First Winless Season for Woods?

Tiger Woods is staring at the first winless season of his PGA Tour. Woods won twice after turning pro in 1996, and he's won at least once in every PGA Tour season since.

But while 2010 is far and away the worst season of Woods' career, he probably hasn't been as bad as you think. Did you know that Woods has one of the 30 best scoring averages on the PGA Tour this year?

Important to note: I'm talking about adjusted scoring average, not actual scoring average. Woods ranked 129th in actual scoring average. No sugar coating that. But adjusted scoring average - which takes into account how difficult the course plays and how good the field is - is what the scoring awards - the Vardon Trophy and Byron Nelson Award - are based on. No suprise that Woods' adjusted scoring average looks much better, give than he plays only the top tournaments on the toughest courses.

So in adjusted scoring average, Woods ranks 26th in 2010. That's better than Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Stewart Cink, Hunter Mahan, Sean O'Hair, Camilo Villegas, Rickie Fowler, Zach Johnson and Ryan Moore, among others.

And despite his foibles in 2010, Woods ranks 62nd in money. Even playing a short schedule, and - by his standards - abysmal golf, Woods was middle-of-the-pack relative to the PGA Tour at large.

So Woods wasn't as bad as you might think in 2010. But Woods won't take any comfort in those two data points. It was an awful year by his own standards. A few of those data points: Woods is 160th in driving accuracy 153rd in greens in regulation 117th in sand saves He finished outside the Top 10 in the last seven tournaments he played, the longest such streak of his career

And, of course, he hasn't won. Woods has a streak going of 14 consecutive seasons with a win on the PGA Tour. That's not the record (Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer both won in 17 straight years), but one of the longest such streaks.

And Woods does has one more chance to get a PGA Tour win - he's committed to the WGC HSBC Champions in November. For the first time this year, the winner of the HSBC Championship will be credited with an official PGA Tour victory. So Woods' streak isn't quite dead yet, but it's barely hanging on.

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