Why Tiger Woods Is Not Yet the Greatest Player of All Time

At the age of 32, Tiger Woods has won 14 majors and is three major wins ahead of the pace set by Jack Nicklaus.

Woods is winning more than 30 percent of the majors he enters, which is far better than Nicklaus’ winning percentage at the same age. 

It should also be noted that although Nicklaus was competing against some of the game’s greatest all-time players in Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, he essentially had to worry about five to 10 players each week. 

On today’s PGA Tour there is an unprecedented level of parity where Woods has to literally worry about 155 players that have a legitimate chance of winning if they are able to get hot, which makes Woods’ complete domination of the modern day PGA Tour that much more impressive.

Statistically speaking, Woods has been more dominant in his first 12 full years on the PGA Tour than Nicklaus was, and, if you take into account the level of parity on today’s tour, Woods’ career has so far been most dominate stretch in the history of the game.

However, as of this very moment Jack Nicklaus is still the greatest golfer of all time for one simple reason—he has 18 major wins and Tiger Woods has 14.

During the first 12 years of Woods’ career he has been the picture of consistency. He wins more often than Nicklaus ever did, and when he doesn’t win, his name always appears near the top of the leader board. 

Woods has been voted the PGA Tour Player of the Year in nine out of his first 12 seasons and is currently ranked third on the list of most career PGA Tour wins with 65, which equates to an average of an astounding five wins per year.

But, as we all know, anything can happen in sports, and golf is an even stranger game than most.

Players find and lose their game at the drop of a hat.

As ridiculous as it may sound right now, it is possible that Woods may lose his game through either a freak mental block or through having to change around his swing to elevate some of the pressure from his surgically repaired left knee.

Although it happens far less often in golf, injuries can also come into play in terms of limiting a player’s ability to perform, and, as we all know, Woods is currently in the process of recovering from a significant knee surgery and is still not certain when he will return to the PGA Tour and how his knee will respond upon his return.

In all likelihood, Woods will make a full recovery from his reconstructive ACL surgery, continue to dominate the PGA Tour for the next decade, and completely shatter Nicklaus’ records, but, he hasn’t done that quite yet.

What if Woods, for whatever reason, does not win another major and finishes his career with 14 majors compared to Nicklaus' 18—would we be able to label him as the greatest golfer of all time? 

I don’t think so. 

Similar situations have occurred in other sports. 

Take pitcher Pedro Martinez, for example. During the first half of his career he was well on his way to becoming one of the greatest pitchers of all time. However, injuries led to a dramatic decline in his ability and, as he gets very close to the end of his career, I don’t think we can label him as one of the greatest pitchers of all time.

Take New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez is easily on pace to become the greatest offensive player in the history of baseball. However, he is not there yet, so can we responsibly label him as the greatest hitter of all time right now? 

I don’t think we can.

The fact of the matter is that right now, Woods has been the most dominant player the game has ever seen for a span of 12 years. However, golfing careers are not evaluated simply by dominant stretches of one’s career; they are evaluated by a combination of a player’s accomplishments throughout the course of his entire career. 

Right now, even though Tiger is easily on pace to surpass Nicklaus in virtually every imaginable category in the record books, he has not done so yet. 

Nicklaus still has eight more PGA Tour wins and four more major wins than Woods.

Part of what makes up a great athlete is longevity, and Woods will need to display a level of longevity during the second half of his career to surpass Nicklaus’ record of 18 career major wins. 

If Woods returns strong and continues to dominate the PGA Tour and shatter Nicklaus record of 18 career major wins, he will be hands down the greatest golfer of all time.

Unfortunately, the human race has so far been unable to accurately predict the future, so the fact of the matter is that no one knows quite what the future holds for Woods and his golf game and, until Woods is able to actually break Nicklaus’ records, he can only be considered "the greatest player of all time in the making.”