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Before we get to Woods win, we should spend a moment looking at the Wachovia. Since 1999 there have been seven new events that are on the FedEx Cup schedule today and it's probably fair to say that the Wachovia is the most popular of the new events. The main drawing card is the golf course, Quail Hollow is one of those hidden gems that we don't see publicize in magazines top-100 list but still belong there.
On top of the course the event has some great "perks". Players are given Mercedes-Benz cars the week of the event and if you win the event along with the $1.13 million you get a $350,000 Mercedes Maybach. The event has also been smart and geared things to family members, this year the players wives were put on a charter plane and flow to Savannah for a shopping trip. Even the players kids love the perks as Phil Mickelson told the media, "It's the little things, at the hotel, our kids have their names embroidered on the pillows and towels and get all kinds of toys that they like waiting for them in the hotel room." So we can now see some of the reason's the event is so popular.
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The second big item of the week was when weather played havoc to the Saturday schedule, tee times were moved back two hours meaning that the CBS show would cease with the last group, which was Woods and Vijay Singh, making the turn. Without a moment's thought Wachovia approved the extra cost in advertising to have Golf Channel take the CBS feed and finish the Saturday round, a great thing for not only the Golf Channel but CBS, the PGA Tour and golf fans.
As for Woods this week was probably not very high on his list because Thursday was the one year anniversary of the death of his dad, Earl. As Tiger Woods related to Ron Green Jr. who wrote about it on Monday, it was a very tough time for Woods and something that kept him up on Wednesday night, but Earl had taught Tiger that he had to alway's take care of business first and that is exactly what Tiger did this week in North Carolina.
Now there is a number of ways that Tiger can beat you. He can be hitting the ball so pure like he did at the U.S. Open and British Open's in 2000 that he is unbeatable. But even when his game isn't on he can still beat you with great putting and pure smarts. That is one of the ways he won the British Open at Hoylake last summer, he was smart enough only to bring out the driver once and it helped him to victory. Now there is another way and that is pure determination and good putting and that is how he did it this week.
No matter what it was another special week of golf as the combination of a great event and a great player made for a memorable week.
Keys to victory for Woods
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Woods may of won this week and he now has three wins this year, but the fact is he isn't hitting it perfectly with the driver. All year he has been messy with the long stick, he is 163rd in the driving accuracy category this year and it seems like he isn't getting any better. In driving this year he ranked T55th at the Buick Invitational, T56th at the Arnold Palmer, T46th at the WGC-CA, T46th at the Masters and T38th this week. It may seem hard to fathom that you can drive the ball into only 54% of the fairways and still win but Tiger has done that. It's interesting to point out that if you look at the stats in the box below from his win this week and the way he played at the Masters, there really isn't much comparison from tee to green. But Tiger finished T2nd at Augusta and won at Wachovia:
| Comparison of stats between Masters & Wachovia: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Masters | Stat | Wachovia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 of 56 / ranked T46th | Driving Accuracy | 27 of 56 / ranked T38th | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 43 of 72 / ranked T7th | Greens Hit | 51 of 72 / ranked T11th | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 117 | Number of putts | 112 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Still the fact of the matter is that Woods is still winning and finding more creative ways of winning, especially when his driving skills isn't up the par with the rest of the game
So lets look at some of the keys for his victory:
- Tiger hit only 27 fairways, which ranked T38th for the week. For the week he made one eagle and 20 birdies but the stat that stands out is the fact that in his eagle at seven Woods didn't hit the fairway and on 10 of the holes that he bridied he missed the fairway. So on 11 of the 29 fairways that he missed he had ten birdies and a eagle.
- Woods hit 51 greens which ranked T11th.
- Woods was 2nd in putts per green hit with an average of 1.647. On number of putts he took 112 which ranked T7th.
- Woods played his best golf on the par 4s, he was 8 under on them the best of anyone in the field.
- Here is a weird oddity, Woods played the par 3s in four over par and didn't made a single birdie on any of them.
- Woods was 9 under on the par 5s, which was 7th best. Now normally Woods overpowers the par 5 but this week he showed that he was human. Woods bogey the par 5 tenth hole in the final round. The last time he bogied a par 5 in victory was on the 16th hole in the final round of the Bridgestone Invitational last year. Previous to that was the par 5 tenth hole at Medinah in last year's PGA Championship
- Woods struggled on the final nine holes at the Wachovia shooting 38. Now the last time that he won at the WGC-CA Championship, Woods also struggled on the final nine on Sunday also shooting 38. Previous to that the last time Woods won a tournament with a final nine holes over par was in the 2005 Masters when he shot a 37 including finishing the last two holes with bogeys
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Woods stats (with rank in parentheses):
Fairways hit: 27 of 56 ..... (T38th) Driving average: 304 ....... (20th) Greens hit: 51 of 72 ....... (T11th) Putts: 112 (28.00 a rd) .... (T7th) Putting breakdown: 0-putt greens: 1 1-putt greens: 31 2-putt greens: 39 3-putt greens: 1 Play on par 3s: +4 Play on par 4s: -8 Play on par 5s: -9 Eagles: 1 Birdies: 20 ................ (Tend) Scrambling: 13 of 21 (61.90%)... (21st)
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.
What This Win means for Woods
- This was his 57th PGA Tour victory. Woods has played in 36 different events on the PGA Tour and the Wachovia is the 24th different event that he has won. Here is a look at the 12 events he has played in and not won:
11 times - Nissan Open
4 times - Barclays Open
3 times - FBR Open
1 time - B.C. Open
1 time - Crowne Plaza Colonial
1 time - Honda Classic
1 time - John Derre Classic
1 time - U.S. Bank Milwuakee
1 time - Valero Texas Open
1 time - Verizon HeritageThe following events are no longer on the PGA Tour schedule:
2 times - The International
2 times - NEC World Series of Golf
- In comparison, Jack Nicklaus won 73 times but his victories came in 36 different tournaments.
- Woods has won in 13 different states
- This was the 16th time he has won an event without having a share of the lead. What makes this stat so weird is that 8 of those wins came in Woods first nine years on the PGA Tour but since 2005 he has won 8 times.
- Woods has won three times this year, it's the ninth time in his career that he has won at least three times in a year.
- Woods became the fifth champion at the Wachovia but the fourth to also have won a major championship. The only champion not to win a major is Joey Sindelar.
- The only time Tiger won The Players in 2001, he also won the previous week at Bay Hill.
