Phil Mickelson? Nope.
Ernie Els? Not a chance.
Vijay Singh? Vijay who?
Rory Sabbatini? Only in Rory's dreams.
Ian Poulter? Ha!Ha! That's funny.
So who, then?
Jack Nicklaus. The Golden Bear is Tiger's only competition. And even that contest is starting to look like a mismatch.
With his victory last week at the Accenture Match Play, Tiger cleared the biggest hurdle he faced in having a season of historical proportions. Match play is very fickle, and a player can lose even if he plays great golf. Tiger nearly lost on Wednesday to JB Holmes, made an amazing comeback, and went on to win the whole thing. He made almost every putt he needed to make. He has an amazing ability to perform at his highest level when the pressure is the greatest.
At the beginning of this PGA season, Tiger stated several times that he thought he could win the Grand Slam this year. People were shocked, because Tiger almost never makes such statements. Through three events in 2008 (2 PGA Tour victories, 1 in Dubai), Tiger has made an even larger statement with his golf clubs.
I would argue that Tiger, right now, is the best golfer ever. People say he has to pass Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 majors before laying claim to that title, but I disagree. When Tiger turned professional, people were convinced that no one would ever approach Jack's records. The fields were too deep, the players too talented, for someone to win enough major tournaments to approach Jack's mark. Well, Tiger is now 32, and he has 13 majors and 63 career victories. By the time he's 33 (late December), he could have 16 (or 17) majors and over 70 career victories. At this point, I don't think anyone would be shocked if he won the Grand Slam. Personally, I wouldn't be shocked if he didn't lose a tournament at all. I don't think he'll go undefeated, because that would require a lot of good fortune to go along with his talent, but I wouldn't be shocked if he did. He's just that good.
Tiger's chase of Jack is great theater, mostly because Jack won't choke away any of his 18 majors with Tiger behind him. He is the leader in the clubhouse, but the better golfer has just made the turn and has Jack in his sights. It's only a matter of time until Tiger passes Jack in the history books.
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2 comments:
There's Bobby Jones, and the Grand Slam thing. Jones is probably the greatest golfer of the 20th century, despite the press having the myopic view of thinking greatness in golf is only achieved by amateurs.
In his time, professional golfers were disdained as little more than common day-laborers. More often than not, at a professional tournament they were not even allowed to use the clubhouse of the hosting golf club. Walter Hagen once famously sat in a limosine in front of a clubhouse and had a champagne and eggs breakfast served by a butler in order to make his point that it was ridiculous that pros were treated that way. Hagen, by the way, was probably the first pure professional. The Hage didn't teach lessons during the week and play tournaments on the weekends for chump change. He was a full time touring pro, very much the exception in its time.
Back to Jones: 13 victories in 21 tries in the majors. Tiger Woods is not even close. And before you say golf is different, the truth is that the fields back then were solid too, and they were often match play, a very grueling way to win. Then there was the Grand Slam, where Jones won all four majors in a single year, and had a ticker-tape parade in New York for his efforts. He retired from competitive golf at a young age and would have no doubt won more than 20 majors had he kept at it. Instead, he became a full-time lawyer and father and built a club called Augusta National to play with his buddies on the weekend.
Tiger Woods is probably the greatest golfer ever, but even Jack Nicklaus would say that Robert Tyre Jones Junior was his better.
In short, when talking about Woods greatness and comparing him to other greats, any discussion that does not mention Bobby Jones is simply wrong.
Good point, Alpha. I suppose I get caught up in all the comparisons to Nicklaus and forget about Jones.
Even Tiger said after the Accenture that match play is very difficult, because you don't always have a chance to recover from a poor round.
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