

Woods, 33, and Bobby Jones are the only golfers to have won 10 majors before the age of 30. Jones achieved 13 majors in 21 attempts, (winning percentage 62%), while Woods achieved 10 wins in 44 attempts (a 23% winning ratio), although in Jones’ day the U.S. and British amateur tournament counted as Majors. Woods is only the second player all-time to win three major championships in a calendar year (2000) winning the U.S. Open, The Open Championship and the PGA Championship respectively, along with Ben Hogan who accomplished this feat in 1953 with The Masters, the U.S. Open, and The Open Championships. However, when Woods won the 2001 Masters he became the only player in history to hold all four Major trophies at once.

Of Woods’ “contempories”, all of whom are older and have been professionals for longer, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Padraig Harrington (all 3) and Retief Goosen (2) have won multiple Majors which is perhaps the best indicator of just how dominant he has been.

Singh, who at 46 can be said to be in the twilight years of his PGA Tour career, has won 34 times on the American circuit plus another 22 worldwide (some of which were pretty minor events) while Mickelson has 36 American wins to his credit but just two in the rest of the world.

Els, who will be 40 in October and is now down to 23 on the world rankings, has been a prolific winner with 16 in the States and 44 elsewhere (including Sunshine Tour events) while Harrington has five recognised by the PGA Tour (including his 2 Opens) plus 16 international victories so Tiger’s 68 trumps everyone by a good few – especially when you add his 11 international wins.

Tiger is like Seve Ballesteros. There’s electricity in the air and he owns the camera so I’ve already made plans to be firmly ensconced before my TV set when THE Open tees off at Turnberry on July 16 – ironically enough because the BBC style of coverage will ensure that we see a golf championship rather than a one-man show; even though that one man might be the all-time No1!