Who the heck is Nick O’ Hern?
He’s not exactly a household name but he will be forever
remembered as the guy who prevented Tiger Woods from moving one
step closer to breaking the PGA Tour’s all-time record for most
wins in a row, which was set by Byron Nelson back in 1945.
Who the heck is Nick O’ Hern?
He’s not exactly a household name but he will be forever remembered as the guy who prevented Tiger Woods from moving one step closer to breaking the PGA Tour’s all-time record for most wins in a row, which was set by Byron Nelson back in 1945.
At last week’s Accenture World golf Match Play Championships in Tucson, Arizona, the Australian-born O’ Hern shocked the golfing world by beating the No. 1 golfer on the planet 1-up. O’Hern’s impressive victory snapped Woods’ winning streak that had been hovering for a month at seven – just five wins shy of breaking Nelson’s historic mark.
Woods wound up finishing in ninth place, and O’ Hern, who took sixth, wound up losing in the quarterfinals to Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, the eventual winner of the tournament.
It’s amazing to think that Woods has left such a mark on the game that O’ Hern will be more remembered for beating Woods than Stenson will be for winning the million-plus first-place check.
I guess this all means that Tiger is human after all and not a machine. This proves that Tiger can, on rare occasions, finish somewhere other than in first place. But it doesn’t happen often.
Since his professional career began in 1996, Tiger has averaged one win on Tour every 6.9 starts. What’s even more amazing is that from 2000-2006 (not including 2004, his worst year) Tiger averaged one win for every 4.9 tournaments that he teed it up.
So if you’re a Tiger Woods fan, don’t sweat last week’s loss, because the losing streak is sure to be short-lived. And if you’re not a Tiger Woods fan enjoy the moment while it lasts because you’ll have some rough weeks ahead in the not-so-distant future.
Usually, a Tiger Woods loss is not a good sign for the rest of the players on Tour. Take the recent win streak that was just broken. That streak began shortly after his father and mentor Earl passed away on May 3 of 2006.
In his first tournament after Earl’s death, the U.S. Open, Tiger missed the cut – it was his first missed cut in 142 tournaments.
At the time a lot of the game’s pundits, myself included, believed Woods might struggle for a while as he tried to cope with Earl’s death.
But instead of going away, Woods roared back with a vengeance. After finishing second at the Western Open just three weeks after the U.S. Open, Woods caught fire.
The first win of the streak was on July 23 at the British Open. That win was followed by wins in the Buick Open, The PGA Championship, The World Golf Championship, Deutsche Bank Championship, World Golf Championship, Target World Challenge and the Buick Invitational last month.
Heck, that’s a pretty solid career for most guys on Tour. For Tiger Woods, it’s a typical year.
So congratulations Mr. O’ Hern for taming or taking a bit out of the Tiger, or for whatever other play on words that you want to use. But don’t be surprised when Tiger comes roaring back. And since he likes to do so in dramatic fashion, I’m expecting that deafening roar to circulate through the Georgia Pine sometime around oh, let’s say, Masters week.
