– To date, since 2023, the year of its appearance, 17 Signature Events have been played, provided we all agree to exclude THE PLAYERS from this category, as well as the WGC Match Play of 2023 and, of course, all the Fedex Cup playoffs, which are not given such a designation by the PGA Tour. This week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am is therefore the eighteenth.
– Only ten players have claimed victory in a Signature Event. One of them, Scottie Scheffler, has done so on five occasions. The Texan had the chance this week to round off a nice figure of six victories, which would take him to a third of the total (6/18), an absolute feat. Did he have the chance or does he still have it? As long as this lad is on the course, we must keep believing in his chances, although today he starts six shots behind the leader, Sepp Straka, and the mission seems a tall order. Scheffler, just in case, said yesterday that he saw himself with chances.
– So, a third of the total. Scottie will have time this year to even improve this percentage. Although when talking about staggering percentages, one always ends up with Tiger Woods. The man from Cypress won eight of the first 28 Majors he played, which would be eight of the first 22 he competed in as a professional (he had played six as an amateur). But the prize for the ‘criminal’ of the century goes to him with the World Golf Championships, that series of tournaments created in 1999 and definitively ended in 2023. In those events, the best were present, without exception, and Woods won sixteen of the first 32 that were contested, which happened between 1999 and 2009. Half, no less, and that’s despite not playing all of them (he missed two WGCs during this time).
– There is a somewhat more convoluted fact, true, but it truly is a head-scratcher. You review it and can’t believe it. If we add up the Majors and WGCs that Tiger played between 1997 and 2009, we get a total of 81 tournaments, 50 majors and 31 WGCs, of which he won THIRTY. Written in capital letters. THIRTY. Repeat it out loud: THIRTY. Therefore, we must continue to be particularly careful when making certain comparisons…
– For now, today, Sunday, Rory McIlroy has a great opportunity to win his second Signature Event. He would enter an exclusive club, those who have won more than one. It currently has only four members, and one of them, Jon Rahm, who won two, can no longer add to his tally. The other three are Scheffler (5), Clark (2), and Matsuyama (2).
– Sepp Straka, Shane Lowry, Justin Rose, Tom Kim, and Cam Davis have put themselves forward this week to win their first designated event. Any of them, truthfully, would add prestige to the record.
– Sepp Straka, by the way, is clinging to the myth of the ‘Gol del Cojo’ this week, as he has been battling a cold all this time. The Austrian says that this annoying circumstance might even be helping him, as he goes around the course with low expectations, focusing only on each shot, without looking much further ahead.
– And Jordan Spieth? Well, he is struggling immensely in his return to competition after undergoing wrist surgery. He is second to last after posting a 79 yesterday. But we will keep waiting for him, of course. Now more than ever.
