The Cat
The debate on who the “G.O.A.T.” of golf is can be described in two syllables:
The Cat
Tiger
not Jack
For those who don’t know, the debate about who the greatest golfer of all time falls between two people, Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus.
Many people believe that this argument can be solved by looking at their major championship resumés.
Jack has 18 major championship victories.
Tiger has 15.
Lots of people believe that the conversation should stop there, I’m here to tell you otherwise.
First of all, we need to define the term “greatest”. The problem with the term “greatest” is that it’s very subjective. Different people value different things.
My definition of greatness is focused more on a period of unparalleled dominance, rather than accumulating statistics.
This is best exemplified in the MJ v Lebron debate.
Lebron’s stats will undoubtedly be better than MJ’s but that doesn’t make him greater. Scoring 30 points in meaningless regular season games doesn’t make you the greater player. Showing up in the biggest moments does. Completely dominating your opponent for an extended period of time does.
So let me explain why Tiger is the golf GOAT.
Amateur career
Tiger Woods's amateur career could be his most impressive run of golf, and that’s saying something.
The Cat (that’s what woke golf nerds call Tiger), won 6 USGA events as an amateur. Getting into a USGA event is hard enough in itself, but winning 6 before the age of 21 is unheard of. The USGA (United States Golf Association) sets up the most grueling and physically demanding golf tournaments around the world. While they are known for being the governing body that oversees the rules of golf, they are also known for setting up tournaments that embarrass the best players in the world.
That’s an elaborate way of saying winning 6 of those events is unthinkable.
While winning 6 is impressive, it was the way in which he did it that makes it remarkable.
He won 3 U.S. Junior Amateur Championships (1991-1993) followed by 3 U.S. Amateur Championships (1994-1996). So in a 6-year span, he won the biggest event of the year 6 times. During this time period, he went 42-3 (haha) in USGA matches. He lost in the 1990 semifinals of the U.S. Junior and the round of 32 in the U.S. Amateur in 1992/1993.
If you want to know what greatness is, look no further than going 42-3 in USGA matches. That might be the most impressive athletic feat of all time, not kidding.
Let me tell you the format of these events that should make the level of difficulty a bit more obvious.
First, you must qualify for the event (top 50 players in the amateur rankings, or go through a qualifier, if you try and qualify it’s normally 90 people playing for 2 spots).
You must then survive the 36-hole cut at the event. Sound easy enough? Well, the cut is from 312 players down to 64.
After that, you must win 6 consecutive matches against the best golfers in the world in order to win.
After you win, you need to repeat this process 5 more times.
There are no comparisons to The Cat (outside of Bobby Jones, but he was a career amateur and played in the early 1900s). Jack Nicklaus won 2 of these events during his amateur career.
Oh yeah, he also won 11 out of 26 starts in college. Not bad.
Advantage: Tiger
Tiger-Slam
There has only been one golfer after the year 1872 to win 4 consecutive major championships. That golfer is named Tiger Woods.
He won those 4 tournaments by a total of 25 (yes, you read that right) shots.
That is greatness.
To contextualize how difficult it is to win 4 majors over an entire career, there have been only 29 men in the history of the game to do it. But to do it over 4 tournaments is something that we will never see again.
His 15-shot win during the 2000 U.S. Open is widely considered the greatest golf tournament performance of all time. He somehow outdid himself by deciding to win the next 3 majors right after.
Advantage: Tiger
Win streak
Winning consecutive starts on the PGA Tour is a really difficult thing to do. Byron Nelson won 11 (!) starts in a row in 1945. Impressive, but a flawed stat. Similar to Wilt Chamberlain, the golf stats from 1930-1960 aren’t fair to compare to the modern era of golf, well except for Tiger.
After 1948 there have been 3 golfers who have won 5 starts in a row on the PGA Tour…
Tiger in 2007-2008 (5 in a row)
Tiger in 1999-2000 (6 in a row)
Tiger in 2006-2007 (7 in a row)
Is that any good? Since he has done this, the record for most consecutive tournaments won is 3 (Dustin Johnson + Rory McIlroy).
Jack’s record for wins in a row is 3 (Tiger has done this twice).
Advantage: Tiger
Cut streak
For the casual golf fan, missing an occasional cut can seem like no big deal, or something that’s bound to happen. After all, you are destined to have a bad week every now and then when your game doesn’t show up.
This wasn’t the case for The Cat. The Cat made 142 consecutive cuts in a row. That means, for 142 tournaments in a row, he was in the top 65 out of 140 after two rounds. Unbelievable.
From February 1998 to May 2005 he missed 0 cuts. So for 7 years, he never had a week poor enough to be outside of the top half of the field.
Jack’s record for consecutive cuts made is 105.
It should be noted that all of these shortcomings that Jack has compared to The Cat are still absurdly good.
Advantage: Tiger
Major Championships
Jack holds the advantage in the majors. As I said earlier, Jack has 3 more majors than Tiger, but it doesn’t end there.
Jack’s performance in the majors that he didn’t win is what takes the argument over the top.
Jack has 19 runner-up finishes in majors compared to Tiger’s 7. Jack showed up for the big events.
That’s greatness.
I should add that Jack played in 78 more majors than Tiger, which adds up to 19.5 seasons (Tiger lost a great chunk of his prime to injury/sex addiction).
Advantage: Jack
PGA Tour wins
Tiger: 82
Jack: 73
Advantage: Tiger
Conclusion
The Tiger v Jack argument will likely never be solved. The boomers think that Jack was the greatest to ever do it. The Millennials/GenZers think that Tiger was the greatest. That’s the funny thing about sports arguments… they’re all biased toward the era that you watched. And that’s also why we will never come to a conclusion that people can agree on.