Tiger Woods: The Most Recognizable Name in Golf

I was a young child first picking up a golf club when Tiger woods was hitting his peak.  Big Cat was all over ESPN, every kid wanted to be him (and every adult male I guess), and he was a household name.  He put golf back on the map and then grew it more than ever before.  Nobody in golf had done that to the extent Tiger did.  He’s the reason there are multi-million dollar purses every weekend on Tour.  Heck, the guy has had a million back surgeries yet TV ratings still soar when he’s playing.  If he misses the cut, the Saturday and Sunday numbers tank.  But how dominant was he really?  Let’s take a look.

The Wins

Justin Ray from the Golf Channel tweeted this fun fact:

I mean, this is just absurd.  He has more WGC wins than the current World #1 does total wins on Tour.  Mind you, DJ has the longest current streak of consecutive seasons with a win.  Rory McIlroy has been plagued with injuries and inconsistent golf of late, but Tiger has more Tour wins in California than Rory has overall.  Again, it’s insane when you think about it.

The Money

How about we talk money?  If you take Tiger’s wins in California, Florida, Georgia, and Illinois only, he ranks 5th on the all time money list, ahead of DJ by a few million. Florida or California alone put him in the top 100.

The GOAT?

The most impressive? This tweet is from NoLayingUp: “Tiger is eligible for the HOF this year. In 4 different states alone, he’s met this criteria: California, Georgia, Florida, Illinois”

The qualifications for the World Golf Hall of Fame are 15 Majors or 2 Major Championships/Players Championships.  Tiger qualifies by taking just his wins from 4 individual states.  That’s right, if you take Tiger’s wins from California, Georgia, Illinois, or Florida, he qualifies for the Hall of Fame.  Whether or not Tiger wins another Major, or even a tournament, it’s hard to argue against what he’s done not only in his career, but for the game of golf as a whole.

Coming Down the Stretch

Now the big question remains: will Tiger Woods win another Major?  The way he’s played as of late, it’s reasonable to think he might.  What is for certain is that he looks much better than in any of his previous comebacks and it seems the back fusion surgery may have actually worked. Only time will tell what the future holds for Woods, but it’s definitely great for the game of golf that possibly the greatest player of all time is healthy and back near the top of the leaderboards.