In case the start of the NFL season distracted you, the remarkable Tiger Woods shot a closing round 63 at Cog Hill in Chicago to win another PGA Tour tournament over the weekend, the 60th professional tournament title of his storied career. ESPN.com’s Bob Harig puts Wood’s accomplishment in perspective:
Woods matched the tournament 18-hole record by shooting an 8-under 63 at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club, becoming the first player to do so twice. He posted the lowest four-day total (262) in 104 years of tournament competition — which beat the previous mark by 5 strokes. He won the tournament that used to be known as the Western Open for the fifth time, just one behind Walter Hagen.
Woods has won five times at Cog Hill.
And he joined Sam Snead (82), Jack Nicklaus (73), Ben Hogan (64) and Arnold Palmer (62) among those with 60 or more victories in PGA Tour events.
All at age 31. [. . .]
He has won six or more times in a season five times. This year, four of his six wins have come at the biggest tournaments — a major (PGA Championship), two World Golf Championship events (CA Championship and Bridgestone Invitational) and now a playoff event.
And his other two victories came at two of the more popular regular tour events, the Buick Invitational and Wachovia Championship.
Perhaps just as remarkable as his number of victories is the speed with which he got there. Nicklaus was 36 years old when he won his 60th title in 1976. Palmer was 41 in 1971 when he won for the 60th time. Woods could take the next five years off and still be on pace to surpass Nicklaus, Hogan and Palmer.
Or, as Justin Rose put it, “I’d have to win 15 times a year for the next four years to get there by the time I’m 31.”
Meanwhile, last weekend’s tournament gave us yet another entertaining professional golfer-caddy snit (previous snit posts here and here), which gives me the opportunity to pass along this classic Caddyshack clip (which happens to be one of Tiger Woods’ favorite movies) in which Bill Murray’s legendary Carl Spackler explains how he successfully resolved a similar snit with while caddying for the the Dalai Lama:
