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Some questioned if Woods cared that much for the FedEx Cup when he didn't show up for the first one at the Barclays. Many didn't know if he could still win the series with the week off and many were really questioning his decesion after the Deutsche Bank when he finished 2nd to Phil Mickelson. But a funny thing happened after the Deutsche Bank, with Mickelson stepping it up and notch and beating Woods, Tiger didn't feel sorry for himself or look scared over the challenge by Mickelson. He stepped it up a notch and came out the next two weeks in Chicago and Atlanta with some incredible golf himself.
Woods came to Chicago with a new challenge and responded with some of the most spectacular golf of his career, shooting a final round 63 for a 22-under, 262 finish and a two shot victory over Aaron Baddeley. With that he took over the FedEx Cup lead and we wondered how he was going to respond at East Lake. It looked like he could win that series, but still if he didn't have a top-ten and Steve Stricker or Phil Mickelson won, they would be hoisting the FedEx Cup trophy instead.
But again Woods responded to the notion that a win is all it would take to claim victory in the FedEx Cup and he did it in fine fashion. With rounds of 64-63-64-66 he left everyone at the starting gate. His 23-under 257 total at East Lake game him not only a eight-stroke victory in the Tour Championship but also a comfortable win in the FedEx Cup points race and the $10 million deferred prize that goes with it. Of course many have mangled Tim Finchem for having this deferred payment plan, but in Tiger's case being 31 if he invests that money conservatively, by the time he withdraws it in 20 or so years it's value will increase to over $100 million, not bad and take you very much Mr. Finchem and the PGA Tour.
| With Woods 61st tour victory he is just one away of catching Arnold Palmer who is fourth in all-time PGA Tour wins. Here is the list of all-time PGA Tour wins along with the age that they won their 61st Tour victory: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Player - # of PGA Tour wins | age on their 61st win / event won | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1) Sam Snead - 82 | 39 years, 1 month, 6 days (1951 PGA Championship) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2) Jack Nicklaus - 73 | 36 years, 7 months, 15 days (1976 World Series) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3) Ben Hogan - 64 | 40 years, 9 months, 11 days (1953 Colonial) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4) Arnold Palmer - 62 | 41 years, 10 months, 22 days (1971 National Team Championship) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5) Tiger Woods - 61 | 31 years, 8 months, 17 days (2007 Tour Championship) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indeed, Woods' two-year run rivals his 1999-2000 stretch. Since the start of the 2006 season, he has won 15 of 31 the events he's entered, giving him a 48.4% win ratio in the last two years which is even better percentage than what he compiled in 1999-2000 when he captured 17 of 41 (41.4%). He did win four majors in 1999-2000, compared to three in 2006-7. Woods now has run his career total to 61 victories, one behind Arnold Palmer for fourth all-time. He not only won the inaugural FedEx Cup, he is assured of his ninth Player of the Year award, eighth money title, and eighth Byron Nelson Award for low scoring average.
Keys to victory for Tiger Woods
How did Woods win this week? Very easy, he took advantage of the soft greens at East Lake to shot a 257 total, the third best 72 hole total in PGA Tour history.
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Of course it's very easy to point out why his numbers are so low, it's his putting. For the second week in a row had no three putts for the week, and had 34 one putted. In his last 144 holes he has one putted 67 times. For the second week in a row Woods made 53 of 53 putts inside of 5 feet. In the last two weeks he has gone 106 for 106 on putts from inside 5 feet. For the week, Woods holed putts that measured 388' 3", which ranked him third overall. His longest of the week, an eagle putt of 70' 4" on the par-5, 9th hole during the second round was his longest made putt of the year.
Here are some other keys for his victory:
- Led in birdies made with 28. This ties his personal best for most birdies made during the week with the 2006 Buick Open but this week he has an edge on that record because at the Buick he had no eagles but this week at the Tour Championship he had 28 birdies and one eagle. For his last two weeks of play, he has made 54 birdies.
- Played the par 3s in 5 under, which was best for the week.
Played the par 4s in 10 under, which was best for the week.
Played the two par 5s in 8 under, which was T1st. - Was 3rd in driving distance with an average drive of 298.2
- Was T1st in greens hit with a 80.6 % average, hitting 58 of 72 greens
- Was first in putting per green hit and his 108 putts was T1st.
In looking at tournament stats back to 1997 Woods is the only player in that time frame on the PGA Tour that ranked first in both number of putts and greens hit in a single event - There is not two ways about it, Woods has had an incredible two weeks of golf, not only in the ball striking department but also with the putter. You put those two categories together and your going to win each time.
Woods's stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 33 of 56 ..... (T14th) Driving average: 298.4 ..... (3rd) Greens hit: 58 of 72 ....... (T1st) Putts: 108 (27.00 a rd) .... (T1st) Putting breakdown: 0-putt greens: 1 1-putt greens: 34 2-putt greens: 37 3-putt greens: 0 Play on par 3s: -5 Play on par 4s: -10 Play on par 5s: -8 Eagles: 1 Birdies: 18 ................ (1st) Scrambling: 7 of 14 (50.0%)... (23rd)
Scrambling measures how many times a player gets up and down for par or better on the holes where he missed the green in regulation.
Lets look at some of the other incredible numbers from Tiger's run:
- Tiger Woods 61st PGA Tour win was very impressive as his 257 total was his lowest 72-hole score of his PGA Tour career.
Here is a look at Tiger Woods lowest 72 hole totals in his PGA Tour career:257 2007 THE Tour Championship
259 at the 2000 WGC-NEC Invitational
261 at the 2006 WGC-American Express
262 at the 2007 BMW Championship
263 at the 1997 GTE Byron Nelson Classic
263 at the 2002 WGC-American Express
264 at the 2005 Ford Championship at Doral
264 at the 2006 Buick Championship
- Woods check of $1,260,000 pushed his season earnings to $10,867,052, his personal best and second best on the PGA Tour behind the $10,905,166 that Vijay Singh won in 2004.
- Of Woods 61 wins, 20 of them have paid him over $1 million dollars.
- For the second time in his career, Woods has shot 66 or lower in every round with his 64-63-64-66 performance this week. The other time that he did it was in last years Buick Open when he shot four rounds of 66. In the history of the PGA Tour this has happened 12 times, the first time it happened in 1982 when Tim Norris shot 63-64-66-66 to win the 1982 Sammy Davis Jr. Greater Hartford Open.
- In the history of the PGA Tour only one other player shot 257 for 72 holes and that was Mike Souchak in the 1955 Texas Open. His 257 score was a record for the lowest 72 holes on the PGA Tour for 45 and a half years until Mark Calcavecchia shot 256 in the 2001 Phoenix Open. Calc's record was broken two years later when Tommy Armour III shot 254 to win the Valero Texas Open.
- Another remarkable number, in Woods 230 PGA Tour starts he has shot four rounds in the 60s, 26 times now.
- This was the 22nd time that Woods has played in the state of Georgia and he has won 7 times now in 7 different years; 1997, '98, 2001, '02, '03, '05 and '07
- Woods has been remarkable since the WGC-Bridgestone. In five starts he has won four times and runner-up once. In that stretch playing 20 rounds, Woods is a collective 75-under par and has a scoring average of 66.65.
- Another remarkable number, in Woods 230 PGA Tour starts he has shot four rounds in the 60s, 26 times now.
There is no too ways about it, Tiger knows how to end something in style and the FedEx Cup couldn't of come to any better of an ending than the way Woods did it.
