Tiger’s 82 Winning Shirts

As Woods and Nike part ways, we've likely seen the last of one of sports' most well-known traditions: Woods in a red Nike shirt on Sunday.

Tiger Woods announced Monday his partnership with Nike has come to an end. During 27 years with the brand, Woods was seen 82 times in a Nike-branded shirt -- most often red -- holding up a trophy on a Sunday. (There were three times he didn’t wear red, but we’ll get to that later.) The tradition of the red began with his mother, Kultida, who believes this is “his power color.” What follows is a study of primary shirt colors in all those wins -- in PGA Tour events and major championships. Shirt colors were compiled from photos of each Woods victory, and sorted by hex color into categories: dark red, light red, burgundy and non-red. Only final-round shirts were used, excluding any sweaters, vests or jackets. The most prominent color visible was used when shirts had multiple colors.

Woods has 82 winning shirts.

30 of them were dark red ...

27 were light red ...

22 were burgundy ...

And 3 were non-red colors.

Woods has won 15 majors, second only to Jack Nicklaus.

The shirt colors: 9 dark red, 4 burgundy, 2 light red.

The famous Tiger Slam: 2 burgundy shirts, 2 dark red.

Light red accounted for $31.5M of prize money, most of any color group.

Win No. 1

Win No. 82

'97 Masters

'00 The Open

'01 Players

'05 Doral

'06 The Open

'19 Masters

'99 PGA

'00 U.S. Open

'05 The Open

'96 Vegas

'00 Bay Hill

Dark red: 30

The shade of victory

No shade has been more common than dark red. For perspective, Woods' 30 wins in dark red alone would give him the 16th-most wins in tour history, just ahead of Lee Trevino. Others have tried to mimic Woods. "The best player to ever live when I was growing up wore black pants, a red shirt," Patrick Reed said. "I always thought it would be cool to wear black and red come Sunday."

Yr

Event

Score

'96

WDW/Oldsmobile Classic

-21

'97

Mercedes Championships

-14

'97

Masters

-18

'97

Motorola Western Open

-13

'98

BellSouth Classic

-17

'99

Buick Invitational

-22

'99

Memorial Tournament

-15

'99

Motorola Western Open

-15

'99

PGA Championship

-11

'00

AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

-15

'00

The Open

-19

'01

Masters

-16

'01

Memorial Tournament

-17

'02

U.S. Open

-3

'03

Buick Invitational

-16

'03

Bay Hill Invitational

-19

'04

Accenture Match Play

3 & 2

'05

Buick Invitational

-16

'05

Masters

-12

'05

NEC Invitational

-6

'06

Deutsche Bank Championship

-16

'07

Bridgestone Invitational

-8

'07

PGA Championship

-8

'08

Accenture Match Play

8 & 7

'08

Arnold Palmer Invitational

-10

'08

U.S. Open

-1

'09

Memorial Tournament

-12

'09

Buick Open

-20

'09

BMW Championship

-19

'19

Masters

-13

-13.3

Avg. score

27.2

Avg. age

$889K

Avg. prize money

Light red: 27

The shade of money

Red, no matter the shade, has always been on competitors' minds. Former world No. 1 Luke Donald planned to wear red on the final day of the 2006 PGA Championship. "I knew I was playing with Tiger [on Sunday]. I think if I changed my outfit, it was almost like giving in to him already on the first hole. ... I wasn't trying to make a statement. I thought if I changed, I'd have already lost." Donald shot 74. Woods, in his lighter red look, posted 68 and won.

Yr

Event

Score

'97

Motorola Western Open

-13

'05

Ford Championship at Doral

-24

'06

Buick Invitational

-10

'06

Ford Championship at Doral

-20

'06

The Open

-18

'06

Buick Open

-24

'06

PGA Championship

-18

'06

Bridgestone Invitational

-10

'06

American Express Championship

-23

'07

Buick Invitational

-15

'07

WGC-CA Championship

-10

'07

BMW Championship

-22

'07

Tour Championship

-23

'08

Buick Invitational

-19

'09

Arnold Palmer Invitational

-5

'09

AT&T National

-13

'09

Bridgestone Invitational

-12

'12

Arnold Palmer Invitational

-13

'12

Memorial Tournament

-9

'12

AT&T National

-8

'13

Farmers Insurance Open

-14

'13

Cadillac Championship

-19

'13

Arnold Palmer Invitational

-13

'13

Players Championship

-13

'13

Bridgestone Invitational

-15

'18

Tour Championship

-11

'19

Zozo Championship

-19

-15.1

Avg. score

33

Avg. age

$1.2M

Avg. prize money

Burgundy: 22

The shade of his 20s

A younger Woods seemed to like this shade. Of his 46 wins before turning 30, 21 came in burgundy. Oh, and four of those early wins were majors. More? Half of his four wins during the 2000-01 Tiger Slam happened in burgundy. According to The Wall Street Journal, this era brought change. The collar from Woods' shirt at the 2002 Masters wilted in the heat and led to Nike reengineering the collars to hold up in hot conditions.

Yr

Event

Score

'99

NEC Invitational

-10

'99

National Car Rental Golf Classic

-17

'99

Tour Championship

-15

'99

American Express Championship

-6

'00

Memorial Tournament

-19

'00

U.S. Open

-12

'00

PGA Championship

-18

'00

NEC Invitational

-21

'00

Bell Canadian Open

-22

'01

Bay Hill Invitational

-15

'01

Players Championship

-14

'01

NEC Invitational

-12

'02

Bay Hill Invitational

-13

'02

Masters

-12

'02

Buick Open

-17

'02

American Express Championship

-25

'03

Accenture Match Play

2 & 1

'03

100th Western Open

-21

'03

American Express Championship

-6

'05

The Open

-14

'05

American Express Championship

-10

'07

Wachovia Championship

-13

-14.2

Avg. score

25.5

Avg. age

$902K

Avg. prize money

Non-red: 3

The shade of his first win

So, about those three times he wasn't wearing red ... In 1996, he won his first PGA Tour event in a predominantly white Nike shirt. His 27-under finish at the Las Vegas Invitational was the lowest of his career. Tiger says he still has the giant check from that one hanging in his office. Two other times, both in 2000, he wore predominantly black-and-white shirts for wins. The other 79 wins all came in some version of red.

Yr

Event

Score

'96

Las Vegas Invitational

-27

'00

Mercedes Championships

-16

'00

Bay Hill Invitational

-18

-20.3

Avg. score

22.7

Avg. age

$453K

Avg. prize money

--

Produced by ESPN Creative Studio: Michelle Bashaw, Heather Donahue, Jarret Gabel, Luke Knox, Rami Moghadam and Daniel Pellegrino.

Edited by Nick Pietruszkiewicz.

Illustrations by Dave Merrell.

Related Links

Everything you need to know for The Open

2022 Open news, tee times, schedule and analysis

Who can and cannot win at St. Andrews

All of Tiger Woods' 82 winning Nike shirts

2024-01-07 08:00:00