What Do Tiger Woods' Golf Statistics Tell Us About How He Continues to Win Golf Tournaments?

How does Tiger Woods do it? Any way he can! As an admitted statistical stalker of the World's #1, I have studied Tiger Woods' golf performance closely since he established his dominance in 1999. At the risk of restating the obvious, his 7/5/2009 win at the ATT Congressional tournament was another example of Tiger's winning blueprint.

1. Long Game Efficiency Tiger Woods hits more greens in regulation and uses fewer long game shots in the process than his peers. At Congressional, Tiger averaged 13.75 GIR's and needed 33.15 long strokes (shots from outside 50 yards). The PGA Tour Winner's profile in our ShotByShot.com database averages 13 GIR's and 33.5 long strokes - and Tiger's long game at Congressional was a far cry from his best! The difference goes beyond just hitting on or close to more par 5's in two. It is also Tiger's unique ability to avoid or mitigate mistakes. It is not that he hits no wayward shots in his long game - he does. But what separates him is his combination of power, creativity and shot-making. Outcomes that are errors for most of his peers just aren't for Tiger. More often than not, he is able to come up with the recovery shot that puts him back in position to make par or better. 2. Avoid the Bad Round Rarely does a player cruise through an event hitting on all cylinders for four rounds like Kenny Perry did last week at the Travelers in Hartford. Over and over again, Tiger has shown the ability to manage his "bad" rounds into a acceptable number. This week it was his 3rd round 70 that kept him in contention. 3. The "Shot" This is the intangible that Tiger seems to own. It is the impossible chip that topples in the hole on the 13th green at the Masters, and all the long putts to win on the 18th green at Bay Hill. The list is long and growing. These game-changing shots happen for or to others once or twice in their careers. Greg Norman's string of bad luck on the receiving end of these shots comes to mind. But I can't remember Tiger ever being the victim of a miracle shot - please let me know if I missed one. On the contrary, Tiger does it to the field routinely. In my opinion, this week's "Shot" came in the form of a 20 foot putt on the par-5, 16th hole. Hunter Mahan was in the house at 12 under where he had been since Tiger bogeyed the 11th hole, leaving him in a tie with Mahan. Tiger's best opportunity to regain the lead was the reachable 16th, but when he missed the green with his 2nd, he was confronted with a terrible, green-side lie in deep rough. His chip stopped 20 feet short and we know the rest - he rolled it in for birdie to snatch the lead. That putt will not take a place at the top of Tiger's miracle list but - situation aside - let's examine the odds. Here are some niblicks from the PGA Tour putting stats: 1) The average % of putts made from 20 to 25 feet is 1 in 8, or 12%. 2) The 2009 YTD leader from this distance (Kevin Na) is 1 in 5, or 21.5%. 3) Of very little significance is that YTD Tiger is 2 of 30 (6.7%) - half the Tour average. Wouldn't we like to to see Tiger's numbers filtered by WHEN IT REALLY COUNTS? Now that's a fun golf statistical analysis project for another day!