Tiger vs Phil part One (and a half): Fitness

Part two is coming soon but I just wanted to put a little update to the fitness post, particularly in the light of Tiger’s utterly dominant game at the weekend:

Here are some facts:  (the golfing world is full of Tiger facts and figures but here are some relevant ones at the moment)

• Tiger is 31 – he has just won his 61st tournament as a professional
• Jack Nicklaus was 37 when he achieved such a feat.
• Sam Snead (who holds the record at 82 wins) was 39 when he won his 61st.
• He has just become a father (and one has to assume, is suffering a bit from lack of sleep)
• He has just won the inagural FedEx Cup putting $10 million into his retirement fund
• He has just won the Tour Championship by eight strokes with a personal best of 23 under par.
• He has just won 21 out of his last 49 tournaments (an ever better strike rate than his amazing 22 out of 60 in 1999/2000)

As ever that’s just a handful of Tiger facts.  There are always more but of more interest to me and more relevance to the fitness post was the question he was asked on the Golf Channel.

Rich Lerner:

“How do you feel your increased stature and muscle has helped you in the last few years?”

Tiger simply said:

“Well, more than anything my stamina is good. I’m able to hit the shots I can over 72 holes and I just don’t get tired.“

There’s a clue there Phil.  Can you work it out?  One over par for the weekend – how was your stamina?  Perhaps the first 36 holes took it out of you.