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Is Tiger Woods The G. O. A. T.

Yes...absolutely.
 
He's the people's champ, but not the goat IMO
 
To my mind, all of the arguments about Tiger (I.e. he dominated, he moved the needle, he popularised golf, and so on) are just as valid for Jack. I grew up with Jack being ‘the man’ and his comeback win in the 86 Masters was seen very similarly to Tiger’s win last year. Separately them is really impossible.

The depth of fields may arguably have been lower when Jack was playing, but equally, everyone out there was battling as hard as possible every single time as they genuinely needed to finish top 10 in order to earn a living. While fields are stronger, top to bottom now, there also appears to be a fair number of players happy to simply rake in the money without having to really push themselves to win.

One thing that I think Jack did better, at his peak, was play around the world. Perhaps this is overlooked in the US now, but Nicklaus (and Palmer, Player and Watson) regularly played in Europe and Australia - Jack has 6 Australian Open titles when it was genuinely considered a legitimate world event. Tiger has certainly played a bit in Asia etc (for HUGE dollars admittedly), but nowhere near what Jack did.

Both great players though, irrespective of your opinion of which was better.
 
Jack's Majors record:

Victories: 18
Second Place: 19
Third Place: 9
Top-Three Finishes: 46
Top-Five Finishes: 54
Top-10 Finishes: 71


Tiger's Majors record:

Victories: 15
Second Place: 7
Third Place: 3
Top-Three Finishes: 26
Top-Five Finishes: 33
Top-10 Finishes: 41
 
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These debates are so interesting in every sport, especially when those athletes never compete against each other and do so in different eras.

I think Tiger is the most dominant golfer ever, hands down, no debate, but greatest has always been a tough one between he and jack.
 
IMO, no. Jack is still better. Count the majors.
 
In my generation...yes. Having him in contention of any tournament makes me want to watch golf on tv. There’s just a different buzz when he’s up on that leaderboard. It’s kind of like Michael Jordan playing any NBA team years ago. If he was on tv, I was watching.
 
My vote is yes..
 
Every time I see or hear these goat arguments, be it golf, football or, tiddly-winks, I just want to know where they got the time machine to travel to the end of time? I can see the argument for greatest of our generation but of all time? Who here has a Tardis?
 
He's already the GOAT so, Yes.
 
Gotta go with Jack....more majors.
 
MattyD-MPLS said:
One of the stats that I don’t think gets brought up very often is that Tiger won 9 Vardon trophies, the best scoring average for the year. Jack didn’t win it a once. He also won 2 more money list titles than jack.

I am Tiger guy and that may be because I am young but I think he is the GOAT.
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Jack never won it because he didn't qualify for it....You had to play so many times and Jack never played enough.
 
Tiger's most dominant 1, 3 and 5 year stretches outdo anything Jack did. For that sustained stretch of the most dominant golf ever seen, Tiger is the GOAT. However, I hate the argument that diminishes Jack's accomplishments because of some perceived lack of strength of field during his day. The top 50-60 golfers of Jack's day were just as good as today overall, and really beyond that does it really matter?
Jack was probably a better driver than Tiger, but in all other areas they were equal or Tiger was better. Both great putters, both great with the long irons. Tiger better around the greens.
The other person that should be in the conversation is Ben Hogan. If it weren't for WWII and his injury, his career numbers would be comparable.
 
 
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