Golf and PGA Tour News - Tiger Woods Is Number 2

Tiger is Number 2
By: Keith Dobkowski, Golf and PGA Tour News Writer

As Vijay Singh passed Tiger in the world rankings on Labor Day
we were forced to ask: Has the Tiger era finally come to a close?

The man who brought us the Tiger slam winning four consecutive
majors is no longer number one. The man who won six straight
tournaments, five straight player of the year awards and eight
total majors is now number two in the world rankings.

Tiger’s fall from grace, all the way down to number two in the
world, leaves us with no choice but to remove the Tiger from his
name and insert between Eldrick and Woods, “The Best Player To
Have Only Won Eight Majors.”

Truth be told, Tiger Woods isn’t going anywhere. As we have
patiently waited through interview after interview of Woods’ claim
of being close, it appears that Woods is very close. Yes he did
lose control of the number one ranking but he has quietly finished
in the top ten in eight of his last ten tournaments.

Tiger’s terrible year has included one victory, a dozen top tens
and the recent hot streak mentioned above. We are left with
several issues including the absurdity of the ranking system, the
true measure of greatness, and the last time Tiger urged us all to
be patient as he claimed ‘closeness.’

The World Golf Ranking system makes the BCS seem reliable. Any
time a system can add and detract points from 24 months earlier,
the system has great faults. The exact formula described below
comes directly from pgatour.com:

The Official World Golf Ranking, which is endorsed by the four
Major Championships and the five professional tours which make
up the International Federation of PGA Tours, is issued every
Monday, following completion of the previous week's tournaments
from around the world. This statistic is the average number of
points earned per event in the last 104 weeks. These points are
awarded based upon finish position as well as the strength of the
field. The points are initially worth double their original value and
decline gradually over this two-year period. There are 8 13-week
periods and points decline by .25x their value each period.

Meaning that ranking can be affected by the amount a players
plays and position can be guided by a finish two years earlier.
Over the past two years, Vijay Singh has played in 57 events to
Tigers 41. Because of their respective schedules, Singh has a
30% greater chance of having played two years earlier. Thus
giving Singh an advantage.

A better system would shorten the period for review to just 12
months. Average money earned, majors won, overall victories,
top ten finishes, scoring averages and finishing averages would
be used to determine the number one player.

Under this guide in the 2004 calendar year, clearly the best
players are Singh, Tiger, Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson.

Singh leads the group in wins with six, tied for the lead in majors
with one, leads the group in money earned per event with
$328,000, is third in final round average, second in average score
and a distant fourth in top tens.

Mickelson, Singh’s greatest competition for Player of the Year
honors, leads the PGA in scoring average, top ten finishes a
whopping 72% of the time, averages $314,000 per start and has
one a major and one other tournament victory this year. For
Mickelson to challenge Singh for the player of the year he must
finish with at least two more victories including the Tour
Championships. If Phil can win the American Express as well, he
may just wrap up the honors.

Els is second in money per start, third in scoring average, third in
top tens and fourth in final round scores. Tiger leads the group in
final round scoring, is tied with Els in scoring average, is just
below Phil in top ten finishes and averages $268,000 per start.

As Tiger’s streak of five years and one month of being number one
came to close, the feeling that Tiger may finally be back seems
incredibly real. For over a year, Tiger has been working on new
swing mechanics and with eight top tens in his last ten tourneys
proves, Tiger’s swing has come around.

The last time Tiger retooled he went on to win seven majors
including the Tiger slam.

So while the world rankings may find Tiger second, the Vardon
Scoring Average finds him third and the PGA Players may vote him
fourth for player of the year, it appears that Tiger is back and
ready to reclaim his den.