New Post: #7 Feature Friday

Hi Friends

Frustrating, annoying, disappointing, abject, saddening, disheartening and depressing.

Anyway enough about my golf game,

Let’s talk about who is the GOAT of Golf.

(Greatest Of All Time - for those in the back seats)

It’s an debate heard in Clubhouses all over the world and there are ever only two names in the hat, Tiger and Jack.

Although there is an argument that this guy is actually the greatest ever….

Now in all seriousness there are only 2 real candidates and it seems people seem to side on whoever’s generation they fall into. I’m a big Tiger fan (my son has two middle names and one of them is Tiger!) but then I was starting to take a real interest in Golf in the late Nineties when he was at his imperious best,

But let’s look at some facts and records and see if that helps,

Here is a head to head in the majors,

(the graphic is from 2020 so not 100% up to date but a good visual of their major careers)

Jack has won more majors so he is the best right? 18 to 15. He also has far more runner up finishes 19 to 7.

Seems straight forward,

But people will normally at this point talk about strength of field and how in Jacks day there were less real contenders.

Some of Jacks contemporaries,

Gary Player, Arnold Player, Tom Watson, Hale Irwin, Raymond Floyd, Tony Jacklin…

Some of Tigers contemporaries,

Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, David Duval, Phil Mickleson, Davis Love, Padraig Harrington…

What do you think? who had it harder?

Then there are some of the other records that Tiger holds that are……….well incredible.

Continuously held the No. 1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking for more than five years on two separate occasions. Tiger spent 683 weeks atop the OWGR. Greg Norman is second at 331.

Broke Byron Nelson’s longstanding record for the lowest single-season scoring average (68.15) in PGA Tour history.  He had very few bad days that year. He didn’t have many mediocre ones, either.

Simultaneously held the 72-hole scoring record at all four major championships in the early 2000s. Think about that for a moment. Only five guys have won all four majors, period. To do it by playing the game at a level no one has ever reached, that’s beyond impressive.

Made the cut at 142 consecutive PGA Tour events, a streak that lasted almost 7 ½ years. Testimony to Woods’s unparalleled mental toughness, week after week, year after year.

So all said and done, I think if you go on majors then the greatest has to be Jack.

But Tiger was probably the most dominant golfer in his time.

Is that fair enough? To be honest there probably isn’t really an answer to this question,

Lets just say they are both absolute legends of the game, standing above all others.

Interviews with Club Champions back next week, hoping to have someone that has won 13 Club Championships and is only 37 years old.

Happy Golfing,

JT/Jerry