Why is Tiger Woods the greatest of all time?
Golf has definitely seen a lot of great players gracing the game namely Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Gary Player, Bobby Jones, but one player who stands apart from the others who have played the sport is none other than Tiger Woods. The now 41-year-old golf player and former World No. 1 is often considered by critics to be the most successful golfers of all time and has also been the highest-paid athletes in the world for several years.
During the 2000’s, Woods was a World-Beater and was almost untouched. From the period of August 1999 to September 2004 (264 weeks) and again from the period of June 2005 to October 2010 (281 weeks), Woods was the undisputed World Number 1 in PGA Official World Golf Rankings. He has been ranked Number Uno by the same ranking system for a record 683 week, an un-matched and unrivalled achievement.
What makes him GOAT?
Tiger is the richest golfer to have ever graced the game and also until November, 2017 was the Top Sports Earner in Individual Sports with $110,235,682 nominating him instantly to be a legend of the sport he played. Having been World Number One for the most consecutive weeks, he has also won the PGA Player of the Year Award a record eleven times and the Varden Trophy for record eight times.
Further, he has won 14 Golf Majors, a record which is just second best to the 18-time former great Jack Nicklaus. Also, he has won 79 PGA tours which is again only behind Sam Snead who has won for a record 82 times. In addition to all of his mentioned achievements, Tiger Woods is also the second golfer after Nicklaus to have won the Career Grand Slams a record three times. He along with Mcllroy, are the only golfers to win both The Silver Medal and The Gold Medal at The Open Championships. Additionally, he has 18 World Golf Championship to his achievement profile.
Talking about statistics, Woods has the best scoring average in the Masters of 70.86 keeping 50 rounds as base parameters. Woods also holds the Sports Illustrated Publication’s Sportsman of the Year award a record two times. Also, since PGA started tracking records of adjusted scoring average in 1988, Woods holds the top six positions the moment when a player has managed an adjusted scoring average better than 68.6.
There is often a debate amongst Golf fans between Woods and Nicklaus as to who the greatest is. But in my humble opinion, nobody has ever dominated the sport the way Tiger did even though Nicklaus has a better record. Another thing to keep in mind is that Nicklaus had a long career of 24 years.