Like a lot of golf fans, I grew up watching Tiger Woods. He was my sports hero.
While it’s bittersweet to see him playing today—it’s tough to watch him hobble through tournaments—seeing Tiger in his prime was an experience unlike anything else in golf.
Sure, there are players like Scottie Scheffler who come around and dominate. He’s a great player who could be among the best golfers ever when it’s all said and done.
But Tiger brought a certain energy to the game that is hard to replicate. Even casual sports fans who didn’t care about golf became invested in his record-breaking performances.
Some of the records Tiger broke won’t be equaled. Several of them are among the most unbreakable golf records in history.
In honor of his birthday—the Big Cat turns 49 today—here are the most ridiculous stats from his career.
10. Having three tournament-winning streaks of five events or more
Three times in his career, Woods won at least five consecutive tournaments.
It’s been more than six decades since anyone on the PGA Tour has even put together one five-tournament win streak.
This is a really wild stat when you sit down and think about it.
9. Being PGA Tour player of the year 11 times
No other golfer in Tour history has won player of the year honors more than six times—other than Woods, who has 11 titles.
Among active players in their prime, Scheffler and Rory McIlroy both have three.
It might not be mathematically impossible to catch Woods but it’s highly unlikely at best.
8. Winning all four majors by five strokes or more
It’s hard enough for anyone to win all four majors throughout their career. Only five men in history have done that.
But winning all four majors by at least five strokes? That is on another level entirely. Even Jack Nicklaus didn’t do that.
Rory McIlroy did win the U.S. Open and PGA Championship by eight strokes but it’s hard to envision him winning two more majors by a wide margin considering he hasn’t won any major in more than a decade.
7. Winning the Vardon Trophy nine times
The Vardon Trophy is awarded to the PGA Tour player with the lowest stroke average for the season.
Woods won that nine times including when he had a stroke average below 68 (2000 and 2007). No other player has been below 68 in Tour history. The closest anyone has come this century is McIlroy last season when he finished at 68.67.
Runners-up for most Vardon Trophy victories are Billy Casper and Lee Trevino with five each. McIlroy has four in his career but getting another five would be an extremely tall order. He turns 36 next year and doesn’t have an unlimited amount of time.
Scheffler, surprisingly, has not won the Vardon … yet.
6. Winning 41 European Tour titles without being a member
Woods has never been a European Tour (now DP World Tour) member. Despite that, he is credited with 41 victories. That puts him at No. 3 on the all-time list.
How? Well, there is overlap because the European Tour calendar shares some big events with the PGA Tour.
His 15 majors and 18 World Golf Championship victories are all included. In fairness, Woods also won pure Euro Tour events like the Johnnie Walker Classic (twice), Dubai Desert Classic (twice) and the Deutsche Bank (three times).
No other active player is even close to reaching that mark. Even active full-time European Tour members are nowhere close.
5. Holding all four majors at once
Bobby Jones won all four majors in 1930 although they weren’t the same four majors we know today (the Masters didn’t exist yet so his “Grand Slam” included the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur, British Amateur and the Open Championship ). Woods won the last three majors of 2000 and the first major of 2001 to complete the “Tiger Slam.”
While we’ve had one scare since then—Jordan Spieth made a valiant effort in 2015—the majors have mostly been about sharing the wealth.
When Xander Schauffele won two majors in 2024, it was the first time we had seen someone do that since 2018. It’s hard enough getting to two majors, let alone four.
Someone would have to separate from the competition in a way modern golf tends to prevent.
4. Making 142 consecutive cuts
This record is almost certainly unbreakable given that no 21st Century golfer has reached half of the 142 consecutive made cuts that Woods once accomplished. This record, set in 2005, has long been cited as one of golf’s untouchable marks.
This is so much golf. Top players compete in maybe 20 events per year. I’m not great at math but I believe that is something like seven full seasons of never missing a cut.
We will probably have more no-cut events in pro golf moving forward but the majors will (hopefully) always have cuts.
Keep in mind this just takes one bad round—shooting 78 on a Thursday at the U.S. Open—and the streak is over.
Woods avoiding that from 1998-2005 is among his most jaw-dropping accomplishments.
3. Holding the No. 1 ranking for 683 weeks
Woods held the top spot in the Official World Golf Ranking for a total of 683 weeks (more than 13 years) while second place in that race is Greg Norman at “only” 331 weeks (about six and a half years).
Scheffler, the current top player, would need to hold onto the top spot every week until 2035—when he would be 39 years old—to eclipse Woods.
Anything could derail that: injury, another player getting hot, the OWGR changing, etc.
There is zero margin of error for anyone to get there. Woods was just that dominate for that long.
2. Winning a major championship by 15 strokes
Arguably the best golf ever played came in the 2000 U.S. Open when Tiger won by 15 strokes. He finished at 12-under while the runner-up could only manage 3-over.
Woods even had a triple bogey thrown in there. This is a level of domination that can’t be equaled because the parity—both of competition and technology—is too great at this point.
The closest we’ve seen since is a player winning a major by eight strokes but even those came more than 10 years ago. It’s just a different game now.
1. Winning 82 PGA Tour titles
Although Woods is technically in a tie with Sam Snead for 82 Tour titles, a large number of Snead’s wins are sketchy (36-hole two-man team events, etc).
In the modern game, nobody will ever approach 82 Tour titles. McIlroy is the closest among active players still in their prime and he is nowhere close to even half of that number.
Woods won 82 legitimate Tour titles. Scheffler would need another decade of winning seven events per year to reach that! It would require almost perfect golf until he’s 39 years old.
It’s just not feasible. In retrospect, winning 82 times is insane.
Those are my top 10 most ridiculous Tiger records that will never be equaled. Do you agree with this list?
Let me know below in the comments.
Top Photo Caption: Tiger Woods leads the gallery during the 2000 World Cup of Golf. (GETTY IMAGES/Simon Bruty)
