February 4, 2008–Now that the New England Patriots' quest for perfection is over–much to the chagrin of Las Vegas sports books–there is just one pro sports entity left that can ever successfully negotiate a completely undefeated season in sports. It's our humble opinion that no NFL team will ever match the Patriots' miracle run this year–or the 17-0 Dolphins of 1972–but there is this golfer out there who could go 16-0 in a single year, no matter how far-fetched it sounds: Tiger Woods. He is off to a 2-0 start this year, has won seven of his last eight (with a second-place finish thrown in) official and unofficial events, and if history is any indication, he is just hitting his prime. Nicklaus and Palmer won about half of their total career tournaments after turning 32 years old, as Tiger just did, and were at their peak between the ages of about 32 and 38. What happens now that Tiger is in this 'peak zone'? Perfection, that's what. And luckily for us Las Vegas golfers, we can say that this storied run began in 1996 over three Las Vegas golf courses, as Tiger Woods won his first PGA Tour golf event–the Las Vegas Invitational–in the city that glitters.
So the question is only if Tiger can bring his B game–he routinely wins with it–16 times this year, and gets a bit lucky and no other golfer makes a good run at him.
Tiger Woods beat Davis Love III in a playoff in that 1996 Las Vegas Invitational, and afterwards, Love was quoted as saying that it was quite obvious that in one of the PGA Tour's lowest scoring events that Tiger had shown that he will be the man to beat for years to come.
That quote was after Woods had played only a handful of professional tournaments. Scary then. Scarier now.
The Las Vegas golf courses used in the three-course rotation of the 1996 Las Vegas Invitational were TPC Summerlin, Las Vegas National Golf and the Desert Inn Golf Club.
Tiger Woods has been openly quoted as saying that 12 wins-in-a-row is possible, and he thinks that he will win the Grand Slam this year. Can undefeated be far behind?
Photo: PGATOUR.com