Jack vs Eldrick - The Golden Bear vs. Tiger

Throwing you a bender because I just thought you should know...

As exciting as that finish was to the Masters this weekend, I found myself scrambling to determine where Tiger now stands in his pursuit of Jack Nicklaus and his 18 major victories. Since Tiger garnered headlines for his controversial drop on Friday, this clearly set him back as another major goes by without him winning and especially since it was an event he is capable of dominating.

So in researching some stats and trying to extrapolate out how Tiger may play in the next ten years, I kept in mind that it is ultimately all about the majors and while still holding a lead of 18-14, Jack is clearly the greatest of all time. But the digging around to find information behind how this score was calculated led me to find some additional items. The conclusion based on these was Tiger can't touch Jack.

As we conclude The Masters for another year, it seems appropriate to mention some comparisons just from Augusta.  Tiger currently holds the all time scoring average during rounds at Augusta with 70.86 which is more than a stroke better than Jack. This is a significant number on such a demanding course and under pressure circumstances so I needed to look at it a little deeper.

Tiger has played 74 rounds at Augusta while Jack has completed 163. Since this is over twice as many, it covers a much longer span which should be analyzed. This stat shows that in 43 starts at the Masters, Jack played over 40 rounds once he had turned 50 years old! This is amazing that his per round average is still at 71.98 (under par!) even after so many rounds at an advanced golf age and when he wasn't really competing for the jacket. I find it hard to believe that anyone else, even Woods, will be able to hold that kind of per round average after 163 rounds.

Again, just based on the Masters, both Woods and Nicklaus had remarkable stretches of dominance. From 1997 through this year, Tiger has played in 17 Masters while winning four of them and finishing 13 times in the top 10. From 1963 to 1979, Jack also played in 17 Masters, winning five of them and finishing in the top 10 on 14 occasions. Both dominant, but Jack's is slightly better. As most golfer's will tell you, this is significant as Augusta National is universally considered as one of the toughest challenges in all of golf.

With one more reference to the Masters, it was pointed out more times than I could count that Woods has never come from behind on Sunday to win a major. As he started behind others for the lead this past weekend again and was unable to mount a big enough charge to win, this fact remains intact. Jack, on the other hand is truly the one that opponenets feared and felt his footsteps behind them as he was able to win eight times with comebacks on the final day of a major. Absolutely incredible.

Some say the competition is currently tougher as more talented golfers are coming up through the ranks and from all points of the globe. But in the Tiger Era, no one has stepped up regarding majors to present a stiff test to Tiger. Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els are the only two rivals with more than three majors and they are often not even found near the leaderboard. This past weekend, Mickelson barely finished ahead of a 14 year old at +9 and tied for 54th place. Hardly anything Tiger had to worry about. Els at least finished tied for 13th at -1 but was never a factor pushing Tiger.

Jack had to compete and contend with foes such as Gary Player (9 majors titles), Tom Watson (8 majors), Arnold Palmer (7 majors), Lee Trevino (6 majors), and even Seve Ballesteros (5 majors). Just from this group of champions, Nicklaus finished second to them over ten times in majors!

And while we are speaking of finishing second, Jack accomplished this feat 19 times in majors! Imagine how untouchable, even unapproachable (like Cy Young's 511 pitching victories), his record would be if he could have broken through in just one third of these runner up finishes! Tiger has finished second just six times in majors.

At this point in time, even Tiger will declare that Nicklaus is the greatest of all time. But he says it based on his feeling that he who wins the most majors is the best. And down deep within Woods, he believes he will someday pass that number. His competitiveness is to be admired but I believe he also knows he doesn't have a 3 wood to lean on if he doesn't pass that 18 victories.

So with such a defined goal in place to be considered the best ever, Woods needs to win five more majors. Only 14 golfers in history have even won 5 majors in an entire career. The challenge is very clear, and very daunting. Tiger must win five more majors and all this while already at age 37 and one major already gone for 2013. Woods won't give up, and he will chase the Golden Bear as long as he can, but there is a reason only one man has 18 majors victories. It is hard, and the greatest of all time, Jack Nicklaus, is the one who knows it best.

All this because I know more about nothing...