re: Tiger Woods involved in serious one car crash; shatters ankle, suffers two leg fractures

quote:

---

The top 5 of Tiger's first two major wins:

---

Now do Jack. You'll find a lot of guys you've never heard of in the top 5.

1962 US Open
Jack -1
Arnold -1
Bobby Nichols +1
Phil Rodgers +1
Gay Brewer +3

Ever heard of those guys? Didn't think so
1963 Masters
Jack -2
Tony Lema -1
Julius Boros E
Sam Snead E (he was 51 years old)
Dow Finsterwald +1

You heard of any of those guys other than 51 year old Snead? Didn't think so

Jack's era was dominated by a handful of golfers. The depth of the field was a joke after the top. It is much, much more difficult to win a major (or any tournament) now and was more difficult during Tiger's prime. There's a reason Jack, Player, and Arnold each amassed so many major wins, runner up finishes, and T5 finishes while all playing in the same era. Compare that to 1997-present. Here is the list of guys who have won more than 3 majors from 1997-present:

3: Koepka, Speith, Harrington
4: Rory, Ernie
5: Phil
15: Tiger

Then there are a ton with 2 and even more with 1

Let's take a look at the competition during Jack's run from 1962-1986 (I'll actually start with Arnold's first major win in 1958).

Golfers with more than 2 majors in that time frame included:

3: Casper, Boros
4: Floyd
5: Seve
6: Trevino
7: Palmer
8: Watson
18: Jack

So, basically from Arnold Palmer's first major in 1958 through Jack's Masters win in 1986, nine guys won 56 of the 112 (50%) major titles available. From Tiger's first Master's win in 1997 to the present, 7 guys have won 37 of the 96 (38.5%) major titles available.

And it's pretty easy to understand why this is the case. Not even going into the natural advances all athletes have made across eras, golf was not a sport where you could make a good living back then. Tiger changed all that. Even fringe tour players can make several hundred grand a year missing the cut almost every weekend. The number of millionaires is so much greater now that it attracts better players and better athletes to the sport than it ever did back when Jack played. He's even pointed to that very fact and talked about how jealous he and guys of his era kinda are