Fans will argue Woods played against better competition, which gives him an edge seeing as he won nine more PGA Tour and 32 more European Tour events. When Tiger won the 1997 Masters his score of 270 broke by. To be honest, there is really no one particular aspect that can crown a golfer as the GOAT. There are always different sets of statistics to look into. When Tiger won the 1997 Masters his score of 270 broke by one shot therecord that Jack had set in his 1965 rout. With 18 wins to his name, Nicklaus is currently leading. 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. Mickelson hasn't, and neither has Els. One has 82 PGA Tour wins, the other 73. Tiger Woods is out indefinitely after announcing Wednesday that he underwent another surgery on his injured right leg. In 2000, other than Tiger Woods, the remainder of the top-five ranked players in the world won 11 percent of PGA Tour events. But you dont want to see anybody in pain. As far as individual major tournament statistics go, over the span of time it took both Jack and Tiger to reach their first 14 major victories, the comparison looks like this: Jack: 55. Overall, the current depth of fields and reach of international talent exceeds that in the days of Nicklaus. 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). I think hes in more pain than he lets everybody know. 1959 Colonial National Invitational (46) arnold palmer. Then theres Tiger, who never had a Sunday showdown with any of the modern greats. In comparison, Jack Nicklaus' 36-hole outright conversion rate was 63. Despite all the numbers, the GOAT debate might never have a conclusion. Yang and Michael Campbell. When he won a greenjacket again in 1965 by nine shots over Palmer and Gary Player (theonly time the Big Three would ever finish in the top three together in amajor), he shaved three strokes off the scoring record of 274 set in 1953 byHogan. Woods has always been a front-runner finisher, winning 14 of his 15 majors while leading or co-leading entering the fourth round. An important stat is their Masters win, where Woods is just one win away from Nicklaus record. Woods made his debut as a U.S.. Championships monopolize the G.O.A.T. At his best Tiger might have the slightest edge over Jack in the majors during this time period,but the majority of the time even these two weren't at their best and inthat case Jack was easily the winner. Sign up for the For The Win newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning. 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. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images). Rather, it felt like a matter of "when." Following Woods' 2008 win over . 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. From 1963 to 1979, Nicklaus played in 17 Masters, won five titles and had 14 top-10 finishes. With his 24-year-old eldest son Jackie as his caddie, Nicklaus opened with a modest 74 but improved with rounds of 71 and 69 to sit in a tie for ninth going into the final day. Mixed in there was the Tiger Slam his streak of four-straight majors which will likely serve as the lead on his sports obituary. And I know Nicklaus had Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, and many others but Tigers time, especially over the last 10 years, has been much more competitive. Jack Nicklaus on Tiger Woods: 'He's the Best' | Golf Channel Well, guess what: Back in 1986, Nicklaus' position was wait for it T-17. Tiger won the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach by 15 shots and followed it up a month later by shooting 19-under at the Old Course to win the British Open by eight strokes. Home If you accept that golfers are only measured by their performance in the biggest events, its a slam-dunk argument. Back in the late 2000s, the question around Tiger Woods didn't feel like "if" he would break Jack Nicklaus's 18 majors. 14 best photos of Tiger Woods' first day at the 2023 Masters Tournament, Ranking every NFL team's 2023 draft class from 32 (sorry, 49ers) to 1 (whoa, Colts), Kentucky Derby 2023: post position draw results and morning line odds, Ranking all 32 current NHL away jerseys, from worst to best, The Brewers' Willy Adames got ejected after a blatantly spiteful sequence from umpire Adam Beck, 13 Winners (Bill Belichick!) Hes never been challenged in the fourth round and hes never come from behind to challenge for a major title. 1965 Greater Greensboro Open (52) Jack Nicklaus. But back to golf. 1986 Masters (46) ben hogan. 2, Casper No. One more insane Nicklaus stat: From the 1970 British Open through the 1978 British Open, he finished in the top 10 in 31 of 33 majors. I think its a lot more serious. At 42, Tiger would need to replicate Mickelsons entire major career to become the all-time leader. As Woods is currently preparing for the 2022 Masters, lets take a look at their major wins, along with some other stats. This is an astonishing success rate! And even though it's 2013 and the Nicklaus brand is mostly forgotten, I've seen a Golden Bear logo more recently than a TW logo. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images for Paynes Valley Cup). But he is so tough. If hedoes, it would be to the sports utter delight. 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. Tiger Woods has 198 top ten finishes with 82 wins and has won $120,954,766 in his career. That's more than one stroke better than Nicklaus' per-round average of 71.98. 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. 2023 Is Tigers compressed run of success more impressive? WATCH THIS STORY: John Daly Announces He Will Be Following His Bizarre Masters Tradition This Year, Full Spectrum Services LLP 2022 | All Rights Reserved. Ofthe 64 majors Tiger has played as a professional, hes finished outside ofthe top 10 some 26 times while winning 14. My short games great. The question of who is the greatest golfer of all time comes down to two men: Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. Aside from him, there are just two other players with three major wins during the Tiger era: Ernie Els and Vijay Singh. Who has won the most tournaments all-time? Then last April, Tiger turned back the clock and won the Masters, leaving fans in tears as he pumped his fist on the 18th green Sunday afternoon at Augusta National. This cut streak will likely never be broken again. I think wed all like to see him play, Sorenstam said. Tigers run through the 2000s was must-see TV and man did he know how to put on a show and rise to the occasion often in dramatic fashion when the whole world was watching. At the time, we knew it was spectacular even as it felt routine. Tiger was untouchable in the 2000s but its easy to forget that in 2013 he won five times and was the PGA Tours Player of the Year. Open Championship Victory. The last category to compare Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus is the level of competition each player faced on a weekly basis.