How Tiger Woods’ biggest ever match-play defeat came courtesy of a golfer who only ever won one PGA Tour event

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If you think of the 2000s and think of golf, it’s hard not to divert your attention towards Tiger Woods and the dominance he showed.

Woods won 12 of his 15 majors between 2000 and 2008, meaning he very much dominated the world of golf in that period.

Still, while Woods was the top dog in those years and will always be remembered for being just that, it doesn’t mean he wasn’t completely unbeatable.

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Indeed, when it comes to match-play, Woods might have inflicted big defeats on others – such as his 9&8 win over Stephen Ames – but he’s also suffered his fair share of losses too.

And when it comes to his biggest ever match-play loss, he has the bizarre honour of looking at a one-time PGA Tour winner as being the man who did it.

How Shaun Micheel inflicted the biggest match-play defeat of Tiger Woods’ career

Over the years, Tiger Woods has been involved in plenty of match-play events.

The Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup are the obvious ones but there’s also events like the WGC Match Play and the now renamed Volvo World Match Play.

Indeed, it is in Volvo in 2006 – previously the HSBC World Match Play Championship – where Woods had his biggest ever defeat inflicted on him.

Remarkably, it came at the hands of American golfer Shaun Micheel in the first round.

Micheel played brilliantly to defeat Woods 4&3, handing the 15-time major winner his worst ever defeat in a match-play situation.

Frustratingly for Woods, Micheel was hardly a prolific winner. He won the PGA Championship in 2003 but that was and remained his only win on the PGA Tour before he moved to the seniors.

Of course, for Micheel, it’s quite the scalp and in fairness to him, he did go onto finish runner-up to England’s Paul Casey that year.

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Tiger Woods’ match-play record in the Ryder Cup

We’ve seen Tiger Woods destroy some fields over the years in stroke play and he has indeed had his moments in the match-play side of things too.

However, when it comes to the Ryder Cup, his record is nowhere near as good as people would expect.

Indeed, Woods has a win percentage of less than 40% when it comes to the Ryder Cup and while his record in the Presidents Cup is better, he should have done better against Team Europe.

We all know Woods is a huge competitor in any tournament but clearly, there is something in the match-play format which seems to allow his opponents a chance.