Clearly, Woods has a larger number of legitimate competitors to worry about each week than Nicklaus did. For those paying attention, some interesting parallels existed between Tiger Woods in 2020 and Jack Nicklaus in 1986 as we entered this week. Now, you can make two counterpoints to that statement the same ones people use to defend Serena Williams against similar criticism. Some might argue that no one else took home the trophies during Tigers reign because he was winning all of them. Even with those impressive numbers, he still cant compete with Nicklaus. Tiger Woods vs. Jack Nicklaus - Tiger Woods News My naming this group of players as Tigers competition, all of whomhappen to bePGA Tour winners, is not to say that these players are comparable to Palmer, Player, Trevino, etc. Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus are the two greatest golfers to have competed in major championships. . How Jack Nicklaus' sixth Masters win aged 46 tops Tiger Woods - CNN This cut streak will likely never be broken again. 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. 1965 Greater Greensboro Open (52) Jack Nicklaus. Jack Nicklaus vs. Tiger Woods Stats | More Sports - TigerDroppings An incredible achievement for both are their major wins, Nicklaus currently is in the lead with 18 major titles. after undergoing surgery on his right ankle, withdrew during the rain-delayed third round, List of Tigers injuries through the years. The question of who is the greatest golfer of all time comes down to two men: Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. Open Championship Victory. THE MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED, DISTRIBUTED, TRANSMITTED, CACHED OR OTHERWISE USED, EXCEPT WITH THE PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION OF DISCOVERY GOLF, INC. 2023 DISCOVERY GOLF, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, Masters 2020: The parallel stats between Jack Nicklaus in 1986 and Tiger Woods in 2020 are nothing short of eerie, How to watch the Masters on TV and streaming online, Ranking every golfer in the Masters field, 50 defining moments in Masters history, ranked, Never say neverAn oral history of Tiger's dramatic 2019 Masters victory, How Tiger Woods plays every hole at Augusta National, 9 things Augusta National doesnt want to talk about, The most memorable rules issues in Masters history, A completely unscientific ranking of 10 Masters traditions, The 13 best B characters in Masters history. Especially in his case. At this stage, not even Woods knows whether Humpty Dumpty can be put back together again. But theres been nobody as good as Tiger. RELATED: Catch up on every important shot from Saturday at Augusta with our minute-by-minute live updates. We talk quite a bit, Nicklaus said. So heres how these two legends faired in major championships in their respective careers. In 1963, Jack became, at 23, the youngest to win the Masters. 11. Who is the GOAT in golf? Woods won 77 tournaments in 300 starts. Nobody ever flew higher than Tiger. "I feel very bad for Tiger. While five players have won the Players twice (Woods included), Nicklaus is the only player to win the Tours flagship event three times, doing so in the events first 5 years. However, maybe just statistically, certain people might be inclined towards Nicklaus. Of those two players, neither won a major when he was older than 33. 1, 2 and 3-ranked players in the world share the lead after 36 holes, which is the first time the top three ranked players in the world are tied at the top of any major ever. Of course, Tiger Woods is still active, which leaves the G.O.A.T. As of 2019, Tiger Woods has won 82 PGA Tour events, while Jack Nicklaus has won 73. Jacks best four-year runs were 22 (from 1970-73) and 17 (from 1964-67). I play a lot of golf. Sign up for the For The Win newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning. United States on the 19th tee during the Paynes Valley Cup on September 22, This is an astonishing success rate! For some people, its as simple as this. The only leaderboard that matters is the one on the 72nd hole. Stats incredible: Tiger Woods' 40 greatest numerical records Hes a very motivated and dedicated young man to continue to play the game of golf., Nicklaus added of the 47-year-old golfer, whose body has been through the ringer: The dedicated young doesnt last very long.. Thats not an indictment of Tiger. Yang and Michael Campbell. Nicklaus is 1-1 as a U.S. captain in the Ryder Cup and 2-1-1 leading the Americans in the Presidents Cup. Nicklaus has played in six, with a 1783 record. There has been a critical error on this website. There are any number of ways to compare Woods and Nicklaus. Tiger had 15 such tournaments in the 2000s (counting the two events he missed with injury). Thats about as good an explanation for why Woods agreed to go under the knife yet again as weve heard to date. He wouldnt be having the operations if he wasnt interested in wanting to continue to play, Nicklaus said. After all, there werent many majors to be had when Woods was taking seven in three years. He took the PGA Tour to a whole new level and continues to make many golfers absolutely filthy rich because of all the money Tiger brought into the game. Copyright 2023 Endgame360 Inc. All Rights Reserved. With every passing year, however, the Tiger Slam becomes more and more remarkable. While Nicklaus has the slight advantage on the course, Woods has the upper hand off of it (scandal and injuries aside). Nicklaus had won the 1971 PGA, played in February as a concession to the South Florida heat, then added the 1972 Masters and U.S. Open titles. 1959 Colonial National Invitational (46) arnold palmer. Some fun stats, for sure. 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. Yes, Nicklaus has more major championships in golf, but Woods has won more tournaments. He won 27 overall tournaments from 1999-2002 and then 25 tournaments from 2005-2008. I think wed all like to see him play, Sorenstam said. Back in the late 2000s, the question around Tiger Woods didn't feel like "if" he would break Jack Nicklaus's 18 majors. My short games great. Those were stunning achievements that set the standard until Tiger arrived and did it even better. Is that because Nicklaus game was at a lower level that allowed the other top-ranked players to catch him? Finishing as a runner-up or in the Top-5 of a major is also considered a good result. The longtime CBS producer, hailed as the father of televised golf, was right, of course. There were the brutal struggles after that which led many to wonder why he was even trying to come back at all. Clearly Tiger Woods has more competition on a whole to worry about, but Nicklaus appears to have had more direct competition. While both have had to face quality competition to get their wins, Id have to side with Tigers era being deeper than Nicklaus era. 2020 on the Paynes Valley course at Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Missouri. But, looking at the other side of the coin, no one has really stepped up to consistently challenge Woods the way Palmer, Player, Trevino, Casper, and Watson challenged Nicklaus. Please check your email for a confirmation. (Forget all the talk of four wins you hear on television no one ever sets out to tie a record.) Nicklaus made just $5,734,031, placing him 338th. And then theres the money element. Despite his thrilling 2019 Masters victory, Tiger's 45th trip around the sun is a reminder that he will almost certainly not reach the ever-elusive 19-major championship mark to best Jack. In 1991, a 15-year-old Tiger Woods was the subject of his first Sports Illustrated profile. Like it or not, there are many who root against Woods because of his philandering, and that undoubtedly will affect how he's remembered. Who has more major wins: Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus? GOLF DIGEST MAY EARN A PORTION OF SALES FROM PRODUCTS THAT ARE PURCHASED THROUGH OUR SITE AS PART OF OUR AFFILIATE PARTNERSHIPS WITH RETAILERS. You can pick any player from any point in their career. Who is your ultimate GOAT? Granted, Woods is too young and too busy to have such a global golf footprint, but it feels safe to say that 20 years from now we'll still be debating who was the greater golfer, but there won't be an argument about golf's best ambassador. Is Tiger Woods or Jack Nicklaus the GOAT in Golf? - Sportscasting Ernie Els and Vijay Singh are the only two other golfers to capture at least three majors. 1, Player No. 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. They shrunk in the spotlight. RIDGEDALE, MISSOURI SEPTEMBER 22: Jack Nicklaus talks to Tiger Woods of the The man with the most major championships is the greatest golfer in history. When Tiger was 24 he completed the career Grand Slam at the 2000 Open Championship, two years ahead of the age that Jackwas when he completed the feat in 1966, also at the Open Championship. Sign up for the For The Win newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning. Jack finished higher 38 times to Tiger's 22, with the twogreats tying four times. But he wont need to top Jacks 18 to pass him as the greatest; given the circumstances, if he can win two more majors and, say, eight more tournament titles, itd be hard to say he was second-best to anyone. One interesting fact is Woods has three more majors than any other player and five more than anyone who has played in the last 60 years. But you dont want to see anybody in pain. Tiger shot 68-71 to sit at five under par after 36 holes. Tiger has been the rare athlete to live up to unimaginable hype, be brought back down by scandal and injury and then absolutely crushing all the expectations (and doubts) in historic fashion. If we review the above. Both golfers have been instrumental in the tours success, making golf a household name. If you accept that golfers are only measured by their performance in the biggest events, its a slam-dunk argument. Tiger, in defense of his 2019 Masters title, sat 33rd . Tiger Woods Explains the Raw Feeling of Winning a Major Championship: Catapults Nicklaus main competitors won 29 percent of all major championships played during the prime of Nicklaus career. Tiger Woods has 7 major runners-up finishes and 33 major Top-5 finishes. Jack Nicklaus vs Tiger Woods | The Open's Greatest The Open 120K subscribers Subscribe 8.3K views 11 months ago Tiger and Jack need no introduction. While Jack Nicklaus has the most major titles, Tiger Woods has the most overall PGA Tour tournament wins in his career with 82, tied with Sam Snead. In the case of Woods, his unquestionable biggest rival was Phil Mickelson. Opens, three British Opens and five PGA Championships. Tiger won four majors in a row from the 2000 U.S. Open through the 2001 Masters, a Tiger Slam instead of a Grand Slam only because all four wins did not come in the same calendar year. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File) ORG XMIT: NYDD203. 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. We've been debating the Jack Nicklaus vs. Tiger Woods question ever since that historic 1997 Masters and we'll be debating it for decades to come. Masters 2020: The parallel stats between Jack Nicklaus in 1986 and So while both golfers have had incredible careers, it does appear that Tiger Woods has had a slightly more successful run. 4, and Trevino was ranked fifth. But what if we had to have that discussion today? Woods' highs have been greater. Jack Nicklaus is a legend, but like Jordan, his accomplishments were years ago and didnt receive the same amount of media coverage as Tiger Woods. 82. The numbers favor Jack, at least in terms of majors. No predictions for the future or presumed milestones. At various points in his career, Jack won three of six majors (1966 Masters to 1967 U.S. Open) and four of eight (1970 British Open to 1972 U.S. Open).