– On June 15, 1997, a certain Tiger Woods finished in 19th place at that year’s US Open, and this result was enough for him to conquer the world Number One for the first time. It seems like it happened a century ago, but in reality ‘only’ 26 years, four months and two long weeks have passed.
– Since that date, this young man from Cypress, a suburb of Los Angeles, California, imposed a crushing hegemony, to the point of remaining on the world throne for a whopping 683 weeks.
– Since that same date, June 15, 1997, 1,365 weeks have passed. Let’s do a simple operation: if we subtract the 683 weeks that Tiger was Number One from those 1,365 weeks, we are left with exactly 682 weeks…
– Or in other words: since Tiger first conquered the world throne, he and only he has spent more time at the top than the rest of the competitors. Thus, until today, because this week, precisely when the current week ends, the ‘scoreboard’ will be tied:
Tiger, 683 – Rest of the World, 683
And this, despite the fact that Woods left the Number One on May 18, 2014, almost nine and a half years ago, and he would never recover it.
– Since that mythical date, June 15, 1997, up to 17 players, in addition to Tiger, have reached the world Number One. Only one of them, Greg Norman, was it before and after Tiger. The Australian led the ranking for 312 weeks before Woods led it for the first time and another 19 weeks since then.
– The 682 weeks of the Rest of the World are distributed as follows: Dustin Johnson (135), Rory McIlroy (122), Scottie Scheffler (59), Luke Donald (56), Jon Rahm (52), Jason Day (51), Brooks Koepka (47), Vijay Singh (32), Jordan Spieth (26), Lee Westwood (22), Greg Norman (19), David Duval (15), Justin Rose (13), Adam Scott (11), Ernie Els (9), Martin Kaymer (8) and Justin Thomas (5). As you can see, they are all those who appear in the article’s collage, except Justin Thomas.
The 32 weeks of Singh, the 19 of Norman, the 15 of Duval and the 9 of Els surely deserved special recognition, as they fought with a Tiger in fullness, during that tyrannical hegemony that extended from June 1997 to October 2010 (in these thirteen long years Tiger was Number One for 623 weeks, out of a total of 683).
– Tiger is still going to fight to be every year at the Masters of Augusta, starting with the one in 2024. And probably in some other Major and in some loose tournaments on the calendar like the Genesis, where he acts as host. Will he win any tournament at the highest level, against the best? Most likely not. Will he be Number One again? With absolute certainty: NO. Little or nothing matters. His footprint, as you can see, is indelible.
