Tiger & The Dow Continue Their Compatibility Run

Matthew Futterman updates previous WSJ reporting on the completely bizarre correlation between the stock market and Tiger Woods' golf game. (Thanks reader John.)

With recent market spikes and Tiger's return to dominance, well, the amazing congruity continues.

Pay particular attention to the period between 2004-2009 and from late 2011 to the present. The trend lines are eerily similar. As the U.S. economy fattened on the strength of an illusory real-estate boom, Woods was ascendant on the golf course and seemingly off of it too—a fourth Masters in 2005, wins at the PGA Championship and the British Open in 2006, a fourth PGA Championship in 2007 and a third U.S. Open in 2008, plus a beautiful wife and a baby girl.

But the second half of 2008 brought the subprime mortgage and banking crises that sent the markets reeling. Woods broke his leg and had to call it quits for the season. Then came 2009, a DJIA dipping below 7000 and revelations of a series of extramarital affairs that doomed Woods's marriage.