Tiger Woods vs Jack Nicklaus: Who Is the Best Golfer Ever?
Woods is Great, but a Little Perspective is Needed
One of the current arguments over the best ever concerns golf: Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus?
Woods' victory in the British Open this past summer gives him 11 major professional titles to 18 for Nicklaus. Actually I feel, and so do a lot of golfing experts, that Nicklaus has 20 major titles, including two U.S. Amateur titles. Woods won the U.S. Amateur three times, so he be only 6 major titles behind Nicklaus, not 7.
Be that as it may, a case can be made for either man, but I still come down on the side of Nicklaus, at least pending the end of woods' career by which time he may have made all the arguments moot or made them ever more heated.
I have no argument with those who feel Woods is the best (he may very well be), but I ask them to consider some history and some context.
And I do that, not by talking about the records of Woods and Nicklaus (they are eerily similar at the same age), but the records of those Wood is competing against now and those Nicklaus competed against in the past. I don't think Woods has faced the quality of competition for the top spot that NIcklaus did.
Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Hale Irwin and Raymond Floyd. Those men are all hall of famers or will be. They are the men Nicklaus competed against throughout his career. When he came up, it immediately became the :"the big three" of Nicklaus, Palmer and Player. Arnold Palmer has 7 major titles, Player has 9. Later on, Nicklaus had to go through Irwin, Floyd, Watson and Trevino to win major titles. Those four men have 21 major titles between them.
The top two competitors for Woods in recent years have been Ernie Els and Phil Mickelson. Both have three major titles and and probably will be hall of famers. However, no serious golf historian would ever mention either of them in the same breath with Trevino, Watson, Floyd or Irwin, let alone Palmer or Player.
Many have argued that Woods is so good that no one else has a chance to be a Trevino or Watson. That may be, but when Woods has faltered (he's only human, he doesn't win every major) no one else has stepped forward. The majors not won by Woods have been mostly won by a succession of good golfers, who had their moment in the sun and then quickly faded away. There is certainly no Palmer, Player, Watson or Trevino in the bunch.
You can say, and I would agree, that the last player on the PGA tour now is better than the last player when NIcklaus started. In other words, the tour is stronger top to bottom. However, I believe there is no way you can argue that the top ten golfers now are as good as the top ten faced by NIcklaus throughout the majority of his career.
Having said all this, Woods is phenomenal and that word may not be strong enough. He intimidates the opposition and when he's on top of the leader board on Sundays, no one seems to step forward to challenge him. NIcklaus was feared too, but again, those names I mentioned above did not back off as many seem to be doing now.
NIcklaus played in 154 major tournaments. He finished in the top three in 48 of them, nearly one third. Woods has finished in the top three in one third of those he's played so far, but Nicklaus finished in the top three for one third of his career, despite not being in contention all that much in the last 20 years. Woods may win more majors than Nicklaus,l but if he plays, as Nicklaus did, past his 60th birthday, it will be very tough to match Nicklaus' overall record of excellence in major events.
This is all interest for water cooler talk and may mean nothing ten years from now, but it does continue to amaze me how quickly some people forget some things. A year or so again, AOL and the Discovery Channel ran a telephone poll asking Americans to vote on the greatest American ever. Ronald Reagan won the poll. I consider Ronald Reagan a great man, but I would never, and more importantly not historian would ever, place him above the presidentials giants of Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt. But Reagan had passed away shortly before the poll was taken and his name was very much in the news.
Woods deserves every accolade he is given, but I think something similar is happening now. He's very much in the headlines. Nicklaus's day is past, but certainly should not be forgotten. Let's wait awhile and see what happens.
Published by JOHN SNYDER
I WAS A SPORTSCASTER FOR OVER 20 YEARS, DOING MAJOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL AND BASKETBALL. I WAS A CORRESPONDENT FOR FIVE YEARS AT BC NEWS IN NEW YORK. I HAVE ALSO WORKED AT CNBC AND MSNBC. I CURRENTLY ANCHOR NEWS... View profile
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29 Comments
Post a CommentIt's pretty obvious that the comments from ted smith,steven g and john miller are all the same person. YOU ARE A BIG LOSER. Why don't you just leave your comment and let people judge instead of saying that you agree with these other comments which we all know are YOU, using different names. What an idiot. It's also an abuse to this website.
Don't you get it, it can't be figured out. These top players would have to play TOGETHER all in their primes with the same equipment. The statistical breakdowns from all the comments here are interesting but you're not seeing the big picture. It can't be measured. If somebody had more than 18 majors back in Jack's day, Jack would've had a chance to catch it. Jack was way ahead of the pack and had the best of both worlds between family and golf(not to mention his business) and had no special motivation to reach a higher number. Some would say that you always shoot for the biggest margin but he had an opportunity to have this balanced life instead and still hold the record by far. If somebody was a few majors ahead he would've changed his schedule and reached deep like the champion he was. That's what he would do if Tiger were ahead of him. That's the story folks. Can't be measured, PERIOD.
In terms of majors, Nicklaus and Woods both entered 56 over their first fifteen years. On a 10-8-6-4-2 skill point per entry basis for the first five finishing positions, Nicklaus had a 4.64 average, Woods 3.75. Each era had 46 "different" winners, so the talent depth is about the same.
you can't judge who will win because they will never play eachother at the prime in their lives, nor can you electronically "simulate" a match between the two because statistics are just a number they can never predict an out come its just a prediction, just like the giants and patriots in the superbowl, statistically the patriots were a better team, but the giants threw the stats to the side and gave their all and pulled off a win, what im saying is, stats are just a piece of paper with numbers on it, so you can't come out and say who will win. Rhett-13
I think Jack is better because he had better competion in his prime (Watson, Arnie, Gary Player, Peter Thomson, Johnny Miller, Lee Trevino) than Tiger has had (Phill Mickelson, um..Vjay Singh..um..... Jack had to beat better rivals more often than Tiger has had to do and that should make Jack better.
u cant have tiger woods vs jack nicklous because u play the course not ur opponent.u cant say one of them would win 65% of the time cos it depends wat course its on. and even then u still cant say wether tiger would beat jack or jack would beat tiger.
Actually, Steven G is not correct. Jack played against more black players than Tiger has. Charley Sifford, Calvin Peete, Lee Elder, Jim Thorpe and Pete Brown were all playing in Jack's time. How many black golfers are there today?
There's one sure golden rule in sports. There is no winner until the competition is over. In this case it never even happened. Jack and Tiger never played against each other in their primes and never will. You can't say that Tyson would've beaten Ali(Ali would've had too much reach on him anyway). You can't say that the patriots are the best team ever(that's a joke anyway,no team that's the best ever wins by only 3 points in all their superbowls,not a powerhouse team if you're talking about best of all time,either Dallas or Pittsburgh). Most Tiger fans have never watched Jack's tournament reruns, therefore foolish to say Tiger is the best ever. If Tiger was old and Jack was new and young, people would be saying Jack's the best ever. Truth is, we'll never know. Honestly, Jack was mentally stronger and was better at closing the deal. Sorry for all of you Tiger fans but if I had to guess, I'ld have to say Jack would've won 65% of the time.
No argument- the best ever was Bobby Jones. 13 majors. 1 Grand -Slam never done before or since.. Ret. before 30 years old from competative golf.
i agree that making comparisons is difficult, but have you thought about how quickly golf has become a global sport. tiger is facing the world like no other great champion before him? have you considered that tigers dominance may be so great that he has lowered most golfers expectations? do you see any golfer today entering expecting to win like tiger? they all seem beaten before they begin. i have never seen anything like this in sports before.