Beating the best not always tougher than beating the rest

MARANA, Ariz. -- Forget the World Golf Championships were ever created, and no one would dispute the world supremacy of Tiger Woods. At the very worst, he still would have 48 career victories on the PGA Tour and be miles ahead of everyone else.

Woods now has won 15 times against the best players in the world.

Darren Clarke is next with 2 WGC victories -- the 2000 Accenture Match Play Championship and the 2003 NEC Invitational at Firestone -- both times beating the world's No. 1 player.

Ernie Els, a three-time major champion, has one world title (Ireland in 2004).

Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh have combined for none.

Never mind the world ranking. Maybe his world titles are the true reflection of the gap between Woods and his alleged competition.

"I don't know how to answer that one," Woods said Sunday. "All I know is that I just love playing against the best players in the world. That's the fun part because we don't get to do it that often."

But there is a case to be made that beating the best isn't necessarily harder than beating the rest in a full-field event.

Clearly, the Match Play Championship is the toughest of the WGCs to win, and it's a testament to his ability (physical and mental) that Woods has won three times and reached the final another. Only three other players have been to the finals twice.

But in the first three WGCs he won at Firestone, Woods never had to beat more than 40 players in 72 holes of stroke play. He had to beat only 60 players in his first American Express title at Valderrama.

In his tour career, Woods has won 20 times against limited fields with guaranteed money.

Playing a full field, whether that's 120 players at invitationals like Bay Hill or 156 players in the summer, means more chances that someone will have a career week.

Bob May was one of those guys at Valhalla in 2000 when he lost to Woods in a three-hole playoff at the PGA Championship. Bob Burns was one of those guys at Disney in 2002 when he shot 65 to win. Steve Flesch went birdie for birdie with Woods in the final round of Disney two years earlier, and both were beaten by a 62 from Duffy Waldorf.

There's a lot of truth to the PGA Tour's slogan, "These guys are good."

"If you've got 60 guys at Bridgestone, get by 10 or 12 of them and the scores tend to look different," Fred Couples said Tuesday. "That's sugarcoating it a little bit."

In most tournaments, only half the field is going to play well, leading to the 70 or so players who make the cut. Apply that math to the WGCs, and there are only 30 or 40 guys to worry about. The average margin between first and worst in the WGC events (stroke play) is 32.4 strokes. The average margin at regular tour events last year was 24.6.

The WGCs are not the only tournaments where the number of players who can win is less than what it seems.

The U.S. Open last year had 29 players who had to go through two stages of qualifying. Those are called dreamers. The 97-man field at the Masters last year had 10 players on the Champions Tour and five amateurs. The PGA Championship has 20 club pros.

The pressure, the history and the golf course are what makes them tough.

But there is no getting around the fact that WGCs use the world ranking (top 50) as the core criteria, and while there forever will be debate on whether Shingo Katayama or Soren Hansen belong in the top 50, there can be no argument that Mickelson, Els, Singh, Padraig Harrington, Steve Stricker and Sergio Garcia are pushovers.

"When it's only 64 guys, it certainly seems easier to win the event," Couples said. "But when it's the top 64 guys, it's harder. Tiger wins them, and it's no surprise."