Why Tiger Woods’ 18 WGC Wins May Be His Most Underrated Achievement

When evaluating Tiger Woods’ illustrious professional career, most will initially gravitate toward his 14 major championships and 79 PGA Tour wins.

Woods’ major championship tally, in particular, is without question the most high-profile achievement of his career.

This is partially due to the historical significance of the four professional majors and partially due to the importance Woods himself placed on these events from a young age.

Very early in Woods’ career, he made it clear that breaking Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championship titles was his top priority. As a result, Woods created a narrow prism through which to measure his success.

So while we have spent much of the past 19 years documenting and analyzing Woods’ quest to break Nicklaus’ major championship record, many of Woods’ other astonishing accomplishments have been largely overlooked, not the least of which being his 18 World Golf Championship titles.

The World Golf Championships began back in 1999. These are events held at difficult venues and open to only the top golfers in the world.

While the WGCs may not yet possess the same prestige as major championships or even events such as the Players Championship, in terms of the strength of field, the WGCs are only slightly behind the majors.

For example, the total WGR point rating (which is determined mostly by the strength of the field) for the 2016 Masters was 798. The point rating for the 2016 WGC-Match Play was just slightly behind at 779. This clearly demonstrates how close the strength of a WGC field is to that of a major championship.

Woods completely dominated the WGCs for more than a decade, racking up a mind-boggling 18 titles.

During what can be considered Woods’ true prime years (1999 – 2008), he won 15 of the 27 individual WGCs he attended. This is an incredible 56 percent winning percentage against the top players of his generation.

Just to put that into perspective, Dustin Johnson and Geoff Ogilvy have the next-most individual WGC titles, with only three apiece.

Phil Mickelson, who was clearly the other top player of Woods’ generation, has managed to capture just two career WGC titles.

Out of all of Woods’ non-major accomplishments, his WGC record may well be the most underrated achievement of his career, and just last week World No. 3 Rory …

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