If anyone has revolutionized golf in the last 25 years, it has undoubtedly been Tiger Woods. Not only for his 14 majors and his other 65 victories, but also for the perfection and spectacularity of his game.
Also known as the Extraterrestrial, he surpasses Jack Nicklaus in total victories, who, however, with his 18 Grand Slam tournament wins, is so far unbeatable in this aspect. On the women’s side, in second place in the ranking of victories in the majors is Mickey Wright, a golf virtuoso who decided to retire definitively from competition when she was only 35 years old and had won no less than thirteen majors. Let’s start with Tiger.
Those times are long gone, 26 years ago, when a very young Tiger jumped into the world golf limelight with his debut on the PGA Tour. It was February 2, 1992, when a slender 16-year-old stripling showed up at the Nissan Open in Los Angeles and signed his first round of 72 strokes in the best professional circuit in the world. Amateur Tiger became the youngest player to play in a PGA Tour tournament. On the second day he shot 75, not enough to make the cut at the Riviera Country Club, in a tournament won by Davis Love III.
The Tiger at the time, a lanky lad who weighed 63 kilos, some 20 kilos less than today, had to ask the tournament’s chief steward for permission to make his first round.
“It was a life-changing moment,” he recalled 25 years later at a not exactly sweet time in his career, in which he has amassed 79 titles, including 14 majors, second only to Jack Nicklaus, who amassed 18.
“It was a great learning experience for me,” the former world number one acknowledged last year. “I realized I wasn’t good, that I had a long way to go. At that level, I wasn’t competitive. I was junior level, not professional, and the others were much better than me,” he recalls.
That unforgettable experience, supervised at all times by his father, Earl Woods, was the prelude to what would come later and would eventually make young Tiger one of the greatest golfers of all time.
The great Nicklaus poster
Who would have thought that one day he would be as famous as the character who was looking at him from a large poster on the wall of his room. The youngster was Tiger Woods and the gentleman on the wall was Jack Nicklaus.
Little Eldrick, Woods’ real name, watched his idol’s record of victories every night and dreamed of emulating him one day. The 18 majors of the master became, over time, an obsession for the Californian. “It has always been my goal to surpass Jack,” Woods has acknowledged several times. And it seemed that the goal was within his reach… until the fall of 2009 when his life and his game underwent a radical change.
It is not easy to establish a more or less fair comparison between Nicklaus and Woods on a sporting level, since three and a half decades separate them in their life chronology, and in that time golf has changed a lot in some aspects, such as equipment (clubs and balls) and physical and even mental preparation. However, the essence of the competition, which is none other than the talent of the players, remains. In Nicklaus’ favor, it should be pointed out that in his time he had to fight against the all-time greats, such as Gary Player, Arnold Palmer or Tom Watson, to cite just a few examples (the first won nine majors, and the other two won eight each).
Analyzing the records of both golf stars, we see that at the age of 36 years old Tiger (now 42) had won 14 majors and Nicklaus had won 14 of his 18 majors, the first of them when he was 22 (Tiger had 6 majors at that age: 2 at 20 and 4 at 21). The remaining 4 were won by the Golden Bear over a period of a decade, when he was 38, 40 (won 2) and 46 years. In total, Nicklaus achieved his 18 majors over the course of 25 years, while Woods has accumulated his 14 triumphs within 12 years. Based on these figures, Tiger has 10 years left to try to match or surpass his boyhood hero. Of course, you have to take into account the fact that only one golfer in the last 58 years has won five majors after he turned 35, and that’s Nicklaus.
Before turning professional, Tiger had won the U.S. Amateur three times in a row, also won the NCAA Championship and was crowned the best in three editions of the U.S. Junior Amateur.
The number of major victories for both Tiger and Nicklaus could have been significantly increased if they had a bit of luck in the last round, as in both cases they finished second a few times. Nicklaus takes the cake in this regard, as he finished second in no less than 19 majors, while Tiger was one place behind the champion on 6 occasions. The Golden Bear succumbed to Arnold Palmer twice, Lee Treviño four times and Tom Watson four times. Nor could he resist the onslaught of Seve Ballesteros, who beat him by three strokes in the 1979 British Open. The names of Tiger’s rivals, to be honest, do not have in this section (Cabrera, Beem, Yang…) the mythical resonances of the figures who beat Nicklaus in the Grand Slam events.
When comparing the number of victories of both in the American Tour, Tiger has 79 against 72 in favor of the Ohioan. The Golden Bear could have easily surpassed the hundred wins on the PGATourif he had been a little luckier, as he finished second in no less than 58 tournaments and finished third on 38 occasions.
After analyzing the figures, the question remains as to who is the greatest golfer of all time. It is clear that if Tiger had continued in the same line of sporting achievements that began in 1997 and was interrupted in 2009, the Californian would surely have long ago surpassed the records of victories of the Golden Bear in as far as majors are concerned.
Global surprise
A lot has happened since 1997, when the earnest Cypress boy shocked the world by winning the prestigious Masters at Augusta National Golf Club in an uncontested manner: at only 21 years of age, becoming the youngest person to win a major, with the largest stroke differential (12) and the lowest score (-18).
From then on, the Cypress native gave a golf recital like never seen before, demonstrating a superiority on the course that made him fully deserving of the nickname The Extraterrestrial. His game was certainly not of this world. He broke all records, both in statistics related to the game and in winnings, he chained victories as if nothing, up to six in a row in a season, he became the owner and master of the Grand Slam… He turned everything into gold. For a decade, there was no one to overshadow him in the world, and his reign in the world ranking became indefinite.
Everything was going perfectly, and even in the year in which the scandal of his infidelities broke out, in 2009, his earnings on the American Tour could have been a record in his career if he had started the season a little earlier or if he had participated in one or two more tournaments, since he was about 360,000 euros short of what he earned in his most profitable year: 2007, when he pocketed 10,867,05 dollars. The 10,508,163 he earned in 2009 in prize money on the PGATourbrought his earnings on that circuit, which he joined as a professional in 1996, to a total of 93 million dollars (he has now exceeded 111 million), barely a tenth of what he has allegedly earned so far by adding his income from advertising and other concepts. In total, about a billion dollars, which makes Tiger the highest paid athlete in history. Also, to his misfortune, the one who has probably paid the most expensive divorce (it was gossiped that it could have reached 300 million dollars).
However, in 2010, after his return to competition, Tiger experienced the worst streak of his career and finished the year without a single victory. It was undoubtedly a year of changes for Woods, who reappeared in competition in April, at the Masters, five months after the adultery scandal and his sex addiction had broken out. In August his divorce with model Elin Nordegren was consummated, and his results on the course were not quite what they used to be. However, at least he was still number one in the world thanks to his compatriot Phil Mickelson, who did not push the accelerator too hard.
Tiger’s 42nd place finish on the 2010 PGA Tour, with $1,294,765 earned, was the worst position of his career. Only the year of his debut (1996) did he earn less money on Tour ($790,594), but even then he finished better (24th). The 2010 figures contrasted with his 2009 first-place finish and $10.5 million earned that season, in which he had seven victories (including the Presidents Cup with his team) and two runner-up finishes (at the U.S. PGA Championship and The Tour Championship). He finished first in the earnings ranking, with 10.5 million dollars. That year he played twelve tournaments, but only finished two in the top-10 (fourth in both): the Masters and the US Open. There were two that he did not finish: one because of the cut and the other because of his withdrawal on the last day.
The 2011 season was equally fateful for the Cypress native, although in the last throes of the year, in December, he finally experienced a joy, winning -two years after his last triumph- the Chevron World Challenge in California, although it was not an official PGA Tour event. That year he was no longer number one in the world, he only managed one top 10, he did not pass the PGA Tour. He made the cut in one tournament, dropped out of another and finished 132nd in the PGA Tour rankings, with earnings of 660,000 dollars. And he had not won a Grand Slam title for two years: the 14th and so far the last one he won at the US Open in 2008.
In 2012 he regained his touch and scored three victories, and the following year he won five tournaments (his last victory on the PGA Tour was in August 2013, at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) despite the constant problems in his back, which have been affecting him for more than five years. In April 2014 he underwent the first of four back surgeries he has had so far, the last one last year. From then on he would barely play a total of a dozen tournaments in two years, in the 2016 season he did not compete even once and in the following season he barely played a couple of competitions. In the current season, until the US Open, where he missed the cut, he had played eleven tournaments. In another he did not make the cut either, and his best results have been second-in March at the Valspar Championship-, fifth and ninth.
The disorders in his back are related to what happened a year ago when he was arrested in Palm Beach, Florida, for driving under the influence of chemical substances, five drugs as revealed by the subsequent analysis. An image of Woods’ face was leaked that showed the decadent state he was in. The player clarified that this was not due to an intentional behavior, but that he was under medication as a result of the surgery he had undergone a few weeks ago and the combination of the drugs would have caused an unexpected reaction.
Not satisfied with second place
The explosion of his busy private life put an end to a sporting career that, for the moment, is not returning to its former course. However, El Tigre is not throwing away the towel, far from it, and ensures that he wants to continue competing at the highest level and that he does it to win. He will not be satisfied with second places and his ultimate goal is to break Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors won.
“It wasn’t overnight that Jack got the 18, so it will take me a while,” said the former world number one.
By the way, what does Nicklaus think of Tiger’s chances of breaking his record of majors won? The Golden Bear didn’t mince words in a statement he made a year ago: “I still think he’s going to break my record. He has a great work ethic and a great determination to do what he sets out to do”.
Mickey Wright: 13 wins in one season!
There have been very few players in the history of golf like Mickey Wright, a sports femonemus who in a single season achieved 13 victories and totaled more than 80 in his short career, since he retired when he was only 35 years old.
Ben Hogan described his swing as the best he had ever seen. So did Byron Nelson. For 14 years, she dominated women’s golf, winning a whopping 82 tournaments and serving as president of the Ladies Professional Golf Tour Association. Her potential was sky-high and she could have added many more victories to her glittering sporting record. However, she ended her golf career prematurely. What made her retire at the age of 35? Surely the burden itself, the immense responsibility of being a figure like Mickey Wright.
“The pressure was so great,” recalls Kathy Whitworthm another of the world’s great women’s golf legends. “Sponsors threatened to cancel her tournaments if she didn’t play. And, knowing that if they cancelled, the rest of us couldn’t play, Mickey always played.”
The buzzword today is burnout. Not so in Wright’s day, who played 33 tournaments in 1962, another 30 in 1963 and 27 in 1964. She won 10, 13 and 11 competitions in those years and, as president of the LPGA, was obliged to promote the Tour by doing a multitude of interviews and attending all the press conferences that were organized. However, that simply wasn’t her thing. “I really don’t like these things,” Wright said. “I think it’s something you have to like to make that kind of pressure tolerable. And eventually it got to a point where they weren’t tolerable for me anymore.”
It also got to the point where there wasn’t much left for her to do athletically. Wright won the U.S. Women’sOpenand the LPGA Championship four times each. She won the Vare Trophy five times, was number one in earnings four seasons, had twice posted back-to-back four-tournament winning streaks and set LPGA Tour records for lowest round (62 strokes), best nine holes (30) and most birdies in a round (nine). At the peak of her career, golfer and sports journalist Herbert Warren Wind described her as “a tall, attractive girl who hits the ball with the same decisive hand action that the best male players perform. She smoothly melds her hitting action with the rest of her swing, which resembles in some respects those of Hogan and Jones.”
Due to an adverse reaction to sunlight, an aversion to flying and a foot ailment, Wright cut back his schedule dramatically after the 1969 season to lead a quieter, simpler life in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Although he returned to competition in 1973 and won the Dinah Shore, Wright knew he had already reached his full potential and decided to retire for good. “She could have won a hundred tournaments if she hadn’t retired so prematurely,” says Whitworth, who, with 88 victories, was the golfer who won the most titles in golf history, more even than the men.
Born February 14, 1935 in San Diego, California, Wright began hitting golf balls with her father at age 4. At the age of 11, she received her first lesson at La Jolla Country Club, and a year later she was shooting rounds under 100. Three years later, she recorded a round of 70 in a local tournament, and in 1952 she won her first national title, the USGA Girls’ Junior Championship.
Wright studied psychology at Stanford, but dropped out after her freshman year in order to play golf full time. In the summer of 1954 she lost in the US Women’s Amateur final, finished fourth in the Women’s Open to Babe Zaharias and won the World Amateur. Her performance in all three tournaments convinced Wright that she should drop out of college and turn professional.
“Golf has given me more rewards, financially and personally, than I ever could have gotten if I had become the Psychology professor I had set out to be,” Wright once said. “I feel as if I have earned my own master’s degree in Psychology through study and experience, trial and error on golf courses all over the United States.”
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