Tiger's 82nd By The Numbers And What It Means For More Wins

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While there were no ShotLink numbers to validate the supremacy of Tiger’s iron play and putting, some writers have dug up some fun stuff in analyzing Woods’ 82nd PGA Tour win.

PGATour.com’s Sean Martin ponders whether Tiger can win a lot more and offers this:

He has to lean on decades of experience instead of marathon range sessions. He can’t outwork the competition, but he can outthink it. His length no longer separates him from the competition, but his iron game still does.

 He hit 76% of his greens last week, ranking third in the field. He was first in putts per green hit, which shows that he was hitting it close and rolling it well enough to convert.

He’s by far the best iron player of the ShotLink era, gaining +1.1 strokes per round with his approach play throughout his career. Jim Furyk is a distant second, averaging +0.7 strokes gained per round.

 Woods hits his approach shots high and low, and curves them left and right.

Brian Wacker at GolfDigest.com reminds us of two things: Tiger hit 65 percent of his fairways for the week on a pretty tight course in sports and proved he can win without overpowering a course. And, old legends tend to remain legends longer than everyone else:

• Gordie Howe had his first 100-point season in the NHL at age 40 with 44 goals and 59 assists, and played until age 51 when he scored 41 points in 80 games for the Hartford Whalers.

• Brett Favre threw for 4,202 yards and 33 touchdowns at age 40, leading the Minnesota Vikings to the NFC Championship.

• Nolan Ryan, who threw seven no-hitters in his career with the first coming in 1973, threw his final one 18 years later, at age 44.

• Michael Jordan had three 40-plus-point games in the middle of his final season in the NBA for the Washington Wizards, shooting over 50 percent in all of them.

David Dusek looks at Tiger’s equipment through the years and it’s astonishing to see what he started winning with versus what he’s playing now.

As for straight numbers in fun anecdotal fashion, check out Alex Myers’ list at GolfDigest.com and Todd Kelly’s list at Golfweek.com while Golf.com’s Josh Sens narrows things down to nine big numbers.