"Tiger Woods would have gone down as the Greatest athlete the world had ever seen": Gary Player details what "ruined" 15x Major winner's career
Tiger Woods is already heralded as one of the greatest golfers and athletes ever. Gary Player thinks something he did ruined his career and prevented him from being the easy choice for golf's greatest of all time: he got coaching help from people who weren't as good as Woods.
Player said:
"Tiger Woods had his career ruined. Tiger Woods won 14 majors. The 14th... he won by 15 shots. You know what that's like? It's like running the 100 meters in seven seconds."
He went on to detail that after Woods won his 14th major by such a wide margin (he would go on to add a 15th to his career total as well), he inexplicably sought coaching:
"The next week he's having a lesson from a man who I don't know if he played in the Masters could break 80. Couldn't! But he's having a lesson from this guy. Then he goes to another guy who couldn't break probably 85 in the Masters... Why did Tiger do that?"
Player said he completely understands the desire to get better, but that Woods should have just stayed the course. Without interference or change, he believes Woods would have won at least 22 Majors.
He continued:
"He would have gone down as the greatest athlete the world has ever seen, man or woman, in the planet! But he made the wrong decision. It's very easy to do because we're all trying to get better."
Woods and so many others have coaches, but in Player's eyes, what can a coach who's not nearly as good as the player do to help?
Does Tiger Woods have the most Major wins of all time?
Tiger Woods has 15 major wins. He won The Masters in surprising fashion in 2019 to seemingly cap off his career. However, it is Jack Nicklaus who has the most major wins of all time, with 18 wins over the course of his career.
Gary Player believes Woods could have surpassed that mark, but as it stands, he is in second place. Walter Hagen is in third with 11. As for active players, Woods does have the most. The next-closest player is Phil Mickelson, though he's on a different tour now.