re: Would Tiger Woods have beaten Nicklaus in majors if he had continued with Butch Harmon?

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The difference is that in those starts Jack finished second 19 times, Tiger finished second 6 times. If you look at the list of the golfers with the most major championships 4 of Nicklaus contemporaries —- Watson, Player, Palmer and Trevino —- appear before the first of Tiger’s contemporaries (Phil). It is not a cut and dried argument in favor of Tiger. Jack’s record in majors remains unparalleled.

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We’ve done this argument many times, but many of those stats boil down to equipment - and not in the way you’d think.

Long story short, shitty equipment for everyone magnifies the skill gap, hence all the 2nd place finishes for Jack and the wins for Player, Watson, etc. the better the equipment is for everyone, the less you’re penalized for a miss hit. Equipment has been fine tuned to erase as many mistakes as possible, and you see it on the tour results. There are more first time winners and first time major winners during Tiger’s time, and it’s not close.

Had Tiger played with the old equipment at that time, he would have dominated leaderboards even more than he did in his era. You’re always going to be at the top if your equipment is magnifying a lack of skill.