When you consider how many times Tiger Woods won on the PGA Tour, it is remarkable to think that he did not end up in a play-off more often.
Along with Sam Snead, Tiger Woods holds the joint record for most wins on the PGA Tour with 82. In that time, he found himself in a play-off on 14 occasions. The most recent play-off came at the 2008 US Open when he needed 19 additional holes to beat Rocco Mediate at Torrey Pines.
Mediate famously said that he expected Woods to hole the putt which would set up the play-off for the following day. And he would have been forgiven for fearing for his chances, given that the world number one did not lose in play-offs on the PGA Tour – except on one occasion.
Woods had extra motivation to win the 1998 Nissan Open, with the hometown crowd very much behind the boy wonder in Los Angeles. It seems however, that no-one had shown Billy Mayfair the script that week.
How Billy Mayfair ended up creating his own piece of history with Tiger Woods
Mayfair had a very impressive career in his own right. He reached a career high of 25 in the world rankings, finished in the top five of three of the four majors, and won five times on the PGA Tour – including at the Nissan Open in 1998.
Mayfair, now 58, needed to make a birdie on the final hole to make the play-off with Woods. But it seems that there was actually a very good chance that he would not be in the field at all, as he told Wicked Smart Golf earlier this year.
“The funny story about it was, for me, we had played Tucson the week before and I was playing really good at Tucson, and I double bogeyed the last hole. I hit it over the top of the flag, buried it in the back bunker and made six on a par four which took me out the top 10. And I was upset, I wasn’t going to go play in LA, I was not going to. I drove all the way back to Phoenix after Tucson, and I said I’m not going there, I’m not going there, I’m upset. And my mom and dad said, ‘son, you’re playing good, get your butt over there and do that’,” he said.
Woods had won a play-off in both 1996 and 1997, so Mayfair would have definitely been the underdog ahead of their duel – until Woods landed himself in trouble off the tee.
“The play-off was back to 18, it was a par five, everyone thinks Tiger’s going to win there and knock it on in two. Fortunately for me, he hit it right off the tee in the trees, which meant he couldn’t go for it. I didn’t hit as good of a drive, I had to lay up again. He went for the green, missed it to the right, pin high to the right,” he added.
“This time I really hit a good wedge shot in there and it backed up about four feet. He hit a chip that went past to about 20 feet, and then he did his sportsmanship, he walked back and forth, back and forth, making me trying to look at that four-footer, and I knew what the foot-footer was going to do because I had just hit the putt. I was fortunate, it was almost on the same line, so I knew exactly what it did, and I just said Billy, it’s inside left.
“I said, he’s going to make this putt, so when he does, it’s inside left and let’s make it and go on to the next hole. You have to be prepared that he’s going to make this putt. One, he’s Tiger Woods, but anyone out there, you want to suspect that he’s going to make that. When he finally did hit the putt, he just missed it, he hit a great putt right on the top of the hole, he tapped in. And I hit the four-footer, and as soon as I hit it, I thought I’d made it. It just bounced around and went in.”
A record now likely to remain intact
That would prove to be the penultimate win of Mayfair’s PGA Tour career, with victory coming later that same year at the Buick Open. Funnily enough, Mayfair’s own play-off record is underwhelming, with two wins and five defeats.
But given that it is hard to see Woods getting back to the level where he is competing in another play-off on the PGA Tour, Mayfair may well feel that he would happily keep his own record as he now looks highly likely to end up with his own piece of history.
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