Six players could make history at this year’s British Open
By Bill Felber
Tiger Woods
These days, Woods is playing almost solely for his place in golf history.
There was a point, a decade or so ago, where that place was hotly in pursuit of Jack Nicklaus for the top spot on the career list. At his peak, Woods had accumulated a standard deviation rating of around -75.00, close enough to Nicklaus’ record -104.56 and with enough years left to make catching the Golden Bear plausible.
But that is no longer the case. Since 2013, Woods’ march up the career chart has been slowed by five missed cuts plus other finishes outside the top 20 – not to mention two years of inactivity. Rather than chasing Nicklaus, he is at -64.64 and has fallen behind Sam Snead (-82.23) and Walter Hagen (-76.19).
His 2019 season has been more of a mixed bag than it might at first glance appear, the missed cut at the PGA undermining the gains he made via a victory at Augusta. His task now is to claw back toward Hagen, perhaps in a year or two re-passing him and Snead for second on the career list.
That will take a lot. The approximately 11 standard deviation points by which Woods trails Hagen equates to about three major titles – or a half dozen top 5 finishes. Nobody who has seen Tiger Woods play would rule that out, but it is a steep hurdle.
Like Mickelson, Woods also faces the daunting reality, which comes with age, wear and tear, that things could also deteriorate. He is, for the present relatively securely in fourth on the career chart, about seven points ahead of Gene Sarazen. But were Woods to miss the cut at Portrush and follow that with a couple of bad showings next season, a fall of one or two positions would not be out of the question.