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Tiger Woods: “Easier” to get to No. 1 when he debuted

By Kathlene Bissell

AUSTIN, TEXAS - MARCH 27: Tiger Woods of the United States plays his shot from the second tee in his match against Aaron Wise of the United States during the first round of the World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play at Austin Country Club on March 27, 2019 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
AUSTIN, TEXAS - MARCH 27: Tiger Woods of the United States plays his shot from the second tee in his match against Aaron Wise of the United States during the first round of the World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play at Austin Country Club on March 27, 2019 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images) /
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Tiger Woods understands the challenge of getting to the top of the world rankings, perhaps better than anybody else in golf. But was it actually simpler when he started his career on the PGA TOUR?

Everything looks a bit different through the prism of time, as Tiger Woods explained to media at the WGC-Dell Match Play event before the rounds began.

“It was a lot easier to get to No. 1 when I first came out,” Woods said about his situation in 1996 compared to 2019. “I had no points, and it was just win golf tournaments or basically make the cut, and I would rise in World Rankings.”

The media frenzy that began with his, “I guess, hello, world,” statement at the Greater Milwaukee Open. Then he proceeded to explain his timing in turning pro.

“Yesterday, I confirmed that I had decided to become a professional golfer. I did this because I wanted my final round as an amateur to be at the U.S. Amateur championship,” Woods said at the time. “After heated debate, especially with my dad, they (his parents) told me they would fully support any decision I made.”

And so, the career of Tiger Woods, phenomenal golfer, was launched.

Woods said his world ranking points started adding up because he got off to a good start. That’s perhaps an understatement. He basically started the PGA Tour as a legend.

Woods played eight PGA Tour events between September 1 and the end of October: Greater Milwaukee Open, Bell Canadian Open, Quad City Classic, B.C. Open, Las Vegas Invitational, LaCantera Texas Open, Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic. His finishes were T60, T11, 5, T3, 1, 3, and 1.

That’s right: in his first seven events, he won two of them. He did so well, he qualified for a PGA Tour card for the next season and qualified for the Tour Championship where he finished T21. The only roadblock Tiger Woods encountered that fall was Ed Fiori (ignored by the profile writers at pgatour.com) who beat him at the B.C. Open.

So last year wasn’t quite like starting again, but it was close to that. He had to come up in the rankings to get into elite events like this week’s WGC-Dell Match Play.

“If you ask what the difference is, getting to No. 1 was much easier than staying there,” he noted. “Staying there is hard, because it’s the consistency that is needed to remain there at No. 1, you have to win golf tournaments, but also your bad weeks can’t be missed cuts. They’ve got to be a bad week be top 10, back door top 10 or something like that, just to maintain points.”

Looking back, he thinks his ability to play well in the biggest events, which got him ranking points, helped him stay there as long as he did.

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“If you could win majors and Players and World Golf Championships and win some of the other deeper fields, you’re going to accrue a lot of World Ranking points and have a chance to stay up there,” he added.

This is another week to add even more points to his long resume, and this week’s match play format suits Woods just fine.

“Each and every shot is different, and you don’t really care what the rest of the field is doing. I just have to beat the guy standing in front of me,” he insisted.

What makes it different, as far as Tiger Woods is concerned, from stroke play is that he can’t just play his own game. He has to be aware of his opponent.

“Some moments, it’s just put the hammer down,” he said. “And other times, it’s we’ve got to play conservative off the tees, conservative off the greens, because my opponent is in trouble. That’s all ebb and flow.”

He called it a fluid environment.

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Playing six matches to get to a final could be tough on Woods’ body, should he advance that far, but he said the strong finish he had at the end of last season gives him confidence that, physically, he will hold up. Now he just needs to let his golf do the talking.

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