Tiger Woods

[Garcia Bronco]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

I don't want to diminish Jack Nicklaus' level of dominance which was similar, but the competition in Nicklaus' era wasn't even close to as good as it was in Tiger's. Nowhere near the same kind of depth/talent pool.

what?...okay.

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

what?...okay.

How is this in any way controversial? The sport and its talent pool have evolved immensely since the Nicklaus era. It continues to. Many more countries play the sport and develop elite athletes than they used to in the 60s/70s.

[Garcia Bronco]

Originally Posted by KC_Connection

How is this in any way controversial? The sport and its talent pool have evolved immensely since the Nicklaus era. It continues to. Many more countries play the sport and develop elite athletes than they used to in the 60s/70s.

Tiger in his prime did not ever face the consistent great talent Jack had to face.

Look both guys had incredible careers, but if TW is a 10 then Jack is a 10.2.

[BWillie]

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

Tiger in his prime did not ever face the consistent great talent Jack had to face.

Look both guys had incredible careers, but if TW is a 10 then Jack is a 10.2.

I'd argue that neither of them did. Tiger created a whole new talent pool to golf. He increased popularity by at least 2x. Those kids Tiger brought to golf? Well they are in their prime now.

Tiger doesn't have to beat Mark O'Meara, Fuzzy Zoeller and David Duval anymore. He has to beat Dustin Johnson, Jordan Speith, Rory McIlroy, Ricky Fowler, Bubba Watson etc. That is the best talent pool in golf's history probably. It's just math. How many people played golf 60 years ago? How many played golf 30 years ago? How many play now? As the amount of people that play golf increases, the competition gets much more difficult.

[otherstar]

Originally Posted by BWillie

Tiger doesn't have to beat Mark O'Meara, Fuzzy Zoeller and David Duval anymore. He has to beat Dustin Johnson, Jordan Speith, Rory McIlroy, Ricky Fowler, Bubba Watson etc. That is the best talent pool in golf's history probably. It's just math. How many people played golf 60 years ago? How many played golf 30 years ago? How many play now? As the amount of people that play golf increases, the competition gets much more difficult.

This is why Tiger will have trouble competing now. He has competition. In his prime, how many players did Tiger face that had won more than two majors each? On any given weekend, Nicklaus likely had to face at least two or more. BTW, Mark O'Meara, Fuzzy Zoeller, and David Duvall are nowhere near the talent level of guys like Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, or Lee Trevino...if they were, they would have won more majors, or even beat Tiger to win a few, but they did not.

The argument about more people playing increasing the talent pool has some merit....BUT only to explain why Tiger will have a tougher time competing now.