It’s interesting to note that six of Tiger’s ten major wins have come at two courses: Augusta and The Old Course at St. Andrews. That’s not to diminish his accomplishment, but clearly those two are set up for his game.

Sports Illustrated has a list of Tiger’s favorite courses: Bay Hill, Augusta, Muirfield, Medinah and Firestone.

By my count, he has 16 victories on these five courses. That’s 34% of his total PGA Tour victories on just five courses.

I also think you could throw in Torrey Pines, where Tiger has won four events. That means that he’s won around 40% on six courses.

What does this say about Tiger? I don’t know, because I don’t know about the win dispersion of Nicklaus and Snead. But I suspect that their wins were not concentrated on as few courses. (Maybe Snead, though. He won eight of his 81 at the Greater Greensboro. They were played primarly on two courses. So that’s potentially as much as 10% on one course).

Tiger’s power to draw television audiences was evident Sunday, as the Buick Invitational recorded a 5.9 rating and 12 share—up 146% over last year’s ABC coverage.

The coverage peaked between 7 p.m. and 7:15 p.m., as the playoff neared conclusion, with a 9.4/15. 

A recent article in Golf Digest says that Tiger will drop at least one of his current sponsors in 2006. As I’m sitting here watching the Buick Invitational, I’m wondering if Buick will be the one.

Buick itself seems to be backing off of golf. It has not renewed the Buick Scramble, and is dropping title sponsorship of the Buick Open (formerly the Greater Hartford Open). Of course, that may have been precipitated by the PGA Tour moving it to a lesser position in the schedule. I find it hard to believe that the Tour would have moved that event without consulting Tiger.

Tiger has always commited himself to playing in Buick events, so dropping Buick would give him more flexibility in his schedule. I’m guessing that he’ll still play Torrey Pines, since he always has a good showing there. But I can’t see him returning to Flint, Michigan to play at Warwick Hills.

I actually never pictured Tiger as actually driving a Buick. A Cadillac, yes. But not a Buick.

BBC Commentator Peter Alliss thinks that its unlikely that Woods will pass Nicklaus’s record in the Majors because of the distractions he will face along the way. While Nicklaus also faced the distractions of marriage and children, Woods faces a far greater media scrutiny.

Its an interesting thought. But I’m not sure that the media has that much of an effect on Woods. He has been raised in the limelight, and seems able to tune it out. Certainly his press conferences are the most banal, uninstructive events I have ever seen.

No, if Tiger fails to reach Nicklaus’ record, it will be because of his own decision to quit playing (I frankly don’t see him winning a major at age 46), or because his competition will catch up. There is an awful lot of talent out there right now, and some of them surely will catch up.

Another record for Woods to challenge is Snead’s 82 PGA Tour Victories and 70 other worldwide wins.  As a professional, Woods currently has 48 Tour victories and (as far as I can tell) 20 other non PGA victories.

Because of his reduced tour schedule, and the likelihood of his retiring long before Snead ever did, I don’t see him breaking this one.

So what do you do when you have $40 million burning a hole in your pocket? If you’re Tiger Woods, you buy a house on Jupiter Island, right next to Greg Norman.

Ok. So the house comes with 10 acres.

And he’s tearing down the house.