End of Tiger's Tour streak won't detract from legacy

	If Tiger Woods had taken the Match Play last weekend, he could've tied Byron Nelson's record of 11 straight titles at Augusta. Robert Beck/SI
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It's too bad Tiger Woods had his PGA Tour winning streak end at seven last week in Arizona. It means we'll miss the debate about whether his streak was comparable to Byron Nelson's famous run of 11 straight victories in 1945.

Woods, as you know unless you've been in a sensory deprivation tank for eight months, competed in several overseas events that he didn't win during this period. Even Woods considered his streak over, although he admitted he had a PGA Tour streak of seven going and was proud enough of it that he said it probably ranked among his top five accomplishments.

Well, let's not let the results ruin a good debate. If Woods had gotten to 11, should his streak have replaced Byron's as the official record? No way, said golf historian and book publisher Martin Davis, a dyed-in-the-wool traditionalist. Not only does the stretch by Woods not qualify in the category of consecutive wins, Davis said, it is spread over two years -- a no-no to him.

"The records we look at are yearly records," Davis said. "DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak was in the course of a year. Babe Ruth's 60 home runs in a year. Ted Williams hit .406 in a year. Mickey Mantle didn't say, look, if you took my batting average from the middle of August to the middle of May, I was the last man to bat .400. We use annual records.

"Tiger wasn't threatening Byron's record and Tiger has as much admitted that," Davis added. "It was a Tiger streak, not a Byron streak. I wouldn't have put an asterisk on it. I just would've called it Tiger's record. This was very much like the Tiger Slam. It was an incredible thing for Tiger to hold all four major titles at once but it was over two years. It wasn't a Grand Slam. Look at the Miami Dolphins, who went 17-0 that one season. If another team won 18 games in a row over two seasons, does that mean they broke the Dolphins' record? Of course not."

This was the second time Woods made a run at Byron's streak. The first time, he got to six in a row and charged near the lead at Torrey Pines in San Diego. Then Phil Mickelson chipped in on the back nine, heated up and pulled away for the victory. This time, Tiger was well-positioned to seriously challenge 11 in a row. Last weekend's Accenture World Match Play Championship would've been No. 8, if he'd won instead of getting eliminated by Nick O'Hern in the third round.

His next likely appearances would've been at Bay Hill (he's made that into an annuity by winning it four times), Doral (he's won the last two) and the Masters (he's donned the green jacket four times). That would've been No. 11, theoretically. It was realistic, but the Match Play is an unpredictable wild card.

In fact, it's getting tougher all the time to compare golf records. The money list has long since ceased to have any meaning due to the exponential increases in prize money over the last decade. The records are a little fuzzy, too. One of Nelson's 11 wins came in a two-ball event with his partner Jug McSpaden. Would we really count a two-man team event in that streak today? Another Nelson win came in Montreal.