With Tiger There's Just One Golf Stat That Really Matters

In the game of golf the only meaningful statistic, when you get right down to it, is getting the ball in the hole in as few strokes as possible. The PGA Tour published their most recent statistics following play on the weekend of August 2^nd and there are some really great talking points when you look at these names and numbers.

Tiger Woods, by any kind of ranking methods, is the #1 player in the world. Not many golf devotees will take issue with that. But, now take note and digest the following PGA stats:

Driving Average—1. Robert Garrigus & Bubba Watson (tie) 310. Tiger not in the top 10.

Driving Accuracy %--1. David Thoms, 75.9. Tiger not in the top 10.

Greens in Regulations—1. John Senden, 71.26. Tiger not in the top 10.

Total Driving—1. Lucas Glover 70.2. Tiger not in the top 10.

Putting Average—1. Anthony Kim, 1.713. Tiger not in the top 10.

Eagles (per holes played)—1. Bubba Watson 64.1. Tiger not in the top 10.

Sand Save %--1. Luke Donald, 67.71. Tiger not in the top 10.

Birdie Average—1. Dustin Johnson, 4.38. Tiger, 4.26 (4^th).

Scoring Average—1. Tiger Woods, 68.37. 2. Steve Stricker, 69.33. 3. David Thoms, 69.38.

All-Around Ranking—1. Tiger Woods 2. Steve Stricker

PGA Tour Money Earnings—1. Tiger Woods 2. Steve Stricker

Surprising? My guess is that a majority of us would have had Tiger in there somewhere in the Driving categories, or maybe Eagles, or Sand Saves.

What do we make of all this? First, the old adage that “you drive for show, but putt for dough” still rings true to a large degree. Just because you can whack it off the tee doesn’t guarantee low scoring. In Tiger’s case, by not being in the top 10 in any of the first seven statistical categories, yet ranking fourth in birdie average, and the very best in scoring average, shows that he has an incredible skill to recover from a bad shot and still score birdies, or save par, and ultimately score overall.

Does he rank in the top five or even top 10 in all or most of the categories shown above? Obviously not. Where he does rank the best is getting the little while ball in the hole in less strokes than everyone else, regardless of the means he takes to accomplish that task.

Automatic, a machine, super-human--not quite. Just the best, even if he doesn't dominate statistical categories.