Are the Tiger lovers still trying to claim he's the GOAT in here?
Nobody's ever played better. GOAT still TBD.
Problem is he's kind of like the Patriots, great team but gets to play Buffalo, Miami, and the Jets twice every year. Even if you believe he's the best ever, you have the to admit the difference between his top 5 challengers and Jack's top five challenges is enormous.
Totally disagree. I think people are confusing the fact that there were a couple other all-time greats during Jack's era with the overall depth of the field. Tiger winning a ton during an era when the field was a better bet than the other stars makes his accomplishments more impressive, not less.
One way to show it is the nationalities in the field at majors.
Here's a mid-career Masters win for Jack. Almost every player listed there (former champs in the field and final leaderboard) is American except for one South African (Player) and two Australians. Golf was almost exclusively a game played in those three countries, or at least played seriously by enough people to produce top-tier professionals. And if you think I'm cherry-picking change the year to 1973 or 1974 or whatever, you'll see the same thing.
Here's a mid-career Masters win for Tiger. Looks a little different. And again, try some other years around then and you'll see the same thing. Spain, England, Argentina, South Korea, Germany, Fiji, and on and on, in addition to more South Africans and Australians.
This kind of stuff makes it hard to compare cross-era, but if you insist on it, it's pretty clear that the fields Tiger was beating came from a
much larger pool of aspiring pro golfers and therefore was easily deeper and better. The larger the talent pool the better the cream that rises to the top of it.
OK!
