Tiger alert

No one cares who finished second on the PGA Tour, least of all guys like Tiger and Jack.

 

Man, I thought this thread was going to be about another maneater rampaging through the Sunderban (sp?).

 

I shot an 18-under 53 at Scottsdale on PlayStation

 

This guy shot a 56.

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_6888424

 

You can't compare now. Jack's career is over with. Tiger is only 31. Pound-for-pound, right now Tiger is better.

 

There's absolutely no denying Tiger's game and what he's done for golf on and off the course. I'm also sure that Jack finishing second in any tournament, let alone those 19 times in a major, was something he could care less about now, even if it shows he was by far the most dominant golfer of his era over the course of his entire career. Different eras for him and Tiger. Differences like technology, course length and even competition (Tiger likely faces better competition in terms of having more international competition, such as Vijay Singh who put golf on the map in Fiji) fall into the overall equation and might also be a reason why Tiger hasn't had one of those major rallies on the last day to win the big one.

I wish we could have seen Jack at a young age dealing with the media swarm that Tiger deals with on a regular basis. In a world where a ton of networks show the same dominating Tiger effort means more distractions and more time away from his game. Jack's game with the advanced technology would have also been interesting. Imagine Tiger and Jack instead of Tiger and Phil. Two dedicated, competitive players who wouldn't settle for anything less than a win. That would be riveting stuff to me. The fact that Tiger still has to hear that Nicklaus has more majors than him only serves as motivation like those stories you hear all the time about Michael Jordan finding anything just to keeping him striving to be his best.

What it boils down to is that Tiger's 10-year run has been incredible so far and likely will continue for years to come -- there are many top players now in their 40s. What Jack accomplished over a longer span is damn impressive.

To me, at least, Jack is still No. 1 and Tiger is 1A in the "best golfer ever" category.

 

In terms of the top-10 and top-20 players, Jack had tougher competition. Get beyond that, and the Tour is much deeper now. Tiger faces a deeper field among the top-50, or 100.

Tiger actually doesn't deal much with the media swarm. He does one big-room PC during the week of the majors, does five minutes off the 18th green after his pro-am the week of other tournaments, and five minutes after each round. Does quick stuff with the networks and The Golf Channel, 1-2 minutes tops. No scrums. Extremely rare one-on-ones, and you have to catch him in a rare moment in the locker room without 10 flunkies around him. Tiger isn't distracted all that much because he doesn't invest a lot of time in it.

 

I know about the media stuff, believe me, but I still think there's more eyes watching his every move than in Jack's day and even if he doesn't do a lot of media stuff, I'm sure the long breaks he's famous for during the season lessen whatever grind the media might put on him.

That said, Tiger vs. Woody should be fun tomorrow, if for nothing more than to see what scores are put up.

 

When Jack first started his pro career he was the man in the black hat. "Fat Jack" was the villian. He was Palmer's foil. Consider U.S. Open win at Oakmont - Arnie's back yard.
Tiger never had that. He has never been the bad guy.
Always. Always the favorite.

 

It wasn't a major, but you could tell a few weeks ago against Phil that it pissed him off that he shot well and couldn't beat Phil. I think that's another reason why Tiger won't have anyone within 3 shots of him entering and finishing on Sunday.

 

Last time I checked, Nicklaus never boasted about his second-place finishes. Second place means squat. You think Ernie Els is proud of tying for second in the 2000 U.S. Open, 15 strokes behind Tiger? Uh, no.