"The ball-striking exhibition I've seen the last two days is a joke," said US Open champion Gary Woodland, who played the final two rounds with Woods on a rain-soaked course northeast of Tokyo. "I don't see him stopping any time soon. Eighty-two is pretty special. I think there's a lot more in store."
Expect plenty of debate until Woods makes it 83 and has the record to himself.
Snead always argued he won more than 82 times during his seemingly ageless career that stretched across three decades. He also has team events, such as the Inverness Four-Ball Invitational, counted among his official tally.
The PGA of America ran tournament golf in Snead's time and there wasn't a standard tour schedule like there is now. The PGA Tour researched the records and settled on 82 wins for Snead.
That's what Woods matched, an astonishing feat considering the litany of obstacles he has faced — five surgeries on his knee, four surgeries on his back, the embarrassment of being caught in a personal scandal that cost him his marriage and universal corporate support, a mug shot from his DUI arrest two years ago when he mixed pain medications.
Woods has been linked with Nicklaus his entire career. He has been mentioned alongside Byron Nelson, not only for breaking his record for consecutive cuts, but for twice getting at least halfway to Nelson's unthinkable 11 straight victories. Woods reached seven in a row on the PGA Tour through 2006 at Torrey Pines.
But the better measure of his greatness is not the legends Woods is chasing.
It's the players he is beating.
Generations are tough to compare even with simple numbers such as 18 and 82. The game, the courses, the equipment, everything evolves. No one will ever know how Woods stacked up against Snead, Nelson, Ben Hogan or Bobby Jones. No one can say how Nicklaus would fare against today's generation.
What made Snead's record 82 victories even more impressive than the number alone was that no one else was close to him. When he won the last of his official victories at the Greater Greensboro Open in 1965, only two other players had more than 50 career wins — Hogan (64) and Nelson (52).
Woods now has 82 victories.
That's more than Phil Mickelson (44) and Vijay Singh (34) combined. The other Hall of Famer from his generation is Ernie Els, who travelled and won worldwide but has 19 victories on the PGA Tour.
Even after going through so many injuries that led to Woods going five years without a victory, his winning rate is still 22.8 per cent.
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan was in Japan and could only think, "wow," when he considered what Woods had done — and if it will ever be seen again.
"I'm a never-say-never kind of person ... but it's just hard to imagine anybody doing that again," Monahan said.
- AP
