There is no Tiger Woods birthday worth its salt where journalism, especially in the west wing of the golf universe, does not rush headlong to remember a thousand and one impossible records achieved by the genius of Cypress. Today, December 30th, is the 48th anniversary of the great champion and again we have reviewed his different feats in a fun way.
Whether it’s 15 Majors, a lifetime as the World Number One, 14 out of 15 victories in the Majors coming out as leader or co-leader, or more than 120 million dollars amassed in earnings… Among all of them, there is a figure that this year has received more attention and affection. These are his 82 victories in the PGA Tour. As you will know, it is the absolute record of victories in the American circuit tied with Sam Snead.
It is difficult to glimpse the possibility that Woods could match the 18 Majors of Jack Nicklaus, however, in view of his (somewhat more) graceful strides both in the Bahamas and in Florida, it does not seem at all far-fetched to think that perhaps in 2024 we will witness number 83. If we are here betting our lives on the 33rd of Fernando Alonso, you can get an idea of what could happen if Tiger is left alone in the first place of the ranking. Journalism speculates with Woods’ ambitious proposal to play a tournament a month and, at the same time, Sam Snead, does not stop turning in his grave.
If he could be heard, his screams would reach Pernambuco. (On the other hand, it would be a great case study for Nacho Nieto and Dr. Estrada). The reality is that Sam Snead was never satisfied with the number of tournaments won that were attributed to him. He always claimed that he had won more, even when it was officially decreed that the total number was 84. “I would have more than that if they had given me those other tournaments I won, for example the first Crosby at Rancho Santa Fe, and they don’t count it,” he lamented in an interview in 1989. Imagine how the good man was when they lowered the data to 82…
The curious thing about this story is that, although it now seems very obvious to us, there was a time when counting victories was not an easy task to be able to compare golfers from the first half of the 20th century with the generations that have come after. The birth of the PGA Tour is located at the end of the sixties, that is, after Snead’s last victory before continuing to accumulate successes as a senior. Thus, a committee was created with Deane Beman at the head, to officially establish which tournaments from that first half of the century could be considered the PGA Tour and thus be able to compare great champions from different eras. As usual, they could not agree and that is why the dance of figures. First, 81 victories were awarded to him, then they went to 84 (not without the pressure of Snead himself) and finally the counter was set at 82.
In this attempt to compare different eras, with the very American objective of locating and designating the best golfer in history, Beman himself and the PGA Tour invented a criterion based on points to establish who was the best. The method was as follows: only the top 25 in the tournaments were counted and a total of 10,000 points were distributed per event according to the final position with the same percentage that the PGA Tour uses for its prize purse. That is, the first one took 18 percent of the points (1,800 points), the second one 10.80% (1080) and so on…
According to this formula, Snead even swept Nicklaus. He scored a total of 311,205 points, while the Golden Bear, second, stayed at 260,777, ahead of Palmer, Hogan, Casper and Nelson. The classification was made in 1989, so it did not count the last tournaments of Nicklaus’ career, although he would hardly have reached 300,000 points. For his part, Tiger Woods was 14 years old.
We have applied the formula to Tiger Woods very roughly and only with his top 10 in the PGA Tour he scores 263,507 points. All his top 25 would also have to be calculated, so he would surely be very close to Snead, despite having played fewer tournaments, if he does not surpass him.
We will continue waiting for that 83rd victory and good old Snead, who (among millions of giant things) shot 60 with 71 years, will continue to grumble in some cemetery in Virginia.
