Tiger Woods: Not as Good as You Think

So you think that Tiger Woods is good at golf.  You might even think that he is great.  Legendary.  You might even think that he is the greatest player to ever play the game of golf.  If you happened to watch the U.S. Open this past weekend, you would think otherwise.

It took Tiger a pain-staking 91 holes to put away the 157th ranked player in the world.  That's the stuff that legends are made of?

It took Tiger about 100 commercials to tell the world that his knee hurt, but apparently he was "mentally tough" for playing golf on America's biggest stage. 

Tiger's daddy had to tell everybody that he was mentally tough because he could hit around 70 golf shots per day and make millions for it. 

Tiger's daddy had to tell everybody that he was mentally tough because he was leading the U.S. Open and yet he still amazingly wanted to keep going on. 

Tiger's daddy had to tell everybody that he was mentally tough because there were inordinate amounts of people following him and cheering him on. 

That's the stuff tough guys are made of?

Four bogeys in his 18 hole playoff with Mediate...legendary?  Four double bogeys for the tournament...awesome?  An even par round of 71 in the 18 hole playoff to squeak by the 157th ranked player in the world...cool?

Now some might say that Tiger won, and that's the bottom line.  You would be correct, but legends don't just win, they win big. 

When Tiger won the 1997 Masters by 12 strokes and the 2000 U.S. Open by 15 strokes, now that's the stuff legends are made out of. 

To be honest, Tiger has virtually no opponent that compares to him, so why shouldn't he win every time?  Arnold Palmer at least had Jack Nicklaus.

Does anybody remember when Ken Griffey, Jr. was slamming home runs out of the park as a kid but then slowed down when he was older?  I do.  And now the same exact thing is happening to Tiger Woods.

Tiger may be the man of the hour, but when it comes down to it he does not measure up to the game's greatest. 

Jack Nicklaus had a similar career in terms of major victories at certain ages.  Yet Nicholas still has 18 majors to Tiger's 14.  Since Tiger no longer dominates the game like he used to, I see no way in the world that he will come out with 19.

That's not to mention Tiger's measly 65 wins compared to Sam Snead's 82 PGA Tour victories. 

Sometimes you need to look at the facts and notice that the man we revere as the greatest that ever lived is just another golfer.