After just one tournament away, Tiger Woods is back in action this week as the PGA Tour FedEx Cup Playoffs begin with the Northern Trust at TPC Boston, a venue that has been very kind to the two-time FedEx Cup champ.

However, despite his success at TPC Boston, which includes a victory, history is actually against Tiger Woods winning this golf tournament.

Tiger Woods has played very well at TPC Boston

This week’s Northern Trust will be the 11th tournament in which Tiger Woods has teed it up at TPC Boston, which is actually located closer to Providence than Boston in the small town of Norton, Massachusetts. But that’s clearly not the point here.

Tiger Woods has had a ton of success at TPC Boston. In his first five starts there from 2003 to 2007, Woods claimed a victory, two ties for second, and a tie for seventh. Tiger has played TPC Boston a total of 10 times, making the cut every time. In 40 rounds, the 82-time PGA Tour winner has a scoring average of 68.30 and has shot a combined 108-under par.

In his most recent start there, which came at the 2018 Dell Technologies Championship, a tournament that no longer exists as it was the casualty of the FedEx Cup Playoffs being cut from four tournaments to three, Tiger Woods finished tied for 24th at 7-under, nine shots behind winner Bryson DeChambeau.

The PGA Championship knocked Tiger Woods from the top 15 in the Official World Golf Ranking

When the PGA Tour resumed its season after a three-month shutdown, Tiger Woods was ranked No. 11 in the Official World Golf Ranking. The rankings had been frozen when the tour shut down following the first round of The Players Championship and resumed after the completion of the Charles Schwab Challenge.

Naturally, as Tiger continued to skip tournament after tournament as the restart went along, not playing until the Memorial, his ranking dropped. Following his T-40 finish at Muirfield Village, Woods was ranked No. 14. A tie for 37th at the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park dropped him another two spots to No. 16, which actually plays into this week’s Northern Trust at TPC Boston.

11 of 16 winners at TPC Boston have come from the top 15 in the Official World Golf Ranking

While he’s had past success at TPC Boston, history is actually against Tiger Woods winning the Northern Trust this week.

Of the 16 tournaments played there, 11 winners have come from the top 15 in the Official World Golf Ranking, including Tiger Woods himself, who was the No. 1 player in the world when he won at TPC Boston in 2006. The only other world No. 1 win to win at the venue was Rory McIlroy in 2012. So the chances of Jon Rahm picking up a victory this week seem to be a little low as well. So you see why it’s so important to be ranked in the top 15 this week.

Okay, so the world ranking thing is likely just a bit of a coincidence as the top players in the world are usually in attendance when the PGA Tour comes to TPC Boston but the odds actually aren’t with Tiger Woods this week anyway. He’s nowhere near the top of the favorites list heading into the Northern Trust at 45-1.