Drawing level with Sam Snead’s PGA Tour victories record set in 1965 with win
Japan is a fine achievement but Woods has his sights set on greater milestones to comeWe may never know the extent to which Tiger Woods really values the matching of a record for PGA Tour victories. Whereas now – quite understandably – the haul of 82 as achieved decades earlier by Sam Snead is uppermost in golf’s vernacular it is the figure of 18 – as relating to Jack Nicklaus and major wins – that has always seemed to be Woods’s barometer.
What can be said without fear of contradiction is that Woods’s latest success, achieved by three shots at the Zozo Championship in Japan on Monday morning, adds to his extraordinary year. The 43-year-old indulged in sporting fairytale by winning his 15th major, the Masters, in April, upon return from the depths of physical despair. Woods cut a jaded figure during so many events thereafter, fuelling speculation about to what extent his Augusta glory had impacted both physically and mentally. When news broke of a fifth knee surgery, as undertaken in August, it felt as if Woods’s career was again heading for neutral gear.