Posted on 07/14/2008 8:27:38 PM PDT by terbatime
The competition determines a champion. It also determines the greatness of a champion. What would Larry be without Magic, Ali be without Frazier, and the Yankees be without the Red Sox, just to name a few. While certainly not his fault, Tiger has no Magic, Frazier, or Red Sox.
A recent study by a college student showed that pro golfers shot higher scores when Tiger Woods was in the tournament than when Tiger was not in the tournament. If this isn’t the definition of choking, I don't know what is.
This study should come as no surprise to anyone who regularly watches the PGA tour. Nearly every weekend when Tiger is in the hunt, the golfers ahead of him give away strokes faster than a massage therapist during a happy ending. Most of the time we watch golfers well in control, gradually give away strokes until Tiger, who looked like he was out of the tournament, finds himself in the lead. Many times Tiger is shooting a poor or very average round. It’s the other golfers who come back to him.
It’s almost a foregone conclusion that Tiger is never out of the tournament – not only because Tiger shoots himself back in to the tournament after a poor round or two, but more often because the other golfers shoot themselves out of the tournament.
As a real golf fan, it’s discouraging to see such a lack of competition. We long for a challenge to Tiger. Golf could be so much more exciting. How good would it be for the fans and the game of golf for some other golfer to stare down Tiger, gut it out, and win?
Golf is in serious need of some men with balls. We need a real man to step up, handle his nerves, and play up to his potential. We need a man who can do that consistently. Right now, there are no real men in golf.
This wasn’t the case when Jack Nicklaus was playing. Nicklaus faced the likes of Gary Player (9 majors), Tom Watson (8 majors), Arnold Palmer (7 majors), Lee Trevino (6 majors), Raymond Floyd (4 majors), Billy Casper (3 majors) , Julius Boros (3 majors), Hale Irwin (3 majors), and Larry Nelson (3 majors). All of these players have won at least three majors during Nicklaus’ days. None of them folded. All of them manned up when the going got tough. As a matter of fact, these players have a total of 46 majors amongst them. They battled Nicklaus. They looked him in the eye and stared him down. And quite often, they won.
How many of Tigers competitors have at least three majors? Read the rest here: http://www.realmanmag.com/tigerwoodsbestgolferever.html
Welcome to FR.
“If this isn’t the definition of choking, I don’t know what is.”
—
Well Franklin,
Like you said, you don’t know what choking is. If you want to know what choking is, watch Phil when he’s almost even with Tiger and hits a driver when he should hit a 3 wood or watch when Phil takes a stupid risk and ends up in the water - that’s choking. Greg Norman can do Master’s Degree courses on choking.
Playing up or down to your competition is not choking; it’s simply natural and it’s gentlemanly (womanly if you prefer, Franklin).
There is not a golfer out there today who can match Tiger.
I’ve been watching PGA golf for the last 50 years, and I’ve seen them all play and none can match Tiger Woods. He is one in a million. When he isn’t playing, there is no excitement. It’s like watching the grass grow.
How do you match a guy who can win the US Open with a broken leg. There’s none like him. Earl would be proud.
Akin to the well-documented ‘’Fischer Fear’’ factor among world-class chessplayers when Bobby Fischer was in his (very short) prime.
Apparently Mr. Franklin Pierce doesn't know much about sports or golf in particular ...BTW what the hell is "real Man" magazine anyway? Do all of their feature writers borrow their pen names from characters in the old MASH sit com?
"Nicklaus’ competition had over five times more majors than Woods’ competition. Does that mean that the competition was five times stronger when Nicklaus was playing? Actually, you could make the case that Nicklaus’ competition was more than five times stronger.
Woods’ only played against three other players with at least two majors: John Daly, Jose Maria Olazabel, and Retief Goosen. Nicklaus played against Johnny Miller, David Graham, Hubert Green, Tony Jacklin, Andy North, and Dave Stockton. Remember those guys?
Tiger has never come from behind to win a major. Even though the competition regularly folds in front of him, he still hasn’t come from behind.
Tiger Woods has such a devastating effect on the field that their individual attempts to stay with him are exactly what leads to the individual collapses. He has the ability to make the other players think about him from the first day like no one ever has.
Nicklaus, on the other hand has come from behind to win 7 of his 18 majors. That’s right. With Watson, Trevino, Player, Miller, Palmer and others leading or breathing down his neck, he overtook the competition and won. An amazing accomplishment."
That is exactly what chocking is all about. Nicklaus came from behind BECAUSE they all choked. Mr. Frank Pierce needs to go back to chasing Hot Lips Houlihan.
I take exception to placing Bird in the winner’s position (ie Yankees and Ali) instead of Magic. Magic won more titles during the time they were both competing (5-3) and also won more head to head championships (2-1). He also won more Title MVPs (3-2).
Also, by the reasoning of the article Affirmed was a better race horse than Secretariat because Alydar finished second to Affirmed three times. I don’t think so.
I don’t think you can distinguish between Tiger and Jack. They played in two different eras under vastly different conditions. I think it is sufficient to say they were the most dominant in their generations. At the end it is about wins no matter who the competition is.
I imagine that survey regarding golfers’ scores when playing in a tournament Tiger is in v. those he is not is suspect. Tiger doesn’t play the day to day tournaments, the one that produce the 20 under winning scores. He plays the big tournaments on the difficult courses.
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