Tiger Woods set many records throughout the 2000 season and his level of performance was perhaps as high as the game has seen. In the first counting event of the 2001 European Tour, Tiger visited his mother’s native land for the 2001 Johnnie Walker Classic and claimed his tenth title of the year with a 25-under-par total. An in-depth look at his stats for the week, reveals exactly where Tiger excels.
A first round 67 followed by three 65’s is an impressive point with which to begin. Tiger’s 25-under-par total bettering all that had gone before on the 2000 European Tour. Whilst he admitted the heat had left the course playing a touch on the short side, Tiger renders most courses so and his driving distance average of 319.2 yards put him top for the week, nearly 15 yards ahead of Sergio Garcia who was second-placed in the distance category with 306.5 yards.
Length alone, however, does not make Tiger the player he is and he added top spot in both the driving accuracy and greens in regulation categories. An average of 11 fairways and 14 greens per round saw a clear route to the greens where further distance was put between himself and the field. Whilst Tiger was not top of the putting stats (3rd in putts per GIR and 7th in putts per round) he did single putt 50% of the greens, that’s a single putt on every other hole whichever way you look at it.
Tiger averaged 10.5 pars per round and 6.5 birdies per round. Add to this one eagle for the week (his average on the US Tour this year and incidentally better than anyone else, again) and subtract his three bogey’s and his 25-under total is achieved.
But what of the 16 missed greens at the Alpine Golf Club. Well, Tiger’s scramble percentage for the week was 81.3% saving par 13 times from off the green, including a holed bunker shot. His bounceback figure (the number of times a player responds with a birdie or better after a bogey or worse) sat at 33.3%, OK he only had three bogeys to bounce back from, but again he is top for the season in the US with a slightly better figure of 36.8%. His birdie conversion percentage for the week (birdies from greens hit in regulation) sat at 46.4% (I don’t need to tell you who is top of this category in the US). Such an impressive figure was partly thanks to hitting 6 of the 16 par 5’s in two, but also helped by birdieing 25% of the Alpine Club’s 40 par 4’s.
Tiger’s par 5 stats, as expected were particularly impressive. From the 16 played he was 15-under-par, one eagle, thirteen birdies and no dropped shots. His driving accuracy sat at 75% and his greens in regulation at 100% all combining for an average of 4.06, a figure which some would have paid for on the par 4’s!.
So we see where it is that Tiger excels, everywhere.
