Tiger’s roar echoes around the world as he equals PGA Tour all-time record

By Rahul Banerji

Tiger Woods carved out a PGA Tour record-equalling 82^nd title on the extra day of play at the inaugural $9.75 million Zozo Championship in Chiba, Japan, early on Monday morning, triggering worldwide celebrations at the long-awaited feat.

Playing before a packed house on the fifth day of the rain-hit event, Woods had an early hiccup but recovered quickly to bury any hopes of a late slip with a final-hole birdie that handed him a comfortable win to equal the mark set by fellow-American Sam Snead in 1965.

Woods had rounds of 64, 64, 66 and 67 to finish on 19-under par 261, three ahead of consistent local star Hideki Matsuyama (65-67-65-67, 264) and six better than FedEx Cup winner Rory McIlroy (72-65-63-67, 267) who had rising Korean golfer Sungjae Im (71-64-67-65, 267) alongside in tied third place.

Inevitably, the result ignited social media platforms around the world and message boards were swamped with congratulations, “I told you so” posts and memorable quotes and photographs.

‘Big number’

The 43-year-old, who won his maiden professional title in 1996 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at 20, said of the win, “It’s a big number. It’s about consistency and doing it for a long period of time. 

“Sam did it into his 50s and I’m in my early to mid 40s. So it’s about being consistent and doing it for a very long period of time. I’ve been very fortunate to have had the career I’ve had so far.

“To have won this tournament in Japan, it’s just so ironic because I’ve always been a global player, I’ve always played all around the world and to tie the record outside the United States is pretty cool.”

The Zozo Championship was the first PGA Tour event to be played in Japan, and the result became yet another stat on the ever-growing list in the name of Tiger Woods.

Early setback

Woods came into the extra, fifth day with seven holes to play and Matsuyama dogging his heels as he had been right from day one.

The 15-time major winner bogeyed the first hole to see his lead trimmed to two and the swing could have been bigger had the Japan star, playing one group ahead, converted a short birdie putt.

That was the last chance Tiger would offer the opposition and he closed out the wire-to-wire finish with birdies on the 14^th and 18^th holes even as McIlroy atoned for a poor first day with a solid display to pull himself up into a share of third place.

As has become tradition, Tiger wore red on the final day and duly converted the lucky charm into a celebration as he and 45 others returned on day five for the finish.

“It was a very long week,” Woods said. “I was tied for the lead for the better part of five days and with Hideki making a run like he did last night birdieing 11 and 12, I made a mistake right away at 11 and it became a pretty good ballgame.” 

Catch it all here at The Zozo Championship

The result meant that Woods continues to have a 100 per cent success rate when leading by three-plus shots on the final day at 25 from 25, and also improves his overall lead record  to 95.6 per cent with 44 of 46 conversions.

The only two times he has failed to complete a solo 54-hole lead came at the 1996 Quad City Classic and 2009 PGA Championship.

Wins by age Sam Snead vs Tiger Woods
Sam Snead	Victory No.	Tiger Woods
25	5	21
26	10	23
28	20	24
32	30	26
34	40	28
37	50	30
38	60	31
41	70	33
47	79	37
47	80	42
52	82	43

Tiger also continues to hold the highest career winning percentage (minimum of 200 starts) in PGA Tour history at 22.8%.

Monday’s result is likely to catapult him into sixth place on the Official World Golf Rankings, and a players’ spot in December’s Presidents Cup in Australia, at which he will lead Team USA against Erne Els’ Rest squad.

Highest win %age  Minimum 200 starts
	Starts	Wins	Win %
Woods, Tiger	359	82	22.8%
Hogan, Ben	300	64	21.3%
Nelson, Byron	287	52	18.1%
Snead, Sam	585	82	14.0%
Picard, Henry	201	26	12.9%
Nicklaus, Jack	595	73	12.2%
Sarazen, Gene	316	38	12.0%
Middlecoff, Cary	346	39	11.3%

Tiger Woods PGA Tour career breakdown
		PCT.
Events	359	—
Wins	82	22.8%
Top 5s	163	45.4%
Top 10s	198	55.2%
Top 25s	269	74.9%
Cuts Made	326	90.8%
*till 2019 Zozo Championship

Presented here are a few more career stats compiled by PGA Tour Communications:

• Has converted 55 of 59 (93.2%) times he’s held the 54-hole lead/co-lead including his last nine in a row
• Carded 27 birdies, seven more than any other player in the field
• Has PGA Tour wins in 19 different seasons, since 1996
• Has eight wins in his first start of the season – 1997 Sentry Tournament of Champions, 2000 Sentry Tournament of Champions, 2003 Buick Invitational, 2006 Buick Invitational, 2007 Buick Invitational, 2008 Buick Invitational, 2013 Farmers Insurance Open, 2019 Zozo Championship
• His 19-under 261 ties the third lowest 72-hole career score. Best 72-hole score is 257 (-23) at the 2007 Tour Championship

‘Celebration’

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan, speaking on the feat, said, “Today, we celebrate both Tiger and Sam Snead as they share a record that should sit squarely alongside the greatest accomplishments in sporting history.

“Tiger has inspired us throughout his career with his talent, passion and the ability to shine in big moments, and he continues to defy even the most outsized expectations with performances like we saw this week.

“Our fans certainly have a lot to look forward to in the coming season as Tiger sets his sights on win No. 83 – and more, I would suspect — competing against many of the players he helped inspire along the way.”

Bogey-free rounds at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club 

R1 (2): Gary Woodland (64), Ryo Ishikawa (68)

R2 (6): Collin Morikawa (64), Corey Conners (64), Matthew Wolff (65), J.T. Poston (65), Satoshi Kodaira (66), Shugo Imahira (69)

R3 (5): Charles Howell III (66), Shane Lowry (67), Adam Schenk (68), Kevin Kisner (68), Ryan Palmer (69)

R4 (3): Harold Varner III (64), Troy Merritt (67), Charles Howell III (69)

Also read: Tiger unleashes the beast in Zozo Championship opener