The Top 5 Most Underrated Accomplishments of Tiger Woods' Career

Tiger Woods has accumulated scores of records and mind-boggling accomplishments during the course a career that stretches nearly 25 years back to his amateur days. One could certainly make a strong argument for Woods’ being considered the greatest golfer of all time even if he were to never win another major championship.

While Woods’ quest to break Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championship titles has been the one record at the forefront of most golf fans' minds, we often overlook many other incredible accomplishments Woods has achieved throughout his career.

Here is a list of the top five most underrated accomplishments of Woods’ career.

Between 2006 and 2007, Woods won seven consecutive PGA Tour events, which is second only to Byron Nelson’s streak of 11 wins in a row back in 1945.

Woods also possess streaks of six consecutive wins (1999 to 2000) and five consecutive wins (2007 to 2008).

He is the only player in the past 62 years to have won more than four consecutive PGA Tour events (Jack Burke Jr. won four PGA Tour events in a row back in 1952).

In an era where a two-win season is considered a big deal, Woods’ ability to pick off one win after another over the course of several months is a testament to just how dominant he was compared to his competition during his prime.

Eighteen of Wood’s 79 professional wins have come at World Golf Championship events. Add those 18 WGC wins to Woods’ 14 major championship titles, and just over 40 percent of Woods’ wins have come against the top golfers in the world.

His performance at the WGCs is astounding when compared to other top players from his generation.

Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson each have just two WGC titles, and the player with the next most career WGC titles is Geoff Ogilvy with three.

This means that Woods has been six times more successful against the top players in the world at WGC events than any other player since the tournaments were launched back in 1999.

While Woods’ major championship titles have been well-documented, his complete and utter domination of the WGC events is one of his most underrated career achievements.

Wood’s ability to close out tournaments when holding at least a share of the 54-hole lead has been well-documented throughout his career. However, when actually digging into the numbers, it becomes apparent that many have been undervaluing just how insanely dominant he has been when holding a 54-hole tournament lead.

Woods is 14-1 when holding at least a share of the 54-hole lead at a major championship. That is a 93.33 percent winning percentage when heading into Sunday while holding at least a share of the lead.

He has a career record (majors and non-majors) of 54-4 when holding at least a share of the 54-hole lead (93.10 percent winning percentage) and is 42-2 when leading outright heading into the final round (95.45 percent winning percentage).

Throughout his entire career, Woods has lost just once when leading by more than one stroke after 54 holes.

In an era when meltdowns have been far more common than players going out and taking titles, Woods has somehow won more than 90 percent of the time when leading a tournament heading into the final round.

This level of dominance while holding a tournament lead is completely unheard of in golf.

Plain and simple, Woods is the greatest closer the game has ever seen.

Not only was Woods the first player to ever win three U.S. junior amateur titles, but he won his three titles in consecutive years.

And if that were not enough, he then went on to win three consecutive U.S. amateur titles, bringing his total to six consecutive USGA titles.

That is six years without losing a single match in the generally volatile USGA match-play format against the top amateur golfers in the nation.

Since 1895, only 18 players have won more than one U.S. amateur title, and only four players have won more than two.

No one other than Woods, including the great Bobby Jones, has ever won three consecutive U.S. amateur titles.

Amateur golf had never seen anything like this before Woods, has never seen anything like this since and is unlikely to ever see a form of domination that even remotely resembles what Woods was able to accomplish at national USGA amateur championships between 1991 and 1996.

Between 1998 and 2003, Woods made 142 consecutive cuts, which is a record that still stands today and is unlikely to be broken any time soon.

Prior to Woods' six-year span of not missing a single PGA Tour cut, Byron Nelson held the record for consecutive cuts made at 113.

Nicklaus’ longest streak of consecutive cuts made was 105, which is about two years and 38 percent fewer consecutive cuts made than Woods’ made during his streak of 142.

Incredibly, Woods has missed just 11 cuts in his entire career, with only five of those missed cuts occurring during his true prime years between 1997 and 2009.

This level of consistency is mind-boggling in the game of golf.

Five missed cuts in 12 years? That almost sounds like some kind of a joke.

Just to put that into perspective, Mickelson has missed 71 cuts since turning professional and has never had a single year where he did not miss at least one cut.

Els has missed 51 cuts since 1989 and has had just four years throughout his career where he did not miss a cut in a single PGA Tour event.

In the six years Rory McIlroy has been competing on the PGA Tour, he has already missed 10 cuts, which is just one less than Woods has missed in 18 years on Tour.

Woods’ incredible level of consistency over an 18-year span is perhaps the one career achievement that is undervalued more than any other.

It is of course debatable as to who the greatest golfer of all time is, but it is difficult to debate that any other golfer has ever consistently dominated the game the way Woods did during his prime.