What record will Tiger have the hardest time beating?

[Jay-Bird]

Tiger is already up to 13 straight years, so...

If he ever doesn't win one, it'd have to be the post-surgery, brand new swing year, 2009. Of course, he'll probably win a bunch.

[PEZGolf]

Tiger is already up to 13 straight years, so...

Interesting list for a number of reasons. I am a big fan of The Haig, or Walter Hagen, who was from Rochester, NY. It is nice to see him listed second behind his rival, Bobby Jones. By the way, in terms of professional majors, consider this: Walter Hagen played in his prime before the Masters existed (it began in 1934). He won 11 professional Majors: 5 PGA Champioships (all at match play, and won 3 in a row), 2 US Opens, and 4 Open Championships. If we take the top of the list of Major winners and subtract their Masters victories to compare them to Hagen, who could not win a Masters, the adjusted figures are as follows:

1. Jack Nicklaus (18 Professional Majors less 6 Masters) 12 2. Walter Hagen 11 3. Tiger Woods (14 less 4 Masters) 10 So Tiger has to catch The Haig first, before he can catch Jack. How many sports writers bother to point this out?

[PEZGolf]

It's alright PEZgolf. This forum is like a Tiger fanboy club. Praise someone other than Tiger and they are all over you.

I am not so sure of that, but I am sure of this failure to report "all the news": In Saturday's "Wall Street Journal", John Paul Newport has his column summarizing the "Year in Golf". He lists the "big stories" and talks about Tiger vs. Rocco, The Ryder Cup victory and Captain Paul Azinger, Annika's retirement and Lorena and Paula, and Vijay Singh winning the Fed Ex. He also mentions Anthony Kim and Boo Weekley. Do you notice whose name is missing? Who was the PGA Tour Player of the Year for winning two majors, and in the process successfully defended his Open Championship title and kept the Claret Jug? Who hit one of the most memorable shots in the history of golf on the 71st hole of the Open Championship? As I have written before, Tiger is a great golfer, but some people tend to overlook others in their rush to praise Tiger. The same thing is true about Michelle. Some people have put those two on a pedestal and refuse to talk about what others have done. Stacy Lewis was the medalist at the LPGA Tour school, and not Michelle, yet Michelle got the most "ink" in "Golf World".

[Bluenoser67]

While we are talking about Lord Byron here is one for Tiger to try and beat. A steak of 65 top ten tournaments in a row. Dont see that ever happening. The thing is though I'm pretty sure that when old Byron played there were only about 5 guys in the tournament that could give him a run on a bad day. Where as the depth of the field is a little deeper these days.

[Alex B]

Interesting list for a number of reasons. I am a big fan of The Haig, or Walter Hagen, who was from Rochester, NY. It is nice to see him listed second behind his rival, Bobby Jones. By the way, in terms of professional majors, consider this: Walter Hagen played in his prime before the Masters existed (it began in 1934). He won 11 professional Majors: 5 PGA Champioships (all at match play, and won 3 in a row), 2 US Opens, and 4 Open Championships. If we take the top of the list of Major winners and subtract their Masters victories to compare them to Hagen, who could not win a Masters, the adjusted figures are as follows:

You've made this point before, and I've

countered it before . But, I'll do it again here. With your logic, it's not fair to British golfers of the late 19th century that they could play in only one major, the Open Championship. Therefore, we'll discount every major except for the Open. Similarly, it's not fair to American golfers of the 1930s-50s that they often couldn't afford to fly to Britain and play the Open. Therefore, we'll discount the Open. The new list looks like this: T1. Alex B -- 0 majors T1. PEZGolf -- 0 majors T1. My twin brothers (3 years old) -- 0 majors You get my point.

Who hit one of the most memorable shots in the history of golf on the 71st hole of the Open Championship?

You've said this before -- in

this post you called it "one of the greatest shots in Major Championship history." I disagree. Harrington was up by two strokes on the 17th hole, any had only a simple par 5 (17) and a fairly difficult par 4 (18) left to play. He could have hit that 5-wood basically anywhere and still parred 17, made a simple bogey on 18, and won by a shot. A great shot, indeed, and certainly the shot of the championship, but was it all that important? Nah.

[iacas]

I disagree. Harrington was up by two strokes on the 17th hole, any had only a simple par 5 (17) and a fairly difficult par 4 (18) left to play. He could have hit that 5-wood basically anywhere and still parred 17, made a simple bogey on 18, and won by a shot. A great shot, indeed, and certainly the shot of the championship, but was it all that important? Nah.

I agree. Luck was also a decent-sized factor. The putt he made on the 72nd hole at Oakland Hills was a bigger stroke.

And Tiger's putt at #18 at Torrey was easily better than either of the shots Harrington made. Tiger's was truly "do or die." And frankly, Tiger's putt is probably not even in the top 10 in all of golf history (though it may be close - I just mean to clarify that I don't put Tiger's at the top, as I haven't given it much thought).

[TakeDeadAim]

the one I hold at my club... most puts per hole... 5 !!!!!

and the first one was only 9 feet from the hole

[PEZGolf]

I will say this: good discussions about golf, and tournaments, and specific shots make for interesting dialogue. I will never say that I am right and someone else is totally wrong. Many times it is a statement of opinion or a judgement. The beneficial aspect of the dialogue is that it can be a learning experience. That is how I treat it.

[Hackerpratt]

He will never break Jay Haas' number of cuts made on tour....Tiger wont play long enough.

[steviesouthpaw]

I'd say that he'll have a harder time placing second in majors more times than Jack than he will beating the Major victory mark. I don't know the number off hand, but Jack has a ton of second place finishes.

[VOX]

I am not so sure of that, but I am sure of this failure to report "all the news":

I noticed that. It was a poor article and I usually like Newport. Someone winning two majors and POY deserves more recognition thatn someone who one a single major (even if he had a sore leg).

[indacup]

He will never break most consecutive PGA wins in a season nor a true grand slam.

[r7 425]

The hardest records tiger will have to beat is his own. Given that Id like to see Tiger be at the top of the pga tour statistics in driving accuracy.

[PEZGolf]

I noticed that. It was a poor article and I usually like Newport. Someone winning two majors and POY deserves more recognition thatn someone who one a single major (even if he had a sore leg).

I emailed Mr. Newport, and he made a nice reply and explanation. He had included Padraig's name in his original article, but the editor cut out some sections to make it fit the page, and the section on Padraig was deleleted. I wrote him that I know that can happen and it is unfortunate because it made it appear that Padraig was ignored, even though he had a great year with the two Majors and the Player of the Year selection.

Over the past year, I have been a loyal reader of his column and he has had many great ones. The one in yesterday's edition was about players shooting their age or better, and there were many interesting stories about players who have done that, and why a single digit handicapper can do it frequently once he or she gets to be 72 or older.