MS: All eyes on Finau, Rahm; all ears on McIlroy, Green wins three-way playoff at JM Eagle LA, Mexico payout: Rahm sets record before May, Timeline: A look at Tiger's injuries in his career, Tiger announces he's undergone ankle surgery, Day: Screw broke through Tiger's skin at PGA. But then again, I have no way of knowing whether Nicklaus toughest competitors were indeed better than Woods toughest competitors, or whether Woods is that much better than Nicklaus that he has been able to distance himself from players that are equally as good as Nicklaus competitors were. Despite all the numbers, the GOAT debate might never have a conclusion. Having developed an avid interest in sports at an early age, In fairness, playing in Europe wasnt as common in Nicklaus time, but the number is impressive nonetheless. At the majors. When push comes to shove (which never really happens in an argument about the great game of golf, though the chances go up the longer you stay at the 19th hole), I easily have to go with Tiger. Aside from Jack Nicklaus, Player, Casper, Palmer, and Trevino won nearly 18 percent of PGA Tour events. Before Tiger, winners would often get $180,000 for a win. Nicklaus is 1-1 as a U.S. captain in the Ryder Cup and 2-1-1 leading the Americans in the Presidents Cup. Aside from him, there are just two other players with three major wins during the Tiger era: Ernie Els and Vijay Singh. Obviously Woods should not be punished in this comparison for missing tournaments, so they are not counted in this quest to determine whowas more dominant in his era. That Nicklaus was able to keep his average under par for his career after playing so many non-competitive rounds is an underrated and remarkable achievement. During his career, Tiger has seen winners come from Fiji, Spain, Canada, Argentina, Australia, Ireland, Northern Ireland, South Korea, England, Germany, New Zealand and South Africa a United Nations of major champions. But the circumstances of a time and generation do not provide a level playing field. If the debate of GOAT is based solely on major titles, Nicklaus is the winner hands down. 7. A psychology For the casual golf fan, hearing the names Palmer, Player, Trevino, and Casper coupled together as Nicklaus main competitors immediately leads one to believe that Nicklaus faced some of the toughest competition imaginable during his career. Amateurs, putting on his first green jacket or making history with performances so dominant that breaking Jack Nicklaus record of 18 majors seemed like a mere formality. He could make a complete return to form and it still wouldnt guarantee anything. Jacks best streak was 105. With his 24-year-old eldest son Jackie as his caddie, Nicklaus opened with a modest 74 but improved with rounds of 71 and 69 to sit in a tie for ninth going into the final day. At 42, Tiger would need to replicate Mickelsons entire major career to become the all-time leader. He won seven of 11 major championships from the 1999 PGA to the 2002 U.S. Open and then, almost as an afterthought, had a run of four of eight (matching Jacks best) in the majors held in 2005 and 2006. With 18 wins to his name, Nicklaus is currently leading. How big is that task? Is Tigers compressed run of success more impressive? You Into Another Realm. Sign up for the For The Win newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning. Of course, Tiger Woods is still active, which leaves the G.O.A.T. Tiger Woods has 198 top ten finishes with 82 wins and has won $120,954,766 in his career. Tiger has held the outright 36-hole lead 33 times in his Tour career. Of course, Nicklaus won his last major at age 46, and now that Tiger has completed his comeback from golf oblivion, he still has time to catch the Golden Bear. He made the weekend in a record 142-straight tournaments. So, whose career would you rather have, Woods or Nicklaus? Some favor Woods, often recounting his influence on the golf world. After all, there werent many majors to be had when Woods was taking seven in three years. The Golden Bear would have an encore in the 80s, winning threemore majors to bring his total to 18, a number as well known to golfenthusiasts as the batting average of.406 is to baseball lovers. Who do you choose? Nicklaus played against four of the greatest golfers ever and not only won 18 majors but had 19 second-place finishes, proving there was plenty for everyone. Championships monopolize the G.O.A.T. Thru their 55th Major Tournament (Masters, U S Open, British, PGA), here's how they compare: Age - Tiger 33 Jack 33 Wins - Tiger 14 Jack 11 2nd Place - Tiger 5 Jack 11 3rd Place - Tiger 3 Jack 5 Top 10's - Tiger 31 Jack 36 Top 25's - Tiger 44 Jack - 45 Missed Cuts - Tiger 4 Jack 6 Scoring Average - Tiger 70.63 Jack 71.64 In comparison, Phil won his five majors by a combined 10 shots. Clearly, Woods has a larger number of legitimate competitors to worry about each week than Nicklaus did. It basically means that whereas in Nicklaus era the top few players in the world won a significant number of PGA Tour events, in Tiger Woods' era there is far more parity which can be statistically seenin thelower percentage of events won by the top five golfers in the world. Both legends have worked hard for decades, revolutionizing golf in their own way. Woods made more on Tour in one year than Nicklaus did in his entire career 11 times: 1999 ($6,616,585), 2000 ($9,188,321), 2002 ($6,912,625), 2003 ($6,673,413), 2005 ($10,628,024), 2006 ($9,941,563), 2007 ($10,867,052), 2008 ($5,775,000), 2009 ($10,508,163), 2012 ($6,133,158), 2013 ($8,553,439). pic.twitter.com/Qz8D6j7th0, Golf Digest (@GolfDigest) April 5, 2022. Thirty years later, Tiger would do the same before a 28th-place finish at the British ended his chances.). Tiger Woods' epic 2019 Masters win sent the golf world and internet into a frenzy. Both are legends of the game, but who deserves the greatest title? In terms of his golf legacy, Woods' past shouldn't count any more or less than Nicklaus' scandal-free career. All comparisons, he would bellow, referring to those that involved athletes of different generations, are onerous.". This is one argument that will wage for years to come, and I personally dont have the answer to it. pertaining to the NBA as well. The overall win total in tournaments reveals one interesting thingWoods in his prime was better than prime Nicklaus. USE OF AND/OR REGISTRATION ON ANY PORTION OF THIS SITE CONSTITUTES ACCEPTANCE OF OURVISITOR AGREEMENT(UPDATED 1/6/23),PRIVACY AND COOKIES NOTICE(UPDATED 1/4/23) ANDCALIFORNIA PRIVACY NOTICE. Now, a quarter-century later, the two are still inextricably linked, just as they were win Tiger was winning U.S. Woods stands at 15, and his last major title being the 2019 Masters. Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus are arguably the two greatest golfers to ever play the game. Whether he makes the cut or not, he adds to the tournament in so many ways. Thats not an indictment of Tiger. Who has more major wins: Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus? In the 70 majors that Jack played from the 62 Masters tothe 79 U.S. Open, he was out of the top 10 just 16 times while winning 15. Tiger was the ultimate front-runner, winning all 14 of his majors while leading or co-leading entering the fourth round. One has 18 majors, the other 15. Let's review Jack's stats in 1968 compared to Tiger's today: This gives us some idea about the performance of each golfer and how they ranked against the field. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File) ORG XMIT: NYDD203. This cut streak will likely never be broken again. Jason Day said Tiger Woods told him the painful reason that Woods withdrew from last year's PGA Champ. Follow along here. At a Farmers Insurance Open or AndyWilliams Classic as it was called decades ago or any other regular Tourevent, Tiger would've beaten Jack like Jack beat Arnold. You dont want to see anybody, theyre hurting. WATCH THIS STORY: John Daly Announces He Will Be Following His Bizarre Masters Tradition This Year, Full Spectrum Services LLP 2022 | All Rights Reserved. Until that time, Nicklaus holds the advantage in that category. Thats a 23-shot cushion in two majors. But lets get back to the golf and what Tiger has done on the course. Who would go down as the best in history? Tiger was untouchable in the 2000s but its easy to forget that in 2013 he won five times and was the PGA Tours Player of the Year. (Correction: I'm often at golf courses trying to act like I play golf.) Nicklaus dominates Woods in all of the major championships except The Open. Theyre both tied at three titles apiece. Yep the same exact position with Tiger looking to match Jacks record of six Masters titles. Woods withdrew during the rain-delayed third round of this years Masters in April after showing considerable discomfort walking the hills of Augusta National in bad weather. Overall, the current depth of fields and reach of international talent exceeds that in the days of Nicklaus. But what changes that narrative is thisNicklaus finished second in majors 19 times. His rivals were killers too Palmer got him at Cherry Hills, Trevino took him down four different times including on an 18-hole playoff at Merion and Tom Watson won three majors over Nicklaus, all in heartbreaking fashion. While Jack does have more major victories, Tiger still has more PGA Tour wins. Their two greatest Masters moments happened on the final three holes, under the eyes of CBS announcer Verne Lundquist. Nicklaus did still own the advantage in major titles, 18-16, after all. In 2007, aside from Tiger Woods, the remaining members of the worlds top five won just 10 percent of PGA Tour events. He recorded an 18% win rate but had amassed more Top-5s and Top-10s in major championships when compared to Woods. Is that because Nicklaus game was at a lower level that allowed the other top-ranked players to catch him? That was never the case for Tiger. Now, at this very moment you are probably thinking that I have completely lost my mind by naming players such as Hunter Mahan, Stephen Ames, and Chez Reavia as competition comparable to the likes of Palmer, Player, Trevino, Casper, and Watson. The No. Nicklaus had 57 runner-up finishes in his career and 269 top-10s while Woods had 31 runner-up finishes, or 26 behind Nicklaus, and 199 top-10s, 60 less than the Golden Bear. (Tiger became the third.). Finishing as a runner-up or in the Top-5 of a major is also considered a good result. Privacy Policy. One has 82 PGA Tour wins, the other 73. GOLF DIGEST MAY EARN A PORTION OF SALES FROM PRODUCTS THAT ARE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR SITE AS PART OF OUR AFFILIATE PARTNERSHIPS WITH RETAILERS. Because Im comparing majors by the specific number they were in each mans career, I have compared the 1971 PGA, Nicklaus 37th major, with the 2006 Masters, Woods 37th major. Nicklaus had the famous "yes sir!" Back in the late 2000s, the question around Tiger Woods didn't feel like "if" he would break Jack Nicklaus's 18 majors. When he won a greenjacket again in 1965 by nine shots over Palmer and Gary Player (theonly time the Big Three would ever finish in the top three together in amajor), he shaved three strokes off the scoring record of 274 set in 1953 byHogan. And so courageous.. I dont buy that one. Woods might be a few majors short, but he still has time to catch Nicklaus (though the chances of that have greatly decreased since his single-car accident in 2021). Clearly Tiger Woods has more competition on a whole to worry about, but Nicklaus appears to have had more direct competition. But what if we had to have that discussion today? Woods made his debut as a U.S. captain at the 2019 Presidents Cup, where he also played and went 3-0-0. The merits of both are often debated on 19th holes around the country, with the younger players usually siding with Tiger, and vice-versa for Jack. Jack Nicklaus, whose record of 18 majors is looking more safe with every passing day and every injury Woods sustains, prefaced his comments . who shockingly missed the cut at RBC Heritage, Patrick Cantlay drained a hole-in-one at the RBC Heritage and was promptly roasted for his slow pace, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Tiger has excelled in an individual sport during a time when everything he did was examined, celebrated, and critiqued at levels that Nicklaus never even came close to having to deal with. This list of players is simply comprised to show that Tiger Woods is faced a far wider pool of legitimate competitors than Jack Nicklaus faced during his career. As of 2019, Tiger Woods has won 82 PGA Tour events, while Jack Nicklaus has won 73. https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2022/12/24/jack-nicklaus-tiger-woods-pga-tour-career-major-stats/, Mexico, Caribbean, Atlantic islands, Central America, Top 50 Classic Courses in Great Britain & Ireland, Top 50 Modern Courses in Great Britain & Ireland. So that will only add more hope for those rooting for Tiger to earn a 16th major title with a win this week. But back to golf. In the majors with a cutoff of the 2008 U.S. Open, after which Woods began missing tournaments because of injury, Its dead even. Yang, Bob May, Rich Beem and Rocco Mediate. 2023 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, LLC. Of the four, only Yang beat Tiger, taking him down at the 2009 PGA Championship. With every passing year, however, the Tiger Slam becomes more and more remarkable. During the best part of Jack Nicklaus career, his main competitors were Tom Watson, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, and Billy Casper. Five is the career total for legends of the game like Ballesteros and Byron Nelson. Like it or not, there are many who root against Woods because of his philandering, and that undoubtedly will affect how he's remembered. So heres how these two legends faired in major championships in their respective careers. birdie putt in 1986 on No. Part of that was the standard lip service you pay to Nicklaus after winning his tournament, but part of it is knowing only one stat matters. This is where the debate gets interesting and harder to quantify. Terms of Service Both players have outstanding Open. They account for a large amount of success in this aspect, as theyve won a combined 33 major titles together. (Two of Tigers poor final rounds made Ben Curtis and Michael Campbell major champions.) He also had to deal with bigotry, segregation and poverty. Even with those impressive numbers, he still cant compete with Nicklaus. Woods has won 79 PGA Tour events which is second only to Sam Snead's 82 and is already six ahead of Nicklaus. But, Tigerhas also hadto compete against the likes of Rocco Mediate, Boo Weekly, Woody Austin, Hunter Mahan, Chad Campbell, Stephen Ames, J.B Holmes, Johnson Wagner, Ryuji Imada, Anthony Kim, Kenny Perry, and Chez Reavia. Woods has, to this point, only finished second on six occasions. The off-course earnings arent even a comparison. Tiger Woods also has more major championship wins than Jack Nicklaus, with 15 to his name.
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