There is an abundance of incredible statistics that tell the story of Tiger Woods’ legendary professional career, which turns 25 (!) Years old this month. But we’re going to focus on one that’s been followed closely all along: his 82 PGA Tour wins. Have you ever counted to 82? That’s a lot to count! To make it easier to keep track of this total, we decided to split Woods’ victories into different tiers in order to rank them according to importance.
Whether Woods should be attributed more than 82 wins – which gets him a tie for the all-time record with Sam Snead – remains controversial. But we will concentrate on those who count now, because here, too, it is important to keep track of things. Hopefully this handy list will help:
The “Profits You Will Tell Your Grandchildren About” tier
2019 Masters (“THE RETURN TO GLORY!”)
The stage “Profits you are already telling your grandchildren about”
1997 Masters (He won by 12 shots. LOL.)
2000 US Open (He won by 15 shots. More LOL.)
The “He won a major with a broken leg!” level
2008 US Open (No, really, he did.)
The “IN YOUR LIFE! HAVE YOU BOTH SEEN? ” level
2005 Masters (Poor Chris DiMarco.)
The stage “He won a three-hole playoff to win a major”
2000 PGA Championship (Poor Bob May.)
The stage “He has completed the Tiger Slam”
2001 Masters (He won FOUR majors in a row! LOL.)
The stage “He has completed the career grand slam”
2000 Open Championship (Note: He was only 24th) (Also: He won by eight shots. Again LOL.)
The “other great victories that would be the height of the career of anyone not referred to as Tiger Woods”
1999 PGA Championship, 2002 Masters, 2002 US Open, 2005 Open Championship, 2006 PGA Championship, 2007 PGA Championship
The “Break Out Some Tissues” stage
2006 Open Championship (Wood’s first major win after his father’s death.)
The “Break Out Some Tissues” stage (non-majors department)
Tour Championship 2018 (Wood’s first win after his back fusion.)
The “Better Than Most!” Level
2001 Players Championship (iconic putt, iconic call.)
The “He has completed a tournament with a highlight reel shot in the dark” level
2000 WGC-NEC Invitational (See? It was really dark.)
The level “He won a seven-hole playoff”
2001 WGC-NEC Invitational (Poor Jim Furyk.)
The “Nobody Was Better at Match Play WGC Wins” level
2003 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, 2004 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, 2008 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship
The Tier “Other WGC Prizes That Would Be Basically the Highlight of Any Career Not Called Tiger Woods”
1999 WGC-NEC Invitational, 1999 WGC-American Express Championship, 2002 WGC-American Express Championship, 2003 WGC-American Express Championship, 2005 WGC-NEC Invitational, 2005 WGC-American Express Championship, 2006 WGC-Bridgestone Championship, 2006 WGC-American Express Championship, 2007 WGC-CA Championship, 2007 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, 2009 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, 2013 WGC-Cadillac Championship, 2013 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational
The level “He came back from seven shots with seven holes to play at Pebble Beach”
2000 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (Poor Matt Gogel.)
The “He lost his mind and threw his hat on the floor in celebration” tier
2008 Arnold Palmer Invitational (Poor Bart Bryant.)
The “Other Walk-Off Birdie Putts” level
2000 Tournament of Champions, 2001 Arnold Palmer Invitational, 2009 Arnold Palmer Invitational
The stage “He made Jack Nicklaus’ maxillary sinus case”
2012 Memorial (Jack said he had “never seen a better shot” than Tiger’s last round flop and who are we to argue with an 18-time major champion?)
The level “He hit an absurdly daring 6 iron from a fairway bunker on the 72nd hole in order to score a victory”
2000 RBC Canadian Open (Poor Grant Waite.)
The “He Did A Badass Club Twirl On The 72nd Hole” stage
2013 Players Championship (I told you it was tough.)
The “For some reason they decided on a sudden death playoff between the 54-hole co-leaders and he almost made a hole-in-one to win”
1997 Mercedes Championship (Poor Tom Lehman.)
The level “He won, although he vomited in the last round because of food poisoning”
2003 Bay Hill Invitational (We decided not to show any pictures of it. You’re welcome.)
The “Welcome To The Pros, Here Are Some Vegas Showgirls Presenting Your First Winner’s Check”
1996 Las Vegas Invitational (See? This really happened.)
The level “Oh yes, he obviously won the first FedEx Cup”
2007 Tour Championship (considering he won when he was eight, he should have gotten a bonus on top of the $ 10 million.)
The stage “Other important victories, but we don’t have all day here”
1999 Tour Championship, 1999 Memorial Tournament, 2000 Memorial Tournament, 2001 Memorial Tournament, 2009 Memorial Tournament, 2000 Bay Hill Invitational, 2001 Bay Hill Invitational, 2002 Bay Hill Invitational, 2012 Arnold Palmer Invitational, 2013 Arnold Palmer Invitational, 2005 Ford Championship at Doral , 2006 Ford Championship in Doral, 2007 BMW Championship, 2009 BMW Championship
The “Other Victories We Can’t Remember Because 82 Wins Is A Lot Of Damn Wins” tier
1996 Walt Disney World / Oldsmobile Classic, 1997 GTE Byron Nelson Golf Classic, 1997 Motorola Western Open, 1998 BellSouth Classic, 1999 Buick Invitational, 1999 Motorola Western Open, 1999 National Car Rental Golf Classic, 2002 Buick Open, 2003 Buick Invitational, 2003 Western Open, 2005 Buick Invitational, 2006 Buick Invitational, 2006 Buick Open, 2006 Deutsche Bank Championship, 2007 Buick Invitational, 2007 Wachovia Championship, 2008 Buick Invitational, 2009 AT&T National, 2009 Buick Open, 2013 Farmers Insurance Open
The (gulp) stage “We hope this will not be his last victory”